The Charming Soubrettes at the Sandymount Community Centre
by Niamh Byrne
Band of three “The Charming Soubrettes” performed a setlist of songs in the Sandymount Community Centre on the 7th of July last. They describe themselves as “a 3-part close harmony group performing popular songs from Golden Oldies to Modern songs with vintage flair.”
Singing songs that clearly inspired them, from artists they love, in a beautiful pitch perfect acapella style, while dressed as their favourite acts such as Judy Garland added to the ambience and made it come alive. The audience was treated to such gems as Judy’s “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”, while invited to sing along which they weren’t shy about doing. Knowing every word, they were soon clapping and singing along with the performance.
The singers who have been friends for many years, each took turns to sing the lead. Throughout the set, and between songs, they told stories and amusing anecdotes about many of the numbers they performed.
One told a story of how she wanted to be a dancer when she was younger, but an unfortunate accident left her house-bound for a while. During this period she got into music in a big way by listening to the radio. “Take me Back to the Black Hills” would come on and she would sing along, which made her fall in love with music and realise that this was what she wanted to do. The group proceeded to sing this number which received a gasp from the audience and had people taking their phones out to record the special moment.
Another member of the group then talked about how important cinema was, not just to her growing up, but to her entire family. Telling us how her mother used to sing a song called “Tammy”, which featured in the 1957 romantic comedy Tammy and the Bachelor, starring Debbie Reynolds, to her father.
Peppering their performance with stories from their life growing up that related to the songs, before going on to sing them made the performance much more enjoyable and meaningful. Throughout the night they went on to sing songs from artists such as Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra, joking about how they couldn’t leave the men out. Singing “Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive” and “Dinner at Eight” told the audience how much they loved theatre and how much it bonds them as a trio. All round a great performance and we hope to see them back at the SCC soon.
