Speaking as someone who has had experience of running a youth theatre group, one of the worst and yet best parts of it is the flow through of talent. Youngsters with little or no stage history join and over a few productions blossom as their talent and experience grow and then they are gone. Either to join adult groups or off to Uni and so on, leaving a gap to be filled from within. And so the process begins again. It’s great to see the progression, but can be soul destroying when ‘stars’ move on.

Why Not? Musical Theatre Company are another example of how this can affect productions as yet another young cast step up to the plate with this production of the Anthony Drewe and George Stiles musical Honk!

The company have been around since 2002 and director Graeme Melvin assistant director Lynn Hannah, MD Alan Gibson and choreographer Theresa Puddefoot seem to have a conveyor belt of young talent at their disposal so perhaps the gaps are less noticeable than in some companies.

The story of Honk! is based on the Hans Christian Andersen story of the Ugly Duckling and so gives ample scope for the cast in excess of 40 to portray a variety of birds, animals and amphibians to their hearts content, with the progression of Ugly, Josh Duncan, from duckling to magnificent swan, with all the trials and tribulations he encounters along the way.

All the cast play their part in making this production the success it most certainly is, but one or two stood out for me Justine Vandermotten as mother Ida carried off the role with aplomb that belies her youth, delightful cameo roles from Amber Russell as both Queenie the cat and reporter Maggie Pie, Joshua Duncan as Ugly was believable throughout, and Ross Johnston was excellent in his brief role as the Bullfrog. However, the performance that stole the show was undoubtedly that of Greg Williamson as The Cat. It was just purrfect! This was an inspired piece of casting by the production team, as young Greg just was a cat with feline traits that just had to be witnessed.

The whole production was well staged and directed, it’s not easy to cope with the number of actors who appear on stage together at one time and as usual the choreography Theresa manages to drill into these youngsters is both imaginative and well presented.

I have never been blown away with the music for this show as I feel there are no ‘showstoppers’ , but all made a better than reasonable attempt at the songs. Okay at times there were slight tuning issues with some of the voices, but they are only young kids not trained professionals so one could excuse that, but the band led by MD Alan where spot on throughout.

So all in all a really enjoyable performance from an excellent company, that deserve all the credit they get. I believe there may be some tickets available from the Carnegie Hall box office for tonight and Saturday, so go on take a chance and check it out for yourselves.

On a slightly different note the Why Not? Senior Cast are again heading for the Edinburgh Fringe this year playing at The Royal College of Surgeons Grand Theatre from 6^th until 14 August at 17.15 with their version of ‘Spend, Spend, Spend’ a musical based on pools winner Viv Nichols. If that is anywhere near as good as their last production of ‘A Slice of Saturday Night’ then is really is well worth checking out. I know we’ll be there with bells on.