Cybaria

Written by: Liam Walters

For their Christmas show, BUSOM (Bradford University Society of Operettas & Musicals) preformed AROUND THE WORD (and beyond) in 80 minutes (or more*) *possibly less. The hit show (pulling in the biggest audience yet for this academic year) travelled around the world (and beyond), singing a range of musical numbers, such as ‘Merano’ (from Chess), and ‘America’, (from West Side Story).

The show was different to the previous BUSOM performances that I’ve seen, in the fact there was practically zero plot, but instead the songs were connected by a series of comedic links. These were narrated by Emelie Ollila, who also acted as Music Director. Emelie’s narration uses dry sarcastic humour to great effect and her dialog with pianist Studley McFingerman (known as Bill to his friends… But for the purposes of this review, we shall continue to call him Studley) brought the audience out in laughter.

The show started off at ‘Portobello Road’ (from Bedknobs & Broomsticks) with the whole cast singing along. The next song on the list was ‘Barcelona’ (from Company) with Dave Jennings and Christine Brighouse-Johnson, who preformed the first duet of the show, with both parts performing excellently.

The whole cast moves on to do ‘Merano’, before Emelie Ollila, Lyndsey Niven and Stuart Sellens take center stage, performing the comical ‘I am Africa’ (from Book of Mormon), a great performance throughout by all three, and one which included a banana, which didn’t split the audience.

Just as we attempt to jump to the other side of the world, Anna Garlick interrupts, before singing her song ‘In Old Bavaria’ (from The Producers). I always look forward to Anna in these performances, because each time I see her, I always end up having a laugh. Her over the top style worked perfectly one again.

When we finally do jump to the other side of the globe for ‘What’s Up Buenos Aires’ (from Evita) with Lyndsey Niven, giving us a fantastic solo song. From Buenos Aires, we move onto ‘Santa Fe‘ (from Rent), with Jon Carter and Joel Blakemore, who both deliver a great performance and work well as a comedy duo. After deciding not to go to Santa Fe, the lads decide to instead move to Broadway, before being stopped by Stuart (what a twist!), who is kind enough to tell them why ‘You Won’t Succeed on Broadway’ (from Spamalot).

The whole cast once again come together, to sum America up in one simple song… ‘America’ (from West Side Story), before pianist Studley McFingerman takes the stage, as Emelie provides the Piano backing, for Studley to once again show is brilliant comic acting (which he does throughout the show anyway, despite residing at the piano for the most of it), in his song ‘Girlfriend in Canada’ (from Avenue Q).

Now here is the dirty little secret… I haven’t actually watched Avenue Q. But even without having seen the show, I still found myself in a fit of laughter throughout. Just before the interval, some of the cast had the chance to ‘Blame Canada’ (From South Park – Bigger, Longer & Uncut), though switching a certain Anne Murray to Justin Bieber (for which Canada MUST be blamed) to great comic effect.

When we return from the interval, we are greeted with ‘Welcome to Duloc’ (from Shrek), though a suspiciously lengthened version, although the song still retains in utter weirdness that it had when first seen in the film. Studley kindly helps us locate Duloc on the map. As it turns out, Duloc is weirdly square and sticky-note shaped.

As it is Studley’s choice as to where we travel to next, we end up in the perfect place. ‘Under the Sea’ (from The Little Mermaid), as sung by Catrina Lodge, whose softy voice brings a new feeling to the song, evoking a deeper emotion, which is helped along with the piano backing.

We next go from under the sea of one world, to ‘A Whole New World’ (from Aladdin), the memorable duet, now sung by Naomi Fowler and Mike Alborough, who both do a great job with the song, and who both work well together excellently.

‘One Short Day’ (from Wicked) comes up next; with the whole cast joining in. The thing I noticed throughout this particular performance was just how happy everyone seemed to be when performing, this was especially noticeable with both Poppy Brooks and Sarah-Jane Cooper.

Continuing the theme of beyond the world, we went to the ‘Merry Old Land of Oz’ (From The Wizard of Oz), which was sung very well by all the girls in the performance. We then went to a particular favourite of mine, being ‘This is Halloween’ (from The Nightmare Before Christmas).  The song was sing fantastically by the whole cast, sounding on par with the original from the film.

A couple of solo songs follows on after this, beginning with ‘Stranger in Paradise’ (from Kismet), preformed by Colin Fine, and then continuing on with ‘A Million Miles Away Behind the Door’ (from Paint Your Wagon), preformed by Zoë Hawe. Both songs were sung excellently well.

The show finished off with ‘Bon Voyage’ (from Anything Goes), done once again by the whole cast, and a somewhat fitting but ironic end, as BUSOM bid us farewell, though our journey has in fact come to an end. Overall, the performance was great and BUSOM go from strength to strength in every show I see of theirs. Do I miss more of the plot based shows…? Yes, but I still very much enjoyed this deviation, finding myself laughing throughout many times. I now eagerly await the long three months until BUSOM return in March with Iolanthe.

For more information on BUSOM, please visit: http://busom.org