Promising to be a night of upbeat music led by a narrative based on three popular fairytales, the evening proved to have to a not-so-magical ending.

The narrative had a definite Cambridge twist, with references to Directors of Studies and supervisions. However, the jokes and gags were clichéd and unoriginal, particularly those relating to Oxford. There was one unique twist on the stereotypical fairytale by having Bromeo dump Jules for a guy. This was a refreshing contemporary idea, but by the end of the night, Bromeo goes back to Jules and his gay relationship is described as a “phase, #OnlyinCambridge”. If CU Show choir had stuck to their guns, they could have had a unique modern interpretation of common tales.

The actual music proved to be equally uninspiring and unoriginal. The pop tunes chosen corresponded well to their narrative, such as ‘9 to 5’ by Dolly Parton to represent the heavy Cambridge work load, and no doubt would appeal to regular Cindies goers. While choral sections of the songs were adequate, the soloists, both male and female, were average and occasionally worse. No one soloist stood out as the leader of the group. The movements of the soloists on stage were often awkward – I saw one girl almost elbow her way out of the group to reach the microphone. Once at the microphone, none of the soloists seemed at ease. There was either awkward gesticulating and bopping, or hilariously over-serious facial expressions. The general choreography was similarly awkward; the background dancing in the club scenes was cringe-worthy. During slower, romantic numbers, the choreography resembled the Happy Hands Club routine from Napoleon Dynamite.

The climax of the set was clearly the love song medley, which the group repeated during the encore. It would have been more entertaining to see a different song.  The medley itself was well arranged, and covered a wide range of popular songs from Taylor Swift to Maroon 5. However, again the choreography was uninspired and the various soprano soloists were pitchy, sometimes flat.

From unpolished and dull choreography, to average soloists, CU Show Choir did not fulfill their promise of a gleeful night, let alone a happy ending.