PRESS &
TESTIMONIALS
TESTIMONIALS
TESTIMONIALS
TESTIMONIALS
I recommend that it is really worth spending some time with Renée....I speak in the capacity as vocal consultant for the show 'Miss Saigon' and also as Professor of Musical Theatre for both the Royal College of Music and Royal Academy of Music in London. It is my professional opinion that Renée is a performer of great strength. She is a really good actress, with depth and versatility, having played the role of Miss Saigon, it isn't necessary for me to tell you she can sing! - She can! But she is also capable of playing many other acting roles, and I recommend her talent to you unreservedly.....
Mary Hammond ~ Professor of Musical Theatre (Royal Academy of Music & Royal College of Music)
London, UK
I have directed Renée in the lead role of Maria Clara in the world premiere of 'Noli Me Tangere' at the Theatre Museum, Covent Garden, London. She is the most wonderful artist, whose depth and commitment allowed the development and portrayal of the complex leading role to appear. Her acting, singing and movement skills are first rate and I would have no hesitation recommending her to any casting agency or director as a major talent in any field of the performing arts.
Sandy V-Strallen ~ Director and Choreographer c/o The Really Useful Group
London ,UK
Over the past few months I have had the pleasure of working with Renée Montemayor, a very talented performer who I would recommend to you. She has a wonderful voice and a commanding stage presence which made her ideally suited for our production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's 'The King and I'. Renée's rendition of Princess Tuptim's demanding choral part was outstanding, as she proved in our inaugural open air concert in Covent Garden Piazza.
A fine company member and a principal artist in her own right I wish her the very best in her future career.
Mark Watty ~ Theatrical Producer, & Director for the Covent Garden Festival, London
London, UK
PRESS
A Century of Women
"It is a splendid tribute to some magnificent women performed by splendid actresses" ~ Remotegoat
"In two hours six actresses present cameos of twenty women spanning the last hundred years using material drawn from their own speeches, writings and performances. It is a familiar format but here it is done very well and it gains enormously from the fact that the very different types of women presented range from the famous to the notorious, though people may not agree on which is which and they include some who will not be familiar to everyone in the audience.
Although most of these women are identified with a projected photograph and a caption giving their name and often the date of the moment that is being captured there is no explanatory wrapping; what information you get is contained in what they say which makes the whole thing very direct in its impact.
The six actresses do not attempt to impersonate the women they portray but rather to catch the spirit of their personalities, whether the upper class certainties of Georgia Miles as suffragette leader Mrs Pankhurst (with a speech delivered in the United States), the self-assured delivery of Debbie Yearsley's Margaret Roberts, preaching personal responsibility just after her failure to be elected an MP, or the straightforward simplicity with which Cleo Sylvestre presents Rosa Parks, the black woman whose refusal to give up her seat on a bus launched the civil rights movement . Renée Montemayor is Lady Astor making her maiden speech in the House of Commons, the first woman in Parliament, and also a moving Aung Sang Suu Kyi while Katy Federman is Christine Keeler, at the centre of a political scandal.
Sylvestre also gives us gentle but forceful Wangari Maathai, the first African woman to be a Nobel Prize winner, Miles is Edith Cavell and photographer Dorothea Lange who focused her camera on the Depression's down-and-outs and the victims of the Oklahoma Dust Bowl; she is also Marie Stopes and Federman is Germaine Greer and Marie Curie, but there are others who don't so obviously fit the political and women's movement pattern, until you hear what they actually have to say. Syvestre is a relaxed but tactful Josephine Baker, being interviewed on a return to the United States, Miles is Vivienne Westwood and Montemayor Yoko Ono and Audrey Hepburn, Yearsley both Marilyn Monroe .and Vera Lynn. Less expectedly perhaps are Federman's JK Rowling and sailor Ellen MacArthur.
With no less than ten musical numbers it is amazing that so much can be packed into just two hours, including an interval, but director Alison Mead has made if flow with ease, other members of the cast becoming nurses, Harvard academics, suffragettes or even male MPs - Sylvestre making a mute but very funny Winston Churchill.
