YORK musical producer Bev Jones’s latest Showtime Spectacular promises a “stunning spectacular of well known West End musical show hits in a unique song and dance extravaganza that simply explodes with colour, glitz and glamour”.

However, I left feeling more than a little disappointed as I had high expectations of the advertised “fabulous show routines, glamorous costumes and professional standard singing performances and sheer fun”.

While the young local cast put on a lovely performance, the singing wasn’t powerful enough to do justice to the Abba medley and the Queen songs didn’t have any of the spine-tingling power you would expect.

The Hairspray and Joseph renditions were good fun and the cast eased into these much better.

On the whole Christine Aspinall’s dance routines were nicely done, but certainly not glittering. The show sets were lacking, apart from for the Joseph and The Phantom Of The Opera medleys, which did add to the atmosphere of these performances.

The guest performers, singer Terry Ford and York soprano Rebecca Newman, were fantastic, their performances being of a standard I would have expected of the whole show, not just part of it.

I would like to congratulate the young supporting cast on their effort and a number of them I’m sure will be great professional performers in the future.

*Bev Jones presents Showtime Spectacular 4, Grand Opera House, York, tonight at 7.30pm; tomorrow at 2.30pm, 7.30pm. Box office: 0844 847 2322.

Caroline Wright