Review: CODYS presents Fame The Musical, The Brindley, Runcorn

IT was back to the 80s and leg warmers in Fame The Musical courtesy of Warrington’s brightest young musical theatre talent.

CODYS Productions rightly have a reputation for putting on shows that are worthy of the West End. They consistently pick up awards from NODA, the amateur theatre’s equivalent of the Oscars, and their latest production may well see them adding to the trophy cabinet.

To quote the most famous line from the title song, these talented young performers left audiences at Runcorn’s Brindley theatre remembering their name.

As always with a CODYS show, it’s hard to pick out individuals. But the following were brilliant: Ellie Norton (Carmen), Ed Parry (Nick), Gemma Clarke (Lambchops), Isaac Hartill (Schlomo), Oliver White (Tyrone) and Sophia Thomson (Mabel).

Neve Buckley was a double threat as Iris with lovely singing and stunning dancing, while the show’s comedy king was Clayton Roberts as larger-than-life Joe Vegas.

One of the high points of the show was the sing-off duel between teachers Miss Bell (Hannah Young) and Miss Sherman (Katie Johnson). Choreographer Natasha Bill worked hard with the youngsters to produce first-class dancing that took centre stage.

Congratulations to producer Nick Cupit and his hard-working production team for putting together another knockout show.

CODYS are now preparing for their September production – Barnum! With the story of the American showbiz godfather back in the spotlight thanks to Hugh Jackman’s The Greatest Showman movie, this promises to be a real challenge for CODYS and, as always, utterly unmissable.

JEREMY CRADDOCK