REVIEW: Bring The Musicals Home, Barn Theatre, Southwick

They powered out no less than 29 traditional and contemporary musical theatre songs in Bring The Musicals Home, their Children in Need show at the Barn Theatre, Southwick, from last Wednesday to Saturday.

The cast of 17 demonstrated exceptional talent in energetic dance numbers as well as moving solos and duets.

They were still bouncing in When I Grow Up from Matilda The Musical, the final number of the night that gave us a chance to clap each performer in turn.

The company was founded about ten years ago by Des Young and he was there in the audience, cheering them on.

Shows are put on every other year, with the previous three organised by the production team that took over in 2011 when Des suffered health problems.

This year’s offering was the best of the 2011, 2013 and 2015 shows rolled into one – so many wonderful songs from many a West End hit.

Part of every show from 2011 onwards has been video clips of celebrities wishing them well and encouraging people to dig deep for Children in Need.

It is a nice touch and interesting to see who they have managed to film but also gives them time to do costume changes – and boy are there a lot of different outfits!

Also filling in a bit of time was the lovely Megan O’Hara, who was endearing and friendly in what she said was her first role as compere.

Highlights included some lovely harmony from Emily Carter, Jenny Milner and Lou Yeo in Kiss The Girl from The Little Mermaid and a brilliant duet from Katie Silverson and Sarah Milner in What Is This Feeling? from Wicked.

Chris Scott has an incredible voice and his version of Bring Him Home was as good as many you will hear, although for some reason there was one group on Friday night that thought this was the perfect time for a chat. So rude!

Matthew Collins made a couple of appearances as Shrek and was also one of the cast of four for Nothing Like a Dame from South Pacific, which was full of humour.

The only small question mark, really, hung over Me Ol’ Bamboo from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I guess they were never going to pull off the full Dick Van Dyke routine from the film but it would have been nice to see more off the bamboos in the routine since that is what it is all about.