All Time Music Hall
Performances: Betchworth Village Hall 12/13th November 2021
For the first show since 2019, BODS presented a selection of Music Hall solo and company songs and monologues, together with some more contemporary music
Musical Director and accompanist: Ian Stone
Director: Julie Bickerdike
Lighting: David Ames
Cast: Lynda Barrett-Mercer, Julie Bickerdike, John Bryant, Carolyn Burnley, David Eccles, Vicki Hodges, Jane Khan, Jane Johnson, Diane Mayall, Stephen Tickell, Sarah Weston
FOH: Alison Cooper, Angela Terribile, Jane Flanders, Roger & Kathy Wilman
The Merry Widow
Performances 13-16 November 2019
Director: Alison Cooper
Musical Director: Ian Stone
The Merry Widow is Franz Lehar's most popular and enchanting operetta. With dazzling melodies, wit and elegance the story unfolds as the fabulously wealthy widow, Anna, arrives in Paris. Pursued by numerous suitors, complications and misunderstandings abound when at an Embassy party, she rekindles her relationship with her old flame, Danilo. But, will he forsake the Grisettes, the famous dancing girls at Maxim’s, and declare his true feelings for Anna…?
An amateur production by arrangement with Glocken Verlag Ltd (music adapted and arranged by Ronald Hanmer)
Cast
Anna | Sarah Esser Haswell |
Danilo | Peter Thomas |
Baron Zeta | Trevor Allen |
Valencienne | Jane Khan |
Camille | David Clark |
Njegus | David Longes |
St Brioche | Andy Davis |
Cascada | Mark Edwards |
Kromov | Roger Nelson |
Bogdanovitsch | David Eccles |
Olga | Jane Seymour |
Sylvia | Jane Johnson |
Praskovia | Gini King |
Grisettes |
Diane Mayall, Sue Nelson, Margaret Longes Diana Barnsley, Kathy Wilman, Linda Slater |
Parisian Guests | Pam Patch, Vicki Hodges, Edward Marston |
Lighting: David Ames
Photography Mick Mercer
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Thespis
or "The Gods Grown Old", by W.S. Gilbert and A. Sullivan
Directed by Lynda Barrett-Mercer
Musical Director: Ian Stone
7-10th November Betchworth Memorial Hall
The 'lost' G&S opera
This is a unique production of the earliest G & S work, for which no musical score survives. First staged in 1871 as a Christmas entertainment, it ran for 63 performances, but Sullivan's score was then lost, and the work largely forgotten during the writers' lifetimes - although Sullivan certainly reused at least two of the tunes. The story concerns a group of actors in ancient Greece - the original Thespians - who take over the role of Gods on Mount Olympus so the decrepit deities can take a holiday on earth, with predictably chaotic consequences
Thespis has only occasionally been revived, from the 1950s onwards, sometimes with a score specially composed 'in the style of Sullivan'. Lynda and Ian however have painstakingly created their own score using familiar tunes in Sullivan's later repertoire, but incorporating 'Climbing over Rocky Mountains' (Pirates of Penzance) and 'Little maid of Arcadee' which are known to have been in the original.
Cast
Jupiter | Patrick Gallagher |
Mars | Matt Stainer |
Apollo | Colin Bousfield |
Diana | Pam Patch |
Mercury | Jane Khan |
Thespis | David Longes |
Daphne | Jane Johnson |
Nicemis | Margaret Longes |
Sparkeion | Carolyn Burnley |
Tipseion | Jane Seymour |
Preposteros | Julian Warner-Edney |
Prettiea | Julie Bickerdike |
Timidon | Stephen Tickell |
Production
Sound & Lighting | David Ames |
Set Design | Lynda Barrett-Mercer |
Set Construction | the Company |
Costumes | Lynda Barrett-Mercer |
Video recording | Jonathan Bickerdike |
Front of House |
John Bryant, Sally Coleman, Alison Cooper, Kate Cottrell, Jane Flanders, Fiona Garner, Selena Hegarty, Linda King, Jane Sillett, Ann Staddon, Sheila Staples, Shirley Trower, Neil Williams |
Rehearsal photos by Mick Mercer and Lynda Barrett-Mercer