OVER the years King?Henry VIII School has gained something of a reputation for staging high quality musical productions - personally I think most of them would have a long way to go to live up to the 1978 Wizard of Oz, but if there was to be a Top Ten I think it’s a pretty safe bet that The Sound of Musicals would somewhere very close to poll position.

This home grown production - put together by the school’s Leanne Phillips-Nepean and Matthew Hunt when plans to stage The Sound of Music fell foul of licensing officialdom, the show featured a host of well-loved music from West End hit upon West End hit and perfectly showcased the talents of King?Henry students.

Had this just been a typical medley of show songs, it would have been good - what raised it into another class was the inspired decision to use the exceptional talents of Emily James and Falesha Lewis to link each number in the guise of Wicked characters Glinda and Elphaba.

I’ll admit this did lead to some interesting colour-blind casting but in the era of a female Doctor Who, who says we can’t have a green Maria leading the chorus in Do-Re-Mi!

Under the watchful eye of Emily and Falesha, the huge cast took the audience on a musical journey from The Wizard of Oz to the Lion King by way of Starlight Express, Chicago, West Side Story and of course Les Miserables, so brilliantly performed by the school last year.

One of the undoubted highlights was the excerpt from Matilda, which saw pupils from the town’s primary schools joining their soon-to-be secondary school on stage to the delight of the audience.

With so many on stage it is almost impossible to single out stars but it would be unforgivable not to mention Kieran Moss, Kerrigan Heffernan, Ben Baker and Ella Griffiths who appeared so often and like all those of stage, displayed such huge talent and promise.

It’s always a pleasure to see King Henry pupils excelling and as the audience stood as one at the finale, it was in the knowledge that Abergavenny really does have a secondary school of which it can be enormously proud.