Barbara Ellington, Senior Gleaner Writer
The Showgirls Disco Mamas, also thrilled with their song-and-dance routine that had everyone hooting when they shed the skirts to reveal sexy black and silver shorts.- PHOTOS BY WINSTON SILL/FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER
IF YOU have attended these concerts every year for the past five years, the first thing you would have observed about this year's show was that Bert Rose and his production team successfully made it a lot more tightly put together.
The group of highly-profiled women once again shed their corporate personas and gave up valuable production hours to present a show that had more than its fair share of belly-laughing moments. Proceeds from the show will benefit the Mustard Seed Communities headed by Father Gregory Ramkissoon.
This year's show got off to a late start, blamed on a traffic snarl outside the precincts of the National Indoor Sports Complex. Many of those who made the effort to be on time, expressed the hope that others will wake up to the reality that traffic snarls are a given in the Corporate Area and they should make allowances for that. And on top of that, the intermission was much too long.
HIGHLY ENTERTAINING
The performances were highly entertaining with the now much anticipated comedy routine by Post Master General, Blossom O'Meally-Nelson, was the highlight of the show. In the future though, something has to be done about the sound quality as many persons could not hear her humorous delivery. Dressed as a doctor whose weight had ballooned and settled in her hips and buttocks, she set up her Post Ivan Stress Syndrome (PISS) Clinic and playing the part of a PISS specialist, proceeded to see some 'political' patients.
Her cures included marriage for a 70-year-old 'patient' who had problems below the waist. Politicians whose recent thoughtless remarks have continued to haunt them, did not escape this lady's sharp wit, neither did the implications of often overcrowded hospital beds.
Her performance was a fitting end to the first segment which also included TVJ's Carol Francis and the Gang's high energy dance routine of the latest reggae dance moves and the highly entertaining 'Wannabees Hapra' whose rendition of folk songs gave meaning to the opera genre. Just imagine the dialect lyrics of Sammy Dead and Linstead Market, sung (more murdered) in standard English and with absolutely no harmony, and the result is prime time comedy.
GOOSEBUMPS
Dr. Carol Ball-Thompson's medley of folk songs on keyboard, elicited loud applause, and Carole Reid's excellent rendition of Climb Every Mountain was sheer perfection for her skilful use of the microphone. This performance had goosebumps vying for space on everyone's skin.
Education and Culture Minister, Maxine Henry-Wilson, and Tourism and Industry Minister, Aloun Assamba, whose 'ballet' piece lived up to all its entertaining expectations, also tipped the comic clumsy Richter scale.
In the second part of the show, Jacqueline daCosta thrilled the audience with her impersonation of Louis 'Satchmo' Armstrong's classic, What a Wonderful World. Her performance was dedicated to Prime Minister P.J. Patterson.
But what many will remember is the group Sisters Edge's parody of popular rhythm and blues singers Sisters Sledge. This act included Red Stripe's Maxine Whittingham and Ecuadorian Consul Clelia Barreto deHunter. The latter's dance moves left nothing to the imagination as she seemed to have been waiting for just this opportunity to show her stuff.
Great show ladies!
