Another excellent production Company by Theatre Hawkes Bay 🌟🌟🌟🌟

I was lucky enough to see Assassins a couple of years ago put on by this theatre group and it still stands as the best amateur theatre production I have seen.

This, another Sondheim show, is not quite as good or powerful but it certainly stacks up in terms of talent.

Thanks to Jane Keller and her singing studio, I knew most of the numbers in this show but didn't know the context of them, so it was a joy to link these well known songs with the story that accompanies them.

It's the story of Bobby, his friends and lovers.

We begin at Bobby's surprise 30th birthday party, where he is single and reluctant to change that. We go through his mental processing as to his happiness and if he should commit to someone or live the single life.

The title character is the lead, but all of the cast get time to shine. There were a few ropey vocal moments, but they were not in really important parts so the experience wasn't ruined at all.

The entire ensemble when together sounded excellent, a treat for amateur theatre.

A couple of lighting cues were missed along the way so a bit of "in the dark singing" occurred.

Set was simple but effective and changes were efficiently handled by a busy backstage crew.

Overall I loved this show and credit to this theatre group who choose ambitious productions and pull them off. A shame we don't have that ambition in Wellington. These types of shows appeal to true musical theatre people, but don't have the box office appeal as others.