The London Musical Theatre Orchestra has made its debut in my neck of the woods, Hackney on a fantastic Saturday night outing. The founder of LMTO, Freddie Tapner led an incredible company of musicians bringing the classic Jerry Herman’s score to life hand in hand with a fantastic group of actors, hundreds of dancers, a tap break and two pies to the face.

Mack and Mabel is based on the relationship between silent film director Mack Sennett and rising star Mabel Normand. The show starts in the late 1910s and ends with Mack reflecting on his successes towards the end of his life. At this performance Mack and Mabel were played by the ever so charming David Bedella and the absolutely outstanding Natasha J Barnes, whose rendition of Time Heals Everything in act 2 actually stopped the show due to a well deserved standing ovation. There was fantastic support from Tiffany Graves as Lottie who led a spectacular tap chorus in Tap Your Troubles Away in act 2. On a personal note, I was pleasantly surprised to see Liam Tamne in another show, after seeing him in Starlight Express last week. Although, I was slightly hoping he would wear the block red platform heels he wore as Electra. Maybe another show.

As well as the company of actors and tap dancers, the LMTO featured, literally, hundreds of dancers made up of students from Bird College who appeared as Mack’s Bathing Beauties in Hundreds of Girls. They were spread out throughout the stalls and they honestly kept on coming in through the doors. It was a spectacular number thanks to Anthony Whiteman’s incredible choreography.

After adoring their production of Honeymoon in Vegas earlier this year, the LMTO continue to exceed expectations and produce a fantastic night out with some of the best musical theatre talent performing some of the best musical theatre scores and I am looking forward to what they do next.

For more information on the London Musical Theatre Orchestra please visit http://www.lmto.org.

Until next time,

* Just a quick disclaimer, I received tickets for this production through the production’s press representative and all opinions stated here are my own. The production photos used here also came from the press representative.