Our next production is: "Singin' In The Rain" - Cromer Pier Pavilion - Saturday 29th May to Saturday 5th June 2010 - more details »

Welcome to the official web site of the Cromer & Sheringham Amateur Operatic & Dramatic Society.

The World Famous Cromer Pier - home of our main musical Cromer Pier at sunset

The beautiful venue for our May musical - Cromer Pier Pavilion

We hope you will find it interesting and informative. There's details about our history, previous productions, forthcoming shows and how to contact us. We always warmly welcome new members who wish to take part in our shows, whether as singers, dancers, actors, or all three!

If, however, you don't want to be on stage, but would like to be involved, there are hundreds of jobs to be done behind the scenes. We build and paint our own sets so if you're a budding carpenter, painter or just good with your hands, or if prefer helping with costumes or organising publicity, in fact, whatever your talent, we can make use of it!

A warm welcome and one hundred friends await you! Alternatively, to keep in touch with what we're up to, and to be among the first to know what's coming up, why not become a Vice-President? You'll receive priority booking for all our productions and our bi-monthly newsletter, "Just A Minim". So do get in touch.

FORTHCOMING PRODUCTIONS

Singin' in the Rain (Musical) Cromer Pier Pavilion Theatre

Saturday 29th May to Saturday 5th June 2010 at 7.30pm

Matinee performance on Saturday 5th June at 2.30pm

Public booking on 01263 512495 from Monday 22nd March 2010

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Animal Farm (Play) By George Orwell Sheringham Little Theatre

Wednesday 20th to Saturday 23rd October 2010

7.30pm (with matinee performance on Saturday at 2.30pm)

LATEST NEWS

Our most recent production, J.B. Priestley's When We Are Married, has just ended its run at the Sheringham Little Theatre. It was a terrific success and proved to be a very popular choice with our audiences which meant we enjoyed good houses and a great reception at all our performances. We always knew how beautifully written it was and how funny but after many weeks of rehearsal, the laughs do tend to run a bit dry, so what a tonic on our opening night to hear such laughter from our first audience. This was repeated each and every night (and matinee particularly!). A huge thank you to our director, June Cooper, all the cast and crew and all those who came along and supported this production. Photos can be seen on our gallery page.

Eastern Daily Press 27th February 2010 (edp24.co.uk)

If this play had been staged in 1908 when it is set instead of 1938 when it was first published, what might the reaction have been? Then,as now, we can view as comic the confusion and embarrassment that follows revelations that upstanding pillars of society have been "living in sin" for 25 years. But in northern England at the turn of the century, any couple in this position would have been considered social pariahs. Not funny!However, this is JB Priestley - doing what he does best - having a pop at Edwardian pomposity and piety. And it is funny. Very funny. Three couples are celebrating a joint silver wedding anniversary, when they discover that they have been united by an unlicensed clergyman and are, therefore, not legally married.How these "happy couples" try to resolve the problem before word of their misery spreads, as it inevitably does, is pure entertainment.Notable in this outstanding cast are Peter Howell and Madeline Hudson as pompous councillor Albert and Annie Parker. Albert is an old friend of Alderman Joseph Helliwell (Paul Markham) and his wife Maria (Amanda Howell). It is in the sitting room of the Helliwell's house that the old friends including Herbert and Clara Soppitt (Andrew Payne and Pauline Brown) meet up.Equally memorable are Thelma Torr as Mrs Northrop the cook and Ruby the maid, played by the irrepressible Laura Williamson.In the end, of ocurse, the big question is: do they really want to be married? Patrick Prekopp

Rehearsals are well underway for our 2010 musical, Singin' in The Rain, under the direction of Chrissie Robertson (who directed our very successful production of My Fair Lady in 2009). Adapted from the 1952 movie of the same name, starring of course Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds and Donald O'Connor, the show includes such classics as Make 'Em Laugh, You Are My Lucky Star, Good Morning, and of course the title number made famous by Gene Kelly and more recently Morecambe and Wise! And we will be really "singin' in the rain" as the Cromer stage will feature the famous rain sequence. We hope everybody else will however stay dry! We hope the choice will be a popular one with our audiences and having never performed it before, 2010 is shaping up to be another exciting and hopefully successful year.

At our recent AGM, our Chairman of 10 years, Peter Howell stood down and we thank him for his unstinting hard and work dedication to the Society over what has been a very successful decade for us. Longstanding member, Andrew Payne has taken over at the helm. Andrew has had a nearly 30 year association with the Society, for many of those on our Committee, and we know he can count on the support of all our members and VPs over the coming twelve months.

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My Fair Lady - May 2009

What a fantastic week we had with My Fair Lady at the Cromer Pier Pavilion Theatre. Blessed with enthusiastic and appreciative audiences, it proved to be a hugely successful week. Our opening gala night culminated in a £500 donation to Big C, our chosen charity for this year's show, which was generously boosted by donations from our audience as they left the theatre and a further collection at our final performance swelled the Big C coffers further, resulting in a final total of £1046. A very positive response was received from our audiences throughout the week with fantastic feedback from those who saw the show. Director Chrissie Robertson can feel justly proud of what was achieved, and Choreographer Carole Weeds is to be congratulated for her fantastic choreography. Not forgetting our fabulous orchestra led by MD Geoff Davidson. Behind the scenes, our small but vital band of scenery makers and painters did us proud with a fabulous set and a huge thank you to them, as without their talent and time, we wouldn't have a show. Then of course there's the lighting, costumes, programmes etc etc. It's a real team effort!

What the Press Said.........

