Yesterday evening, Stagedoor students performed to a sell-out audience in the Everyman Studio, and it was a resounding success! That’s Show Last Century, a whistlestop tour through the 20th Century in music, dance, drama and comedy was performed by the whole company as part of their study of the Variety genre.

In preparation for the show, students researched the genre, tracing its history from the Music Hall shows of  Victorian England to The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent, before choosing a theme, deciding appropriate acts and rehearsing the show.

The show kicked off with a physical theatre sequence to The Beatles’ Hello Goodbye, which told the story of one family’s journey through the 20th Century, taking in births, marriages, two world wars, the jazz age, the rock ‘n’ roll years and the advent of modern technology. Then we met the first of the evening’s “celebrity” comperes – Queen Victoria. Thereafter, we rattled through the century, visiting, in Act 1, the trenches of World War 1 in a scene from Oh What A lovely War and Fat Sam’s Grand Slam from Bugsy Malone. We had songs from Cabaret, The Wizard of Oz and Million Dollar Quartet, as well as devised skits, a scene from Bonnie & Clyde and a song from Frank Sinatra, introduced by famous faces including Charlie Chaplin, Al Capone, Snow White, Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn. Act 2 began with Welcome to the 60s from hit musical Hairspray, after which the audience were treated to a lovely, folksy version of Hey Jude by The Beatles. The 1970s section saw some hilarious sketches from Monty Python’s Flying Circus as well as iconic Queen song We Will Rock you. The 1980s section, introduced by Michael Jackson, involved a medley from musical Les Miserables, with the 1990s bringing The Spice Girls, Shakespeare in Love, and Friends. The finale, Seasons of Love from 1990s musical sensation Rent brought the show to a moving, beautiful end.

We have had some wonderful feedback from out sell-out audience, and I was very proud of each and every one of the students, who worked exceptionally hard to ensure that the show was slick, professional and entertaining.

Our next show in the Everyman will be Chris Bush’s brand new play The Changing Room, which we are performing as part of the National Theatre Connections programme.