The timing of The Last Hundred’s performance to coincide with the centenary of the start of World War One gives it a powerful resonance - although it is largely set during the World War Two, it evokes all the feelings and fears associated with war for people both at home and on the front. 

The audience were already getting excited as the orchestra came in and started tuning up to rapturous applause - and they were not to be disappointed. The show began with the full cast on stage to sing the show’s opening number, a gut-grabbingly beautiful four-way a capella harmony, with a darker military tone that emerged beneath sharp-rapping military drum and trumpets. The use of Churchill’s ‘state of war’ speech, beautifully integrated with the orchestral music, was incredibly powerful, initiating the narrative behind both the show and the war itself, and establishing what would become a running theme - that of communication. Later songs were based on letters home (‘When I Am Not Around’), and what would have been heard on the radio at the time (‘The Birds Sing in England’, with a stupendous solo sung by Emily Burns). A strong sense of England’s beauty comes across in the folk overtones and rural lyricism of the more nostalgic numbers.

The breadth of musical genre and of emotional tone covered by the show were especially impressive, leaping from a jazz club (with hilarious duet ‘Peter and Sue’ sung by Joey Akubeze and Paige Thompson), to a music-hall comic number ‘Stronger Than You’ – involving Jennie King and Jess Peet as competing Just-William-esque brothers in britches and knee socks.

The variety of the show is a testament not only to Henry Jenkinson, composer and lyricist, and to the singers, all of whom were without exception outstanding, but also to the orchestra, who leapt from genre to genre and at times from instrument to instrument (kudos to the juggling percussionists), without skipping a beat. The music was coherent, the costumes beautiful and the orchestra’s work, crammed into about six metres squared of space, was masterful. Standout singing performances came from Luke Sumner, Aydan Greatrick, Sam Oladeinde and Lauren Hutchinson, all of whom managed to really tune into the devastating sensibilities behind war narratives, and to convey them with heart-wrenching accuracy. 

A running theme in most of the numbers was the ominous church bell, quietly closing almost every song and reminding the audience of the constant if unspoken knowledge of the end which so many had to face. The anonymity of the characters reminded the audience that everything being sung about had been undergone by people throughout Britain.

The format of the evening, advertised as ‘excerpts from a new musical’, originally seemed a little unlikely to cover as much dramatic, emotional and theatrical ground as a full show could hope to, but in fact there wasn’t a dull moment - despite our not knowing the name of any of the characters or even the basic plot, the universality of the experience of war was enough for us to stay hooked. The use of near-choral harmonies and subtle blending of the entire ensemble’s voices added to the sense of multiple experiences united in one common sense of anguish. Given the total rapture of the entire (sold out) room, there can be no doubt that the full show would be a hit.