From Page To Stage - Sale and Altrincham Musical Theatre

Take a bow - the cast of From Page To Stage

STANDING ovations are like buses - you wait ages for one and three come along at once.

The Royal Exchange, The Lowry and now The Bowdon Rooms. The audience rose to its feet, applauding as if their very lives depended on it, in tribute to what had been the most memorable of musical journeys.

From Page To Stage was a highly ambitious project for all concerned, from the cast to director Sarah Clark to musical director Adam Garnett, featuring numbers from shows that started life as books.

But being boring when it comes to choosing their programme just isn’t in this company’s DNA and the cast rose to the challenge and then some, helped by an embarrassment of vocal riches that existed within its ranks.

The next generation of SAMT performers also left us in no doubt that the future of SAMT looks very bright indeed with its youth section treating us to a medley of classics from Oliver!

For me, highlights of the evening included The Color Purple Reprise, the riotous Since You’ve Been Gone from &Juliet and Defying Gravity from Wicked.

Then there was the captivating performance of The Ballad of Sweeney Todd by the mighty Steven Sondheim.

It feels wrong to pick out highlights as there weren’t any bad performances in a show played to an audience that gave a whole new meaning to the word ‘receptive.’

However, it was a real pity this show only played for one night as it deserves a much, much longer run.

But anyone who went to see it thinking musical theatre was all about tired old shows that have been around since Adam was a lad would surely have left that preconception at the door of this gorgeous Altrincham venue.

Fabulous - a much needed escape from these gloomy and uncertain times.