9 to 5, What a way To Make a Living.

Curtain Call Theatre Company

9 TO 5 The Musical,

Walker Theatre

Sat 23rd…Sunday 24th  2.30 & 7.30

Started many years ago as the Young Performers Theatre Group, Curtain Call Theatre Company is an amateur group in Shrewsbury. Taking on the bigger shows it seems this company is well resourced and well attended. As for the noise in the audience it was obvious, they had friends throughout the theatre.

So how did they do? In one word they did, excellently. The principals all had such powerful and strong singing voices. Their acting too shone as they adopted the difficult Texan Drawl. They achieved it, it was consistent and it was good. One is inclined to say characterisation was achieved beautifully and this is a well-cast show. It was essential for all cast members to offer the triple threat, the singing, dancing, and acting abilities. They were a lot of triple threats on the stage this afternoon.

The mystery is, to this reviewer, why this show? It was quite difficult to follow in the first half. It was difficult to sort out reality from fantasy as the same character was murdered several times. There were a couple of scenes liked that and one found oneself at times slightly flummoxed and confused trying to follow the plot. It’s not easy.

However, that offers more power to the cast’s elbow as they made a great show of it. Their abilities and skills carried the show through so much more that the show alone. The plot was at times quite well hidden and the overall controlling idea apart from women are better at work than men, was not easy to spot. One was never quite sure what the show was actually saying to us all. So no fault of the cast but more so the writer the narrative was slightly prosaic if not far-fetched. But that didn’t matter.

Why didn’t it matter? It was because the singing of the cast, the tight direction both musically and of the acting too, was bold. Essentially there were good, committed characters; being strong and strident in their delivery. It is fair to say that the cast were the thing. They were great. There are singers amongst this group that have to follow their wishes. Out of the principles one would be inclined to say that if theatre is their dream, then they should go for it. There is enough talent in this cast alone to feed the London stage for years to come.

Technically the lighting and sound were great, no cues missed and one is aware that the technical script must have been a nightmare, however the challenge was accepted and achieved with great aplomb. Perhaps it’s worth being mindful that volume of the music needs watching as the was a couple of instances when the vocal was lost because the music was a little too loud.

In summary one would say that this is a great trip out and if this is the shape of amateur performance in Shrewsbury it is this reviewer’s prediction that we will be making stars very soon.

This is a Four Star Review

Owen J.Lewis