Vicki shines in strong company performance

Carousel, Oldham Coliseum
THE scene was set, the curtain raised, and on trooped a huge cast from Ashton-under-Lyne Operatic Society for a marvellous production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s stellar musical, “Carousel”.

They might be an amateur group, but the actors put their hearts into the performance and held the audience spellbound from the start.

The star of the show is Vicki Stott, whose rich and lovely voice as leading character Julie Jordan filled the Coliseum.

Jordan is the naive girl who falls for fairground barker Billy Bigelow. They marry and Julie falls pregnant - which momentarily turns bad boy Billy into an excited father-to-be desperate to make some money.

A robbery with local villain Jigger (superbly played by Jonathan Harman Craddock) goes badly wrong and Billy is killed - but gets the chance to return to earth for a day to help his now 15-year-old daughter Louise (spendidly played by Katie McCoy), who is tormented by other children because of him.

There isn’t a weak link in the cast, which is directed by popular Oldham actor and director Jeff Longmore.

Longmore, musical director Simon Murray and choreographer Jean Johnson all take credit for bringing a thoroughly enjoyable evening of entertainment to the Colisuem. The show runs until Saturday.