What a fabulous show, everyone thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks to Gail and Andrew, the cast, the technical crew and the stage hands.

‘ONCE MORE WITH FEELING’

(Dedicated to the memory of Marjorie Fanthorpe)

‘You may have a cold sore and your shoes are too tight but smile, damn you, smile,’ Marjorie Fanthorpe once told a WAG chorus line and by golly, she was right.

Marjorie, who sadly died recently, was the sort of producer who never let the tempo of a show sag and apart from one or two lesser known numbers, neither did the producers of ‘Once More with Feeling’, Andrew Brown and Gail Jackson. Today’s big musicals require chorus members to act the words they sing and this they did well, drawing the audience into the story they were telling.

With such a large cast it would be difficult to pick out solo members for praise. Enough to say that young voices are going from strength to strength and all were given a chance to shine. Comedy interludes ably linked the musical items and special praise must be given to the stage and technical crew for the computerised projection which gave the show a brilliant extra dimension.

It was not the home-written type of revue Marjorie et al would have presented in the sixties and seventies but a bang up to date, fizzing type of show that would have made her just as proud and a fitting tribute to a founder member and producer whose ideas and stagecraft were a foundation for the success of today’s Arts Guild.

Congratulations.

Pam Pennock. 8 July