one4review | On 21, Aug 2014

I came with trepidation at seeing a 60min version of ACL but thankfully we got a much fuller 90mins of the show and this turned out to be a pretty good production of this famous show. The venue is really small and the 17 characters just squeezed in – the music was recorded which, whilst a shame, was perfectly understandable.

There was excellent choreography (again a bit squeezed so sometimes timing was off) and some of the physical routines by the boys especially were very impressive. Diction all round was spot on and well projected with mics simply not needed by the strong signers.

Each character’s song/story was well told with honest acting and the audience showed a lot of empathy with quite a few of them which is good, my only small criticism was that some of the cast came across as too young/immature for the parts they were playing.

It is a pity there were only two performances of this as it could have been one of the hits of the Fringe given a longer run. I hope the California Musical Theatre Ensemble can come back again and show us what they can do in a larger venue.

Reviewed by Alan.

Greenside @ Royal Terrace
2300 to 0030