Tauranga Musical Theatre's latest production is a cheery and delightful night out, full of many of the theatre's past, and some future, favourite show classics.

Perfectly timed as an end-of-year refreshing energizer, ‘Now that's what I call TMT' takes the audience on an inspiring and enjoyable musical smorgasbord, led by the sassy DJ Key KIllswitch, played by Evelyn Hunter.

I was personally thrilled to hear again ‘It's a hard knock life' as I'd been in the 1984 production of Annie staged by Tauranga Musical Theatre at Baycourt. More than 20 years on, I can say the quality of the music production and singing from today's musical theatre community in Tauranga far surpasses what I recall of our show.

And this time, the setting for these original musical show classics have been brought into contemporary scenarios capturing an office, school, supermarket, restaurant, home and finally taking us back to a behind-the-scenes location in a theatre greenroom.

Laura Boucher and Callum Thorburn, both making their debuts as director and musical director, respectively, have selected a total of 22 songs from some of the more well-known classics such as Grease, Les Misérables, South Pacific, Oliver, Annie - and from some newer ones including Waitress, Hamilton and Be More Chill.

The premise for ‘Now That's What I Call TMT' is to celebrate the more than 70 years' of musicals at Tauranga Musical Theatre. Beginning in 1946 with ‘A Calvalcade of English Music' the theatre has been an opportunity for all age groups to be involved in or enjoy watching a huge range of productions.

To quote the amusing Sharn Wiltshire, who plays a wonderfully indolent Shakespeare from Broadway's 2015 musical ‘Something Rotten' – ‘It's hard to be the bard, baby'. This is so true when trying to articulate that moment of wonder and delight when you hear a particular stunning and rich harmony such as the three-part harmony of Downtown with Elise Rohde. These moments are breath-taking.

I first met Sharn when I demonstrated Wurlitzer keyboard ‘pretend playing' to him for the 2016 short film ‘Silent Film Festival Intro', and to see an actor's development, and follow their progress, especially in musical theatre, is quite a marvellous thing.

Of course ‘Something Rotten' hasn't been staged yet at Tauranga Musical Theatre, so that's something to look forward to, especially if there's more of the same funky brass and bass.

Finding yourself in the characters is often the delightful surprise of attending shows where there are so many diverse scenes. It was clever of the director to keep the story plot to mini-stories or scenarios with barely any dialogue, costuming or props, and focus on the music, choreography and staging.

This ‘keeping it simple' approach has provided a good opportunity to showcase the talent within the ranks of the theatre community, and they certainly did that exceptionally well.

‘Master of the house' Ian Thorburn, performing in his second show after his debut in ‘Heathers', really stood out as someone to watch with that voice and stage presence. His son Ethan, nearly stealing the show in his role as Trevor, threw a hilarious voice that sounded like Oscar, one of my favourite Sesame Street characters. The harpsichord beginning to his duet was brilliant I thought.

The strong male voice section, the rich harmonies, that top note from Emma Twigley, - there is so much that is outstanding in this production.

Zoe Hunter has choreographed the office, school and supermarket scenes; and Nicki Fraser the restaurant, home and theatre scenes. It's worth going to the show twice, just to enjoy the choreography alone.

As a musician, I loved the variety of instruments and arrangements behind the show songs, especially brass and strings. The lighting was simple and spectacular ranging from a burnt orange through blues to magenta, creating the different scenes and not taking away from the dance work and singing.

Stage props were kept simple yet well-placed, with a tartan throw-over on a pedestal table, and a chaise longue creating the ambience. The DJ had a razzamatazz booth that was perfectly in keeping with her showy exuberance. To quote DJ Kelly Killswitch 'Weren't those dreams beautiful!

There's a lot that goes into making a show – the passion and the nerves that create theatre”.

There's nothing like being just metres away from live musical theatre, as you get caught up and are enthralled by this incredibly talented cast.

'Now that's what I call TMT - The Musical' runs until December 1, 2018 at Westside Theatre in 17th Ave, Tauranga. For tickets click here.