http://www.amdram.net/articles/_/groups/ Wed, 22 Feb 2012 21:05:41 +0000 43200 Articles related to Groups featured in the Groups database http://www.amdram.net/articles/_/groups/the-likes-of-us-review-r55 At a time when factions of the nation’s youth are being condemned for their lawlessness the parents of the cast in this year’s summer musical at The Grove can be justly proud of their off-spring.

Rarely have amateur dramatics been this good. In a flawless performance they rose to the challenge to spend just 10 days preparing from scratch their parts in The Likes of Us, the rarely seen debut production from those rather well known impresarios of English theatre, Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber.

The musical, which tells the story of how Dr Thomas Barnardo founded his children’s homes, was knocked out as a schools piece in the mid 1960s and it was, as the show’s narrator, the self-assured James Clark, told the first night audience on Thursday, “what failed to launch the careers of Webber and Rice 46 years ago.”

But the seeds were sown for a style of musical which went on to serve the couple very well – from their very first collaborative song, the catchy crowd-pleaser Going, Going Gone, to tug-on-your-heartstring duets and whole company show-stoppers.

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