BWW Reviews: GODSPELL, Greenwich Theatre, June 21 2011

June is the time for student shows, with an extraordinary range of artistic work displayed in colleges and other venues all over London, indeed the UK. It's always great to see young talent emerging, but one has to buy into a student show - like the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition, there's an unevenness to the work and a crowdedness that inevitably gives you somewhat less of what you do like and rather more of what you don't. That's the deal though, and well worth it for the buzz of enthusiasm that crackles through the air.

As it is in the visual arts, so it is in the performing arts. Seedtime's (London Studio Centre) production of Godspell (at Greenwich Theatre until Sunday June 26) is certainly crowded and uneven, but the students' hearts and souls are up there on the stage and that has an appeal all of its own. The musical's ensemble structure, with its set-piece parables and re-telling of the crucifixion, allows plenty of scope for individual singing and acting, which varies in standard from am-dram to West End. Both versions of the show-stopping Day by Day were delivered with panache by fine singers, but there were also voices not favoured by being amplified in a space that does not really warrant microphones. 

None of that mattered to an audience well stocked with friends, family and fellow students, who were rapturous in their applause at the curtain call - and why not? The show is the culmination of a long and expensive education in theatre for the cast and they will need all the confidence they can get in making their way in a profession as competitive as any. I wish them well and look forward to seeing the alumni of the Class of 2011 in the future.