Alyn Hawke, Sophie-Louise Dann and Alex Woodward in The Theatre Channel’s Holiday Special. Picture: Edward Johnson
Holiday Special is streaming on The Theatre Channel.
Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩
It was good to see graduates from Arts Ed playing a part alongside star names such as Cassidy Janson, Sophie-Louise Dann and Zizi Strallen in the latest Theatre Channel stream filmed at The Theatre Cafe in the heart of London’s West End.
Everyone in Theatreland is in shock about the way this Covid pandemic has ripped a living out of its workforce for so long and will probably continue to do so for a good while yet despite industry optimism for an early restart in 2021.
For musical theatre graduates it has been a cruel introduction to a profession tough to break into long before Covid. Olivier Award-winner Janson recalls it took four years from graduating to landing her first proper job so newbies shouldn’t panic or despair.
Theatre Channel compilations like this Holiday Special are a great shop window for the days when young talent eventually gets its chance. As series producer Adam Blanshay says: “Hopefully we’re giving burgeoning careers that have been abruptly halted by the pandemic a platform to blossom as the theatre community begins to reopen the doors to live performances.”
Let’s hope that the Arts Ed team which tackles ‘Seasons of Love’ from Rent with such exuberance alongside the resident Cafe Four quartet of Alyn Hawke, Emily Langham, Sadie-Jean Shirley and Alex Woodward are soon in regular stage work.
The concert’s menu captures the mood of the nation. A new arrangement of Irving Berlin’s ‘Let’s Start the New Year Right’ from the 1943 movie Holiday Inn, in a duet by Matt Croke and Tosh Wanogho-Maud, comes from the heart as does Rachel John’s lively contribution, ‘A Brand New Day’ from The Wiz.
More conventionally, Janson’s ‘White Christmas’ and Dann’s ‘We Need a Little Christmas’ hit the spot while the very flexible Strallen’s energetic ‘Turkey Lurkey Time’ from Promises, Promises is great fun.
French actress Manon Taris’ ‘Ave Maria Paien’ from Notre Dame de Paris is a welcome change of pace and language in a show directed, choreographed and polished by the great Bill Deamer with musical supervision by Michael England.
These Theatre Channel streams support the Theatre Artists Fund.
Jeremy Chapman
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