High school musicals take over Chester

Feb 11 2010 by Jo Henwood, Chester Chronicle

THREE hit musicals opened in Chester this week on high school stages across the city.

Queen’s Park High School’s offering is the southern American West End hit Hairspray, Upton High School is focusing on rock ‘n’ roll legend Buddy Holly and St David’s High School students are treading the boards closer to home with a production of Willy Russell’s comedy musical Our Day Out.

The pace doesn't lessen after half term as more schools take to the stage with their own versions of West End hits.

JO HENWOOD learns how the shows must go on.

WAR, revolution, gang crime and saving the planet are all the stuff of great musicals.

Abbey Gate College, Christleton High School, The King’s and The Queen’s schools are all tackling these big issues in Oh What a Lovely War!, Seussical – the Musical, Les Misérables and West Side Story respectively.

Just one week after the half term break, the curtain will go up on students at the King's School in a special schools' version of the hugely successful Shönberg and Boubil opera Les Misérables.

Based on Victor Hugo's epic of the same name, the production is the largest staged at the Wrexham Road school and the design technology department is already busy constructing the famous barricades.

Sixth former Aled Elmore has landed the coveted role of prisoner 24601, Jean Valjean.

He said: “I am lucky to have landed the role as so many big names have perfected it before me. Colm Wilkinson is the best Jean Valjean ever and I have based my character on his performance.”

Over at the Queen's School, 18-year-old Rebecca Spaven is touching base with her masculine side for her role as Tony in Sondheim and Bernstein’s classic tale of gang warfare, West Side Story.

“I've got quite a low voice so I always play male roles,” said Rebecca, who is auditioning for drama school.

“I played Alfred Doolittle in My Fair Lady and Pharaoh in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.”

Music teachers at the school have had to transpose some of the score for her duets with Maria, played by Sophie Rowland.

The war theme continues at Abbey Gate College where a cast of 35 musicians and actors will take more than 100 parts in Joan Littlewood's Oh What a Lovely War!

Dramatic sketches of First World War events are interspersed with songs, dances and slides in the documentary musical that highlights the horrors of the Great War.

On a lighter, but no less poignant note, a cast of more than 100 pupils from Years 7 to 13 of Christleton High School tell the tale of Horton the Elephant in Seussical – The Musical. Based on characters from books by the inimitable Dr Seuss, the show sees Horton trying to save the Whos, who live on a planet the size of a speck of dust.

Director Simon Phillips said: “We have two teams of principals – the Ham team and the Eggs team and they take it in turns each night.

“Doing a musical of this size is a great opportunity for boys and girls of all ages to work together. Anyone who was interested could be in it and we are all getting together over half term to put the finishing touches to the show.”

The musical is the first production for 20 students from Year 9 and 10 studying for a new BTEC course in performing arts.

The curtain will eventually come down on Chester’s run as the new West End in April at Blacon High School when a group of Year 10 and 11 performing arts pupils present a two-night run of Quad based on the iconic rock opera Quadrophenia. As hundreds of students take their final bow, Chester deserves to give them a rousing standing ovation.