It’s Showcase Time!
Quarter Century Celebrations
After 25 years, Showcase is moving down the hill from the Church Hill Theatre for a couple of nights on the big stage of the King’s.
A quarter of a century ago, John Wright and Bobby Harvey had the simple idea of bringing together some of the best non-professional singers and dancers in Edinburgh and the Lothians area to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support.
Showcase 2014 finale. Photo: Showcase Musical Productions
With over £220,000 raised to date, the company is doing it right for Macmillan.
And with rock songs, pop songs and songs from the musicals, all orchestrated by musical director David Mcfarlane with imaginative choreography by Claire Smith, the company are doing it right for their audiences too.
Director Andy Johnston told Æ about why the company is coming down the hill for this one-off, two night stay at the King’s tonight, Friday 29 and tomorrow, Saturday 30 May.
“We just felt that having done 25 years in the Church Hill Theatre it seemed an obvious step to come here to celebrate that,” he said. “Normally at the is time of year we would do fund-raising concerts, which are just a stand and sing in a church, so instead of doing those concerts we are actually – foolishly – putting on a full show.”
Showcase 25 will be a musical extravaganza paying tribute to Showcases past, present and future, featuring a selection of numbers from the likes of Les Miserables, Wicked, Queen, Adele and The Beatles.
134 performers
The 44 present cast members are being joined by past cast members and a 37 strong kids section – the Showcase of the future. With a 16 piece orchestra, seven pipers, 16 of the previous members joining for the full performance and 14 stepping up for the half hour megga-mix finale, there will be a grand total of 134 performers on the night.
Carol McGovern performing. Photo: Showcase Musical Productions
Once in Showcase, cast members tend to keep on coming back. It’s not just the quality of the performance they produce, either, as Carol McGovern explains. She has been performing with Showcase for the whole of its 25 years – over half her life.
“The variety of music we have performed over the years has been fabulous,” she says. “Although it has become frustrating that it takes me longer to learn the notes, words and dance moves than I used to! I have made some special friendships over the years and it is lovely that our hobby can also raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Support and help the great work they do, which has become much more than an added bonus to many of us.”
Creating a show which does justice to 25 years of Showcase hits has not been an easy task for the organisers. Johnston says the first draft of the programme would have run to nearly four hours. However, he says the final result an accurate representation of where Showcase came from and where it is now.
Which, he promises, still leaves room for a few surprises: “The easiest thing in the world would be to take a normal Church Hill show and just Xerox it up, to fill the space here. But of course it is the King’s Theatre, so you can do many more different things – and we will!”
Listing
Showcase 25
King’s Theatre, 2 Leven Street EH3 9LQ
Friday 20 – Saturday 30 May 2015
Evenings 7.30 pm, Sat matinee: 2.30pm.
Tickets and information from http://www.edtheatres.com/showcase
Macmillan Cancer Support website: http://www.macmillan.org.uk/
ENDS
