The theatre was half empty last night when three quarters of the team from University of Winchester’s musical theatre programme (Matt Lockitt, Adam Rush and I) ventured all the way to the East End and Wilton’s Music Hall to see Floyd Collins.

After a brief prologue Floyd Collins is alone onstage for almost half an hour – and he, played by Ashley Robinson, is wonderful. The writing (by Tina Landau and Adam Guettel) allows him to express joy, excitement, wonder and hope, all supported by the most extraordinarily light, fluid and evocative music. We know that he is going to get stuck in an underground cavern and ultimately die there – that’s the story based on fact, and much as we might wish it there ain’t no other ending! But what the writers and performers achieved in the first act was the semblance of joy and hope in the presence of adversity. In the second half hope crumbles as reality surfaces and quarrels break out among the family and with the media and commercial circus that has arisen around the rescue attempts. Even in this more downbeat act every opportunity is taken to lift the emotions, to raise hope, to paint beautiful memories so that the audiences’ emotions are wrenched and screwed to the extremes. This production deals deftly with the detail of difficult relationships and the involvement of a fully engaged ensemble to bring this extraordinary work to full and glorious life. Well done Jonathan Butterell (director), Tom Brady (musical director) and all the company and crew. The show is awesome – breathtakingly impressive.