The Rattonians A celebration of Song and Dance Review Congress Theatre Eastbourne

The Rattonians
A Celebration Of Song And Dance

27 & 29 November 2009

Congress Theatre Eastbourne

Performance seen 27 November

Cast: The Rattonians complete company
(seniors and youth group)

Three of us went to see this and all agreed, without hesitation, this was the best Rattonians show we have seen.

I have rated previous Rattonians shows at 5 stars. If I had such a rating this would be 5 "with distinction".

The format was similar to last years seasonal event - a mixture of previous hits from Rattonians performed musicals with the addition of Christmas hits.

That show was great in itself. Why this show was even better I'm not completely sure, but better it was. Perhaps it was because a few relatively new faces have moved to fronting a lot of the performances? Or perhaps the youngest performers really had their chance to shine as well as the older members tonight? Whatever the reason was this production went down so well with the audience all you could hear was praise from people of all ages on the way out.

The first half (1 and a half hours of it!) was comprised solely of hits from previous Rattonians productions. Fame, Chicago, Singin' in The Rain , Copacabana, The Producers, 42nd Street and many many more - all perfectly performed and superbly choreographed. After a short 15 minute interval the second half (nearly another hour) began.

This started with a few classic musical songs cleverly relyriced to sum up the Rattonians 25 years in performing and also summing up news events of the last 12 months. This led beautifully into a long selection of familiar Christmas hits of course accompanied by bright, colourful Christmas costumes.

On the subject of costumes, the quality of The Rattonians costumes NEVER fails to impress. With so many different shows covered tonight and each show needing a different outfit the selection had to be huge. But every costume seen was as impressive as the last.

At the time of writing this The Rattonians have two productions planned for 2010 both by the Youth Group. The Pyjama Game (DevonshirePark Theatre 6-10 April 2010) and Hairspray in November 2010.

As for the main company show this has not been decided yet. Going on tonight's show I'd love to see them cover Chicago again, my wife would love to see Me and My Girl. Whatever the final choice is it is bound to be the amazingly professional production The Rattonians are now famous for.

Anything missing from tonight's show. Only one thing. The opportunity for this large cast to take applause at the end of this magnificent show. Rather than taking applause for just a few seconds and then the curtain falling it would have been nice for the various age groups to take their audience appreciation a little longer. After all they's all earned it!

An exceptional, uplifting, professional production.

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