As an extra special one-off, the lovely Vicki Hill has written a "Vizzle" review of the Adam Street Singers. Being a member of the choir, my review would of course be more than a little biased, but Vicki writes of her experience and enjoyment as an audience member. So without further ado...here goes....
The Adam Street Singers - Rock On
A show choir. Hmm. I am a fan of music and of musical theatre, but an evening of numbers that sort-of-but-don’t-quite sound like songs that I like is not generally up my street. Since the arrival of Glee, more and more of these choirs have surfaced and I am pretty certain that this is no good thing. The difference with the Adam Street Singers though, is that they are actually very good at what they do, extremely good in fact. Unfortunately, however, they don’t seem to realize quite how good they are.
The performers are, for the most part, electric on stage; the passion emanating from them is both captivating and contagious. These are people with day jobs who are doing this purely for the love of music and performance and it shows. The choreography was perfect: not too much, not too cliché and at the right level for the performers. The band was brilliant and all the technical aspects were wonderful, if not a tad excessive. My favourite numbers included: ‘The Girl in 14G’, ‘Welcome to the Black Parade’, ‘Sit Down You’re Rocking the Boat’ and the unforgettable ‘Queen Medley’. Special mention has to go to Catherine Rice, who stole the show with both her vocal talents in ‘14G’ and her gift for dance in ‘Please Don’t Stop the Music’. Also the show’s choreographer, Catherine is a born performer and a truly talented one at that.
However, what seems to be lacking here is a realization of just what the Adam Street Singers have to work with. I would love to see more full company numbers and fewer ‘clever’ mash-ups. Whilst these are occasionally funny, the joke doesn’t always last as long as the song itself. The group can also move away from the Les Mis ‘crowd pleasers’ in favour of the rock anthems that they do so well. My final critique is that the show went up 15 minutes late and latecomers were admitted at really inappropriate times. I really strongly feel that a company should put the audience members who turned up on time before the stragglers.
I would like to just round off by making special mention to Mr ‘Gizzle’ himself. Ed’s manner and judgment onstage is perfectly suited to each number in which he performs and was a joy to watch (and he didn’t even tell me to write that).
4/5
- Vicki Hill
For more information, visit the choir website: http://www.adamstreetsingers.com/
You can also visit the YouTube channel here.
