Lizzie Deane: Singing Workshop

I have been trying to rap.

Not well, and not quietly, and mostly in the kitchen with a tea towel over one shoulder and wearing a pair of Marigolds. Témi has said nothing about it whatsoever, which is considerably worse than saying something.

This is what Hamilton does to a man. You listen to it twice and begin to feel you could hold your own in a room with Lin-Manuel Miranda, when the truth is you can barely hold your own with the kettle.

So we’re doing it properly this time, and with adult supervision.

Hamilton & Dear Evan Hansen

The pairing looks odd on paper, but isn’t. Hamilton gives you rhythm – the sort where you’re counting in your head and tapping your foot with such vigour you could power your iPhone. Dear Evan Hansen does something else entirely. “You Will Be Found” was written for a stage full of people, and forty in a room turns out to do the job just as well. Someone always ends up blubbing by the last chorus, and nobody minds a bit. Not me, obviously. I’ll be in the corner with the tea towel, attending to an unrelated matter.

Sister Act

And then a Sister Act medley, because you can’t send everyone home damp. Lizzie has stitched the big ones together end to end, so it arrives as one casserole rather than a set of separate courses. It’ll be just like the film, but without the nuns. Although who knows what the nuns get up to on a Friday night. We may yet be inundated.

What you need to bring is a voice and yourself. That’s it. Oh, and a friend if you know anyone of a similar persuasion. If not, you’re perfect as you are. #YouWillBeFound

• Music from Hamilton and Dear Evan Hansen, arranged in three parts by Lizzie. Plus a medley of Sister Act nunage to get us in the groove.
• No sight-reading, no audition, and no need to have seen any of the shows
• Taught by ear in the room, so you can arrive knowing nothing and leave singing harmony

Lizzie Deane

Leading it all is Lizzie Deane, who has been one of our directors for years and is one of the reasons people keep coming back (me included!). Very funny, alarmingly quick, and a brilliant singer – she has a knack for getting a proper sound out of people who arrived certain they hadn’t got one.

She has toured with Boy George, Belinda Carlisle, Mica Paris and Jocelyn Brown. She has played Glastonbury and the 606 Club. And then she went on to win Britain’s Got Talent with a choir of farmers, so we now have to book her about 11 months in advance.