WATFORD LIVE/PUMP HOUSE

Again Belmont came up to the mark when we participated in the Watford Live event in Watford High Street on Saturday 14th June. The Pump House in association with Watford Live, set up gazebos, sound systems, posters and leaflets, with a circle of deckchairs to create a unique open air theatre scene in the heart of Watford’s’ main shopping street.

The weather was not helpful or co-operative with 2 huge downpours that kept the shoppers on the move. Caught everybody out.Thankfully when we appeared at 2.00 in the afternoon the sun shone.  We followed the Pump House Youth Theatre who were great and were enthusiastically received. They had lots of fans there. The audience loved them. We had a half hour slot, starting with Graham and his guitar, strumming his way through 3 numbers followed by Bill giving us “Albert and the Lion”.  I watched the audience who loved it. Dawn really attracted the crowd with her 2 belly dance routines. She looked fabulous and received a brilliant applause at the end. Judi completed our slot with a very moving rendition of “As Long As He Needs Me” from Oliver. A difficult number with no musical  acompliment. Well done Judi. A real trouper.

Congratulations to the Pump House organisation for coming up trumps in association with Watford Live for putting together a great day to promote the theatre.  

We did ourselves proud by being there and supporting Hazel and her team.
Thanks to everybody who came along to fly the Belmont flag.

 

 

 

"We all love a cliché if it is expressed witily. The amateur Belmont Theatre company exploited the differing skills of two playwrights in this programme of two one-act plays, which made use of this device in different ways.

The first was The Lamp, by Melville Lovat. This new play presents a husband and wife in middle age who visit a furniture shop to look at a lamp that they have seen advertised. Owing to their indecision, they are locked in overnight. They are challenged to spend the time reviewing their past and future lives: there is plenty of scope for them, and us, to explore today’s social attitudes.

As even the two characters’ names, Doreen and Arnold, demonstrate, they are stereotypes; success depends on the authenticity of their performances. The danger is that cliché may descend into farce, and Lottie Rebello, who directs, does not entirely avoid it. Of the two actors, Mary Woolf is the more successful.

The Real Inspector Hound also has a cast of stereotypes. Even the set, an isolated manor house, is that of a typical detective fiction. The play was written quite early in Tom Stoppard’s career, but already he was highly skilled in stage technique.

As the audience can see but the cast do not, the victim of a murder is imperfectly concealed on stage, and ostensibly the play is about the long awaited arrival of the detective who will investigate. But at the start, Stoppard warns us that all is not as it seems. Two press critics are seated in a box at the side of the stage, exchanging inanities about their profession: they are to review the play that we are about to see. We soon realise that neither the identities of the characters nor their roles in the drama can be relied on. So there is plenty of scope for irony in the plot and the characterisation.

The most prominent character is Moon, one of the critics, convincingly played by Bernard Vick – well known to Belmont audiences. He turns out to mutate into various other roles. Similarly, Alan Nathan, playing Major Magnus Muldoon becomes another character who has been much spoken of. The house is owned by Cynthia Muldoon, another key character: Dawn Harvey in this role exploits a variety of opportunities. As Inspector Hound himself, Peter Tarl only appears briefly: a paradox (if it is a paradox) for which Stoppard is responsible. Even as Mrs Drudge, Helen Sherwood has to present herself originally as the charwoman and later as a sort of female butler. She has great fun with this.

And so we go on. The plot is complicated, as expected in detective dramas. The play is neither spine-chilling nor rib-tickling, as we might also have expected. Perhaps it can be summarised by saying that Stoppard builds a structure of clichés and turns it on its head, so there are plenty of ideas to keep the audience on the edge of their seats."
Review by Graham Mordue

Link to article

We are gearing up for our annual musical and would very much like to invite you to come along to the initial reading of the script and listen to highlights of the music. This will be on Tuesday, 10th June from 8 pm in The Carpenders Park Community Centre. We'd be delighted to see you and any friends who might be interested. Refreshments will be provided.

On Thursday 12th our musical director will be running through the short audition pieces and if you fancy being involved you'll have a chance to audition for the show the following week, on Tuesday 17th and Thursday 19th. We keep things as informal as possible and give you every chance to shine.

The Musical of Musicals - The Musical is a Broadway and off-Broadway hit that has since been staged around the world.  The way it's written means that it can be performed by just four actors or a cast of forty. The main principal roles are split equally between men and women and can include up to 20 principals or fewer if we double up.  There is also plenty of chorus involvement.

As our handbill states:

Sometimes One Musical Just Isn't Enough
The show is an affectionate parody using the styles of some Broadway's finest.  The plot is that hoary old tale of the wicked landlord and the young girl who can’t pay her rent.
The twist is that the tale is retold in the style of:
Rodgers & Hammerstein (Oklahoma, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I, The Sound of Music)
Stephen Sondheim (Sweeney Todd, Follies, A Little Night Music, West Side Story, Gypsy, Company)
Jerry Herman (Hello Dolly, Mame. La Cage Aux Folles)
Andrew Lloyd Webber (Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, Phantom of The Opera, Sunset Boulevard)
Kander & Ebb (Cabaret, Chicago, Zorba, The Scottsboro Boys).
 
For more details email [email protected] or
call us - Belmont Theatre on 07917 324179

Belmont performs 'The Lamp' at this drama festival in Welwyn Garden City tonight ONLY, as one of three 1-act plays on offer. Book directly with the Hawthorne Theatre if you want to go and support Michael and Mary. Their earlier performances were excellent.








http://www.whtimes.co.uk/what-s-on/welwyn_drama_festival_returns_to_welwyn_garden_city_1_3616253?usurv=skip

As soon as one show's over it's time to prepare the next one. Can you sing or dance - or both? Open audition process starts next week for Belmont's October musical extravaganza - The Musical of Musicals - why not give it a go? Info here: http://www.belmonttheatre.co.uk/casting-informations-musical-of-musicals.html