Wonders of West End delight audience

This year’s Year 3 and 4 production brought the wonder of the West End to King’s Hawford. Pupils have been busily rehearsing since the beginning of the term, under Mr Roberts’ careful direction. The production combined songs from two of the most popular children’s musicals of all time. In true King’s Hawford style, every child from Years 3 and 4 was involved.

After weeks of careful rehearsal, the entire show came together perfectly this week. Monday’s dress rehearsal gave the cast a brilliant opportunity to run through the show in its entirety in front of a live audience. Children from Pre-Prep and Years 5 and 6 were blown away with the incredible show they witnessed. Throughout Monday, snippets of A Spoonful of Sugar, Any Dream Will Do and Let’s Go Fly a Kite could be heard round school. It was wonderful to see our Pre-Prep pupils inspired by their older peers and musical theatre!

It was a fantastic learning curve for our young cast, who not only had to remember dance moves and lyrics but also had to contend with microphones in full costume. Buoyed by the success of the dress rehearsal, the cast were bubbling over with excitement and confidence and really started to look ahead to their performances on Tuesday and Wednesday evening.

This year’s production saw several stand out performances. Iza M-P, who took on the titular role of Mary, mesmerised the audience with her take on the character, which was perfect in every way. Finn M-P was resplendent in the technicolour dreamcoat, delivering a passionate performance. Mary W displayed her versatility and comic timing in her dual roles of Joseph’s Mother and the King. Thomas C gave a commanding performance as Mr Banks, whilst Arthur O delivered a faultless performance as Bert!

King’s Hawford demonstrated their inclusive and forward-thinking vision by incorporating sign language into the show, signing along to Jolly Holiday and Any Dream Will Do.

Productions such as these take a great deal of work behind the scenes and special thanks must go to Mr Roberts, Mrs Hughes and Miss Lusted for their creative direction, Mr Stigant and Mr Cook for their technical assistance and Mrs Horrocks and her team of make-up artists and hair stylists. We also thank all of the excellent Year 6 helpers, including Erin L, Arya P, Issie F and Edith.

Well done Years 3 and 4; you should all be extremely proud of yourselves.