Hamilton City Theatres and Hamilton Operatic join for Oliver

Hamilton City Theatres and Hamilton Operatic join forces for Oliver

29 February 2012

Hamilton City Theatres and Hamilton Operatic Society will join forces to present the upcoming season of Oliver.

The two-week season will open on 23 June at Founders Theatre.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show author Richard O’Brien, who is performing at Founders Theatre in March with It’s Party Time with Richard O’Brien, said that he is absolutely thrilled to have been offered the role of Fagin in the upcoming production by Director David Sidwell.

O’Brien, who is the patron of Hamilton Operatic Society and has had a long association with theatre in Hamilton, says “Fifty years ago, when I was 20, the Founders Theatre was born and great talent, arriving like the three wise men, came to pay tribute. I sat in the darkened stalls and watched The Surfaris get wiped out, Paul and Paula declare their undying love for one another, The Beach Boys having fun, fun, fun till her daddy took her T.Bird away and, the late great Roy Orbison telling us that it was over. To perform on this same stage not once, but twice, in the year of its 50th birthday, fills me with great joy”.

Hamilton Operatic Society is one of the oldest musical theatre groups in New Zealand and one of Hamilton City Theatres’ longest standing and significant local clients. The Society aims to produces two to three productions each year, with two to three seasons at either Founders Theatre or at Clarence St Theatre. Recent productions have included seasons of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat and The Secret Garden at Clarence St Theatre, and Cats at Founders Theatre, as well as appearances in the past three Hamilton Gardens Summer Arts Festival programmes.

This new production of Oliver has reunited the creative team from the sell-out 2008 production of Cats – Director David Sidwell, Musical Director Victoria Brown and Choreographer Sonja McGirr-Garrett.

The last time Oliver was staged by the Society was in 1990 which sold out, and this new production promises to be a favourite for the family with classic songs like Food Glorious Food, Oliver, Who Will Buy?, Consider Yourself, As Long as He Needs Me and more.

Auditions for the other roles for Oliver will be held on 9-11 March at Clarence St Theatre’s dance studio, with up to 300 children required.

ENDS

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