First-rate Fairground Attraction

Last week the highly talented West Wickham Operatic Society returned to the
Churchill Theatre in Bromley with a new production of the popular musical Carousel.

A big cast, great costumes and some excellent dancing and chorus work again
brought the innate professionalism of the company to the fore, with the principal
performers excelling in both their acting and singing. I was impressed, too, by the
opening scene of the fairground, where the set design was not only inventive,
it had more impact than any I have seen in the past. Framed in front of a
star-filled sky, the fluorescent paints on the black images of the fairground
displays,and an amazingly realistic and full sized carousel brought an almost
psychedelic feel to the scene.

The story of the love of a young girl, Julie, falling for a womenising and sometimes brutal carousel barker still retains it's moments of tenderness and fractured emotions, and the anthem You'll Never Walk Alone remains as heart-wrenching as ever, but there are times when I suspect the show is beginning to outstay it's welcome. This is despite the quality of the songs written by Rodgers and Hammerstein.

Nevertherless, the WWOS brought together a fine cast and there were outstanding performances by Karma Sundermann as Julie and Tracy Prizeman as her friend Carrie. Both performers have singing voices that would not be out of place on a West End stage and their acting created two extremely likeable young women.

Perfectly complementing their performances were the impressive Mark Leach as Billy Bigelow the barker and the always creative and tlented scene-stealer Kevin Gauntlett as Carrie's boyfriend, the precise and respectable Mr Snow. His voice and presence get better and better as the years pass.

Pat Adams was suitably sluttish as the owner of the carousel and Pauline Gregoire excelled as the good natured owner of a spa and handled the famous anthem with a wonderfully and sensitive contralto voice. There were good performances, too, by Jonathan French as a very dislikeable ruffian and Terry Gauntlett as the Star Keeper in Heaven. Alice Carter also impressed with her dancing and acting as the Bigelow's daughter.

The orchestra was not quite up to the standard set by previous shows but the musical director kept a reasonable control over their performance, while Sue Hann's choreography was, at times, outstanding. Ivan Buckle's lighting design also worked very well. However, the scene where Bigelow was killed lacked real drama, primarily because the lighting was too bright and his suicide lacked an essential sense of realism.

But this is a small criticism of a good show that was inspringly directed by Lesley Bennett.

Roy Atterbury (Bromley Times -1st June 2006)

HEART-WRENCHING:
Karma Sundermann and Mark Leach