Last Saturday evening I treated myself to a night out in Basildon! I was in the audience to see SHAKE IT OUT, a show performed at the Towngate Theatre by Tip Toe Stage School of South Ockendon. And what a show it was!
Throughout the years I’ve been to many, many theatre and dancing school shows. Some excellent and others… well, more rehearsal wouldn’t have come amiss, to put it politely. But Shake It Out was fabulous on every level. The cast ranged from tinies, who couldn’t have been more than two and a half, to seniors. Tip Toe principal, Julie Carter (she has a whole alphabet of qualifications after her name and it shows!) has the keenest of stage-eyes and visually the show was stunning. The costumes were far superior of any I had ever seen in any theatre school show, I mean we are talking West End look here. The colours and styles were sometimes quirky, often surprising but always completely innovative. I especially liked the costumes in the Lady Gaga number, Burlesque, Starships and River Deep Mountain High.
But the effect wasn’t just the costumes. Julie’s choreography was something else as is her creativity. I had never seen dancers in stunning black tutus en pointe to heavy metal before! And there were a couple of dances that had a wonderful fusion of tap and jazz/street. And then I was frightened out of my fourth-row seat by a group of the scariest dinosaurs I’ve ever seen, average age four years old. But they really threw themselves into performing; they WERE dinosaurs! And the delightful Little Dudettes – how cute were they? I also liked the staging of the two singing numbers, involving most of the cast – Who’s the Man and Just Arrived. It was encouraging to see performers of all ages on the stage together.
On a personal note, I got a thrill to see Sam Chitty, once my drama student now Vice-Principal of Tip Toe, giving totally professional performances in every number she was in, and that Spencer Carter, my right-hand man in my drama classes for so many years still performing, too. And Elena-Beth Carter… not only has she turned into a stunning young woman but her stage presence is awesome.
All in all, a had a fabulous evening. On a weekend of sadness on a personal level, it was a show that made me forget everything for a couple of hours. It was pure SHOWBIZ.
Congratulations to everyone concerned; you produced a show to be proud of.
And Julie Carter – you are a phenomenal woman!