It is simply staged but sumptuously dressed by Andrea Gambell and it makes a very entertaining show, the cast's performances see to that, without detracting from its serious content. With both together it makes a real celebration of some great women of the past hundred years." ~ Howard Loxton - The British Theatre Guide
"...the show provides a kaleidoscope of famous women...touches on many important issues that have not lost their relevance over the years. The change in form and the songs make this production very lively. The cast is excellent." ~ UK Theatre network
Cinderella, the Glass Slipper
"Renée Montemayor is a touching and beautiful Cinders, with a singing voice to match" ~ Western Gazette
"Renée Montemayor was a delightfully innocent Cinders..." ~John Lyon, Mid Devon Gazette
"A CINDERS TO SEE...and Renée Montemayor elicits sympathy as downtrodden Cinder-ella-ella-ella one moment and rioutous approval the next as, first Cinders and the Prince then housemaid Ella and Bertie chastely kiss to seal two happy endings." ~Giles Whiting, Somerset County Gazette
Aladdin
"Ramin Karimloo and Renée Montemayor as Aladdin and Princess Balroubadour look suitably youthful and both sing beautifully with plenty of stage presence." ~Susan Eldin, The Stage
"...while the beautiful voice of Renée Montemayor, as the princess, captured us all." ~Vicky Sandison, Medway Today
"PANTO IS A MAGICAL WORLD OF FUN AND FANTASY...Page three sensation Ebony and Briony from 'Grange Hill' (Renée Montemayor)-who play Soshy and the princess- proved themselves as actors, and the chorus complemented the stars and the acrobats were amazing. A panto not to be missed." ~Emma Harrington, Medway News
"The stars of Aladdin brought plenty of smiles and cheer with them when they visited sick children at Medway Hopital, Gillingham...The stars are currently performing at the Central Theatre in Chatham and some of the famous faces appearing on stage include Grange Hill's Renée Montemayor, local hero Rob Forknall and CITV's Stephen Mulhern." ~ Medway Today
"The stars of Central Theatre's pantomime 'Aladdin' took a little glitz and glamour to Medway Maritime Hospital with a visit to the children's ward...Younsgters were delighted to meet Stephen Mulhern as Master of Illusion, Renée Montemayor, from 'Grange Hill' as the princess....Our stars were very keen to speak to the children and cheer them up. They all enjoyed the visit and absolutely adored the children." ~ Medway News
"PANTO STARS DROP IN TO GIVE BLOOD... Children's ITV presenter Stephen Mulhern, Renée Montemayor, who plays Briony on 'Grange Hill' and glamour model Ebony were helping promote NBS Winter Campaign to encourage more people in the Medway area to help save lives by giving blood." ~ Medway Standard
"Aladdin billed as Medway's biggest ever Christmas pantomime, has been brought to the Central Theatre, Chatham by Paul Hammond. Renée Montemayor, better known as Briony in TV's 'Grange Hill', is playing the Princess. West end performer Ramin Karimloo plays Aladdin." ~ KM What's On
Dick Whittington
Stratford East Theatre
"There are energetic performances and beautiful singing by Renée Montemayor as Alice Fitzwarren." ~ Mandy Little, South London Press
"Kerry Michael's exciting version wonderfully designed by Jenny Tiramani, is full of iconic verve...a suitably heroic Dick Whittington (Enoch Frost), an endearing Tiddles (Rebecca Deren) a maidenly Alice (Renée Montemayor) and jolly Sarah (John Halstead)..." ~ Aleks Sierz, The Stage
South Pacific
No1 UK Tour
"...and the simple choreography, wonderfully performed by Renée Montemayor as Liat, adds a new dimension." ~ Mark McClelland, News Shopper
"Happy talking stars of 'South Pacific' are in fine voice at the Alexandra Theatre. Starring Rustie Lee, Renée Montemayor and Warren Kimmel the hit show is really packing them in..." ~Metronews
"Renée Montemayor as her daughter, Liat, is a delight while miming Happy Talk - and has the looks to make an immediate love trap for the young American officer, Lt Cable." ~ James Green, The Stage
"...spreading warmth like molasses and modulating her genial effrontery only when maternally guarding the delightful Renée Montemayor as Liat, her delicate flower of a daughter. There is plenty of nostalgia here, and scope for new audiences to fall in love with a wonderful show." ~Donald Madgwick, The Advertiser