For years, my youngest daughter has been keen on musical drama. She has
trodden the board hundreds of times in many many shows. She also used to
be in a dance troupe but these days sticks to just drama.
The latest show by the Muscial Theatre Academy was Thoroughly Modern
Millie which ran at the Oakengates (Telford) theatre for three nights.
Well, two nights actually, the Thursday had to be cancelled because when
they moved from the rehearsal site to the theatre site and the rented
scenery arrived, they found that without the mechanical aids common to
many theatres they could not get the many set changes done quickly
enough with the crew they were using. Thus, the thursday turned out to
be a technical rehearsal with set changes being made and routines being
adjusted accordingly. My daughter was very upset after the "show" on the
Thursday night because of this but it was hardly the fault of the cast;
the Director's perhaps for not understanding the complexity of the
scenery of the limitations of the scenery crew. The performances on
Friday and Saturday (including a matinee) went well despite the last
minute problems.
I really enjoyed the show and it is one of the few productions I have
seen them do that I did not already know the story of. I laughed a lot
and the musical numbers were done brilliantly.
