East Kilbride News Review

::Absolute Divas, Studio 32 Theatre Company::

Local Company Studio 32 recently returned to the Village Theatre, with their production of Absolute Divas.

This show took a collection of the most popular songs from various musicals and merged them with a cast of talented actors, dancers and singers to create an evening of entertaining and energetic musical theatre.

Studio 32 continues to produce shows like this to spectacular success because they always bring together excellence in all aspects of a show of this nature.

The band was fantastic and led by musical producer Martin Docherty, they gave a professional ambience to the evening.

Alan Henderson's lighting was another highlight, successfully creating an effective mood and atmosphere for each individual number. Director Vikki England and musical director Iain M Sinclair also produced innovative imagery and a fantastic sound to each number of the show.

Quite simply, there were no weak links in this cast who all managed to bring so much energy to the evening and demonstrated a strong group-work mentality-in short, there were no divas.

There were too many fantastic numbers to list all but 'One Day More', 'Circle of Life', 'Lady Marmalade', and 'Seasons of Love' were particularly enjoyable.

In terms of individual performances, the injection of comedy from Julie Brown and the singing of Gayle Cook, Jane Murdoch, Jonathan Collins and John McLarnon were excellent.

However, Darren England continuously amazed with his powerful voice and onstage presence and it is a wonder why he is not singing professionally.

Studio 32 has once again presented an amateur performance that knocks most professional productions right out of the park.

With this level of talent and commitment to producing shows of the highest possible standard, I can only see them continuing to go from strength to strength,