Dare to Dream Jr.
Dare to Dream Jr.
A wonderful afternoon performance of Disney songs, by Cre8 Theatre Productions at Thurston Community College.
I didn’t have to travel far for this review - the theatre is literally a walk down the road in my village at the local community college - much to my sons’ delight, both of whom were with me today to contribute their thoughts to this review.
As expected, a medley of Disney music is our pre-show welcome, with a lovely buzz of anticipation from all the attendees in the audience.
If you are unfamiliar with Dare to Dream Jr, as I was, it’s a whistle-stop tour through a large number of Disney’s musical classics, with a loose connecting thread of a group of Imagineers in training. It was written specifically to give opportunities for younger performers to play with a wide variety of styles and tempos in a piece that isn’t too demanding in length. Quite a few of the songs are a careful blending of two or more at once, syncopating and re-synchronising really beautifully which was a lovely and welcome surprise.
Interestingly too, there aren’t any named characters in the show, instead everyone is just a numbered player, with no particular deference amongst them apart from in Players 1 and 2 who take on the roles of lead trainers for the rest of the group, and have the most to do in terms of the “story” - little though there is of that. Everyone else gets to chop and change between the songs, with everyone getting an opportunity to have their time in the lead.
It’s a really great format, and in today’s production the magic is shining brightly - from the very opening bars to the glorious finale, everyone was on sparkling form and the energy was simply electric. I found myself at the verge of happy tears several times - I’m not ashamed to admit to being a Disney adult! It’s clear that the whole company are having a wonderful time with this show, and the whole ensemble was brilliantly co-ordinated throughout, with confident dancing and unfaltering vocals from everyone.
There were a few of the solo performances that particularly stood out to me though, enough to warrant a slight extra mention here. Player 5 in ‘I Just Can’t Wait to Be King’ had the perfect amount of rakish confidence for the song, Player 10 in ‘Let It Go’ had exactly the right vocal strength for the powerful defiance of the piece; Player 8 in ‘Friend Like Me’ obviously has big shoes to fill in the role of the Genie but he gave it a damn good go and nailed it; Player 3 in ‘Go the Distance’ was also brilliantly suited vocally to that song - it’s one of those iconic Disney motifs and she smashed it.
The whole show is expertly handled by Director and Choreographer Dan Moore, taking every opportunity to find the magic for each song without once feeling repetitious. All of the numbers had their own carefully coordinated dances and the movements for scene settings and transitions never felt anything but smooth and subtle. Another really nice touch for this show was the gradual change in colour scheme from the start to the end - the simple staging blocks and costumes started off brown, plain and dull, but by the end of the show everything had been replaced with brightly coloured pieces instead, a lovely flourish.
The sound and lighting are also looked after brilliantly by James Aleksic, a well known name in tech for the region, with a simple and effective lighting setup giving him plenty of opportunity to support all of the scenes in the show with their appropriate colours and patterns while keeping the focus where it should be - on the performers. The sound mix was also perfectly balanced too, everyone’s vocals were crystal clear above the music, as they should be for a musical like this.
(My only exceedingly nitpicky and inconsequential complaint would be that the pre-show, interval and post-show all had the same lighting meaning I didn’t get any variety in my photos!)
We all had a brilliant time with this show, I love Disney and I loved this. Full to bursting with all the magic and energy you’d expect from anything Disney, but accessible right here “on the ground” in a small village of Suffolk. Simply wonderful.
✨✨✨✨✨ / 5
Cre8 Theatre Productions is still a relatively new company, founded in 2022, but it’s clear they’re on a meteoric rise with their projects focusing on creating opportunities for people all around Suffolk - I heartily look forward to seeing more of their work in future, it’s clear they know exactly what they’re doing. Find out more about them and their next shows at www.cre8theatreproductions.co.uk
I was offered three complimentary tickets to this show in exchange for my review, and we were very kindly offered drinks beforehand too.
Aside from my review, I’ll forever bang the gong of enforcing proper theatre etiquette - I had to tell people around me several times to stop talking, and lots of others openly flouted the posted information advising that photography and recording was strictly prohibited, pulling their phones out with no consideration at all for the performers or the audience around them. DON’T DO THIS!!
