Talent and verve by themselves can make a heady combination. But with over 812 actors, singers, dancers and musicians out on the stage, the two can spell a masterpiece.

‘Sleeping Beauty’, the musical production staged by students of Royal Concorde School on the occasion of its annual day in the City last week, is premised on the age old maxim: The good shall triumph over the evil. And who can purvey this message better than a bunch of enthusiastic children.

What inspired Dr Ashley William Joseph to script out a musical that is perhaps one of the biggest in terms of participation and settings? “The very idea of doing Sleeping Beauty on stage, is a task challenging enough to bring out the best of one’s creativity. And I semi-planned this show on my flight to Bangkok,” says Ashley.

To Ashley every musical must be a live one where the talent and hard work of students must come through.  He says that he does not believe in using any extra effects in any production.  The sequence of musicians, actors and dancers was perfectly in tune. Not a stitch was out of place.

Kim, one of the students, who accompanied the production, stood out for her outstanding performance on the piano. The dancers moved and swayed in perfection.

“Musical lends theatre an extra soul and is not what everyone who speaks well can do. It involves acting, singing and dancing, so it’s no an easy task, but a great fun,” explains Ashley.

It was evident that the production was original and not a replication or repackaged version of some other productions. “Replication, no way. A lot of creative ideas have been squeezed into this production. What started off as a small school day production has turned out to be one of the biggest ever school productions of the City,” says Ashley.

As for the audiences, they seemed to thoroughly enjoy the production. Something different and uniquely packaged. But musicals are far and few today in the City. “Unfortunately, not many are happening due to lack of sponsorship. Today, musicals world over are huge and generate heavy income for the performing artistes, this is where India is still in infancy. The  audiences are very educated on musical theatre, though some of the productions happening here are terrible,” observes Ashley.