The Music Is Here To Stay – The French School at the Alliance Franscaise – Isa Town

THIS musical journey through time lived up to its billing and treated the audience to some of the most memorable rock anthems ever sung.

The French School students of classes 4e, 5e and 6e put on a delightful and professional performance of the best songs from stage shows Grease, Mama Mia, We Will Rock You and Les Miserables intertwined within a story of how the Bohemians had stolen music and locked it away out of sight, sound and, they hoped, mind.
Unfortunately for the Bohemian Queen played by Liana Joseph, one of her subjects, Galileo (Karim Ayoub) started to hallucinate; or so he thought.
He could hear the titles from songs in his mind and the more he tried to rid himself of them, the clearer they became. It seemed that he was able to pull people from other places, times and cultures into his world.
Aided and abetted by his, well, in his mind at least, girlfriend Scaremouche (Elena Shokry),he was able to bring the songs to life and eventually free his people of tyranny and a world of no music.
And, whilst this was happening, we, the audience, were enraptured by the songs. It took the cast a little while to fully relax and enjoy themselves. However, with the adoring audience hanging on every syllable from the first words of We Will Rock You, they were soon in full swing. I remember thinking that Freddie Mercury must be smiling down on the cast; their exuberance was so overwhelming.
If there was a downside at all, it was the occasional malfunction of the personal microphones and the totally overwhelmed central heating units. I would, perhaps, have shortened some of the instrumental parts of the songs; but that is a personal opinion and purists probably would not agree with me.
We, the audience, really got into it with the songs from Mama Mia and Queen anthems, but it was Elena Shokry singing ‘I Had A Dream’ from Les Miserables that created a palpable stillness in the arena.
That the students were all singing and acting in a second and some cases a third language was all the more amazing as their phrasing was spot on. Add into the mix some ‘in jokes’ and references to past events and all-in-all it was a delightful and definitely fun-filled evening.
The students, all 31 of them, gave very creditable performances and played some brilliant air guitar too.
Sadaf Kadim who created, directed and produced the musical, deserves every credit in turning what was essentially a school concert into something rather special. I hope that she can be persuaded to repeat the concept next year. I, for one, cannot wait.

–  Christine Hasan