CELEBRATING its 21st Birthday with a brilliant show-stopping show, Bournemouth’s prestigious and hugely talented Big Little Theatre School once again delivers sparkling musical theatre at its very best.

Featuring more than 150 talented young performers, and a superb live pit orchestra, this pacy production thunders through some magnificent Broadway gems including Chicago, Hello Dolly, and the atmospheric Annie, followed after the breathless interval by the sensational Chess, the quirky Our House, and the gritty Rent.

This multi-talented company produces slick precise choreography, powerful rich vocal harmonies, and compelling storytelling.

The stage set is strikingly creative, costumes are colourfully convincing, lighting is powerfully atmospheric, and direction is flawless.

In a scintillating production, outstanding highlights include the dramatically monochrome Chess, the opening number Barnum with its colourful impact and quirky trampolines, and the outrageously thought-provoking vocal I Just Might, from Nine To Five.

The show’s glorious climax is the unusually chosen but magnificently performed The Sound of Music, with its startlingly hooky opening of the nuns’ haunting vocal harmonies on the moving Preludium, (Morning Hymn & Alleluia).

Big Little Theatre School’s inspirational Principal Michelle Guy and co-founder and Musical Producer Colin Billing, including all their multi-talented assistants, have produced yet another phenomenal show, starring some utterly fantastic local talent.

Many Big Little Theatre School graduates and ex-students are currently performing, directing, and choreographing in the West End and on national and international tours.

Broadway Showtunes runs until Saturday.

Brendan McCusker