Grosvenor In View Magazine 2025

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and Rory Thomson were amazing as Corey’s nerdy best pals, Alf Bueller and Kirk Keaton. Unlike their idols, The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the boys were neither green nor replete with half-shells, but they did match the turtles in their capacity to create comic capers and make everything seem better for Corey and us! Guiding us on our retro journey were Chloe Johnstone and Megan Robinson, the play’s narrators. For our entertainment their characters, Melanie and Kimberley, raided their remembrances and recreated the unplugged world of William Ocean High’s Graduate class of 1987. The ladies were the ultimate duo: sassy, classy and willing to wear puffball-sleeved Prom dresses all in the name of good clean fun. What tribute to the Eighties could be complete without some dynamic dance moves? After all, the decade bequeathed an incredible legacy: The Moonwalk, The Worm and The Cabbage Patch (yep, I had to google

the confidence Neve had on stage proved that she is an old hand at capturing and captivating an audience. Asbestos soles were most definitely needed as she had all of us ‘Walking on Sunshine’ whenever she sang. Now back in the day, there was a woman who single handedly supported the UK hairspray industry. Indeed, she made backcombing an art form. That woman was Bonnie Tyler and she spent most of 1984 tousling her mane and ‘Holding out for a Hero’. In 2025, I did not have to do either, because when the Good Ship Grosvenor School Productions hit choppy waters and I needed a hero, a champion, a captain, I was blessed with three! The paradox of performing is that award-ceremonies and media content would have you believe that shows are driven by the individual: that one person who inhabits the spotlight and gives the star-performance. But that isn’t true. From over a decade of directing, I know that any performance is a collective endeavour, and I can’t think of three better examples of that belief than Oliver Gray, Gabriel Carson and Reuben Curragh. Sporting sparkly jackets, glitter gloves and hair curtains so wide-ranging Harry Corry’s couldn’t compete, these young men were magnificent. It’s a shame poor Bonnie never got to meet them! Focusing on another of Bonnie Tyler’s chart belters, takes us to a science lesson… stick with me, it’s relevant. The definition of a Total Eclipse is a ‘celestial event where one celestial body is completely obscured by another’, resulting a darkness. Now, in no way am I a ‘science-refusenik’, but when Ellen Miller sang Bonnie’s cri du Coeur ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart, darkness was replaced by light: a bright, bold, blinding light. As Miss Brannigan, Ellen graced our stage for the first time, but hopefully, not the last. And to expand the metaphor, and pseudo-scepticism, to the point of breaking, an eclipse depends on radiance being obscured and there is no radiance, celestial or otherwise, that could blot out the brilliance of Henry McCrea. Is it a coincidence that Henry played, for the third time in three years, a teacher? Typecasting? Desperation? Or can I offer another possibility…wish-fulfilment? Henry made his character, Mr Cocker, funny, romantic, infuriating and effortlessly cool. Who wouldn’t want a teacher like that? It would really help my theme if the word ‘Nerd’ originated in the 1980s, but Mr Google dates it to the Dr Seuss book, ‘If I Ran the Zoo’ from the 1950s, but let’s by-pass that fact and move on to another – Jonny Scott

that one too). My casts will tell you that my attempts at dancing are too literal, too disjointed. Yes, my moves are The Stinking Bishop of the choreography world: much too cheesy. But that’s why God gave us Miss Stephens. With her Swing-Out Sisters, she created beautiful balletic moments and high-octane hijinks that had everyone reaching for handbags to dance around. She brought the moves and as always, Mr Arnold brought the grooves. No production could ask for a more inspiring and committed Musical Director and no school could be blessed with a more talented team than we are at Grosvenor. To milk the dairy products analogy for one final time, Mr Arnold and his band, Miss Stephens, Mrs Salt, Mrs Kirk, Miss Harte and Year 13 pupil Emma Atkinson are the Crème du la Crème. And finally, finally, what can I say about our chorus? Whenever you find yourself in need of a sixty-strong tartan-clad posse to scream across a hall, you’re in luck. Grosvenor has the very crew. No matter how silly, spangly, rapid or raucous the demands were that we placed on them, our team, like a 1980s Milkman, delivered! Back to The Eighties? Why bother? Our splendid cast represents Grosvenor’s future, and I can’t wait to see what they will do next. Mrs O Young

GROSVENOR IN VIEW > 2024/25