New West Theatre has a trimmed down cast and energy to spare as they rock the rodeo this month at the Yates Theatre.
The nine member cast performs one of their typically entertaining variety show ranging from spine tinglingly beautiful to campy upbeat dance numbers, superb vocal harmonies and a lot of quirky comedy.
The show opens with an upbeat dance version of Alabama’s “Mountain Music,” which gives the whole cast a chance to shine.
There are many highlights of the show, not the least of which is Ife Abiola — a new face to New West, though not new to Lethbridge’s drama and music community. He adds a lot of soul to traditional country music.
He was not only a highlight as the straight man in a couple of sketches but added a lot of soul to Conway Twitty as well as did a credible job of Paul Brandt’s “Alberta Bound.”
He also sings a pretty mean Toby Keith, singing a superb version of “How Do You Like Me Now.”
Abiola has been seen in the University of Lethbridge’s production of ‘Hair,’ among other things.
Jessica Ens and Jocelyn Haub sang a beautifully sassy version of Terri Clark’s ‘Girls Lie Too.’ Haub’s solo performance of Taylor Swift’s ‘White Horse,’ was a highlight as well. She was backed only by guitarists Kelly Roberts and Scott Mezei.
Haub also played well off of Grahame Renyk, who was an affable and personable host during the farm themed news portion of the show.
In honour of the Eagles, a highlight of the first half of the show is a superb medley of Eagles’ more country hits including ‘Peaceful Easy Feeling,’ and ‘Take It Easy,’ which is spearheaded by New West veteran Scott Carpenter, who changes the lyrics to reflect the four women in the cast, dancing and singing backup vocals. Carpenter was hilariously as always, he was having some fun laughing maniacally while rigging the 50 50 draw much to the crowd’s amusement.