A Night at the Musicals

Just before half term, the stage was set for a welcome return of music performances for ‘A Night at the Musicals’ concert. The atmosphere was visually exciting with coloured lights and spotlights on the singers, ready to frame the outstanding music that was about to come throughout the whole evening.

All our singers must be congratulated, their hard work and preparations really paying off for their characterful and emotional renditions of their chosen songs. There was a wide range of familiar favourites from The Sound of Music – ‘The Lonely Goatherd’ performed by Oyin, Les Misérables – ‘On My Own’ sung by Emily, ‘Bring Him Home’ from Amelie and ‘Stars’ from Alex. Will opened the evening with a magnificent version of ‘If I Were A Rich Man’ from Fiddler on the Roof. There is such a wide range of musicals to choose from and it was marvellous to hear more unknown and new music from Larissa’s ‘Maybe I Like it This Way from The Wild Party and ‘Times are Hard for Dreamers’ from the show Amélie, sung by Izzy.

It is wonderful to see students developing through their time at Kingswood, with some confident renditions from our younger students; Beth, Ben and Esme all sharing the stage with our older senior students. There was poise and emotional characterisation from Anna singing ‘She Used to be Mine,’ ‘Home’ from Emily, ‘Think of Me’ from Naomi and ‘Love Never Dies’ from Kitty, from the sequel to The Phantom of the Opera, and Clemmie performing the popular ‘Tonight’ from West Side Story. There were also upbeat moments during the evening from Ryan’s ‘All I Care About Is Love’, Freddie’s ‘Minnie the Moocher,’ Izzy’s ‘Anything Goes’ and Eloise’s ‘Don’t Rain on my Parade.’

As well as solo performances the audience witnessed collaborations with Niamh’s ‘I Wonder’ expertly accompanied on piano by Larissa with additional backing vocals, and the concert concluded with the moving ‘Requiem’ from Dear Evan Hansen featuring the trio of voices from our Year 12 musicians, Anna, Will and Emily.

A huge thank you to the staff – Ms Smith, Miss Galloway, Mrs Francis, Mr Francis - who assisted in the preparations for this event and also to Mr Knights and Mr Barton for their piano accompaniments during the evening.

We look forward to welcoming members of the Community to similar events very soon – including our ever-popular Christmas Concert.