By George! I think they've got it right. This classic show is bursting with big singalong songs, sizzling dialogue, a pair of strong leading characters and some stage-filling tableau scenes. It could be a daunting challenge for an "am dram" company but, as ever, Cromer and Sheringham Amateur Operatic and Dramatic rises to it with a sumptuous annual musical. The 'ubs, sorry, hubs, of the action are the Professor Henry Higgins, a haughty academic of the spoken word, and Eliza Doolittle, the cockney flower girl he plucks from the streets, where she "croons like a bilious pigeon" and whom he seeks to transform into a a well-spoken, Edwardian lady. Peter Howell last did the professor role 20 years ago, but cannot have done it better than this - a masterful performance milking every linguistic nuance, delivering songs with a rich voice, but also capturing the frailties behind a bluff, bullying facade. On the opening night, he even managed a moment of skateboarding as, in mid song, he jumped on a castor-footed chaise longue which moved - and did not miss a note. That 'ardly, hever, 'appens.Katie Woodhouse is also outstanding as she makes the Jade to Joanna Lumley journey, with a soaring singing voice but also the ability to let the feisty flower girl burst through the fine frocks when rain in Spain encounters a passing cockney cloud.Andrew Payne, as her dustman dad, brings the thumbs-in-lapels, knees-up energy and fun to the proceedings, particularly the Get Me To The Church routine.At times there are more than 40 people on the stage, but it is never a muddle thanks to the crisp choreography from Carole Weeds and slick direction by Chrissie Robertson. This stunning show is helped by some elegant costumes, strong supporting roles too numerous to mention, and a large orchestra under the direction of Geoff Davidson that does credit to the delicoius score.The audience may not have danced all night, but they were humming the songs all the way home.Luvverly. (Richard Batson - Eastern Daily Press/EDP24 website 25th May 2009)

Go to the gallery page for production photos.

Eliza (Katie Woodhouse) I Could Have Danced All Night Peter Howell (Higgins) and Martin Howard (Col. Pickering)

This year, our chosen charity for the opening gala performance was the Big C Norfolk cancer charity. Earlier this year, the Cromer pavilion theatre lost one of its most familiar and much loved faces. Jenny Polydorou was Head Usherette for more than 30 years and sadly passed away in March. She will be sadly missed not only by us but by all the hundreds of regular Pavilion theatregoers who she had greeted with her fantastic smile over the years. Jenny herself had recovered from cancer and so it seems fitting to support our local Norfolk cancer charity as a tribute to her.

Click to find out more about Big C

So plenty to keep us busy and to look forward to. We hope that our choices will prove popular with our audiences. They certainly provide a great deal of variety and hopefully continue to showcase the range and breadth of dramatic talent that North Norfolk has to offer.

Be sure to bookmark this page in your "Favourites" to keep up to date with all that the Society is up to. And thank you for your interest and support.

OUR 2008 MUSICAL PRODUCTION

Saturday 24th to Saturday 31st May 2008

Cromer Pier Pavilion Theatre

Well, what a week we had! Nine performances played to excellent houses despite the typical Bank Holiday weather, although we enjoyed a wonderful sunny day for our final matinee and evening performances. But for those who braved the elements for that stroll along the pier to the theatre, we hope they found much to warm and cheer them once the band struck up!

A huge thank you to all the technical team for the work they did to make sure the show looked as fantastic as it did. This really was a show like no other, a colourful circus spectacular, and was certainly a departure for us from the traditional musical, and whilst it proved a huge challenge both artistically and technically, the company and all those involved be it front of house or back stage, have had a ball! (a juggling one of course!)

So thank you to our audiences, without whom of course we would have all felt rather silly; to all those who helped in any way to bring the show to life; to our wonderful orchestra, this year hidden behind the scenes under the musical direction of Geoff Davidson; of course to our Director Jeremy Tustin (we hope we did him proud!) and our 2 fantastic Assistant Directors - Nona Gray and Robin Taylor - who never gave up and overcame every obstacle thrown at them -with mostly good humour and great spirit.

We seldom like to single out cast members as every show is very much an ensemble piece, but special mention this year has to go to Nick Bird, our own Mr P.T.Barnum. Nick has worked tirelessly for six months for this demanding role and has displayed tremendous commitment and talent in making the part his own. Thank you Nick for doing such a great job for us and for being such a nice bloke!

Lastly, we are thrilled that by the generosity of our audiences throughout the week, we have raised approximately £2000 for our chosen charity, Sheringham Woodfields School (for children with special needs) which will make a huge contribution to their efforts to buy a minibus. So a huge thankyou!!

You can see what the local press have said about the show further down this page and photos from the production can now be viewed in our photo gallery.

The Ringmaster invites you to "The Greatest Show on Earth"

What the Press said ........................Eastern Daily Press Monday 26^th May 2008

ACTORS JUGGLE TRICKY SHOW WITH PANACHE - Staging a circus on the end of the pier and asking "am dram" actors to learn juggling, uni-cycling and tightrope walking as well as their lines, songs and dance steps is a high-risk strategy. But, without the aid of a safety net, the Cromer and Sheringham Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society has leapt at that daring trapeze - and grabbed it with both hands.This is a show which relies on celebrating Phineas Taylor Barnum's thirst for colour and spectacle, and demands a lot from the whole cast, but two in particular. Nick Bird in the exhausting, exhaustive title role is hardly off stage, leaping from scene to scene and song to song, witty monologue to circus skill with breathless verve and professionalism - though probably stronger at the machine-gun-worded patter songs than the melodic ballads.He gets right under the skin of a character whose showbiz pizzazz resonates a little with the late Richard Condon who played a big role in reviving the show venue. But he also plumbs the pathos of being bereaved from his long-suffering but adoring wife Charity, played sublimely by Amanda Howell. Armed with a sweet singing voice and a majestic stage presence, she captures the down-to-earth woman who can out-"flim-flam" her Prince of Humbug. The other singing gold star goes to Janette Davidson, whose operatic background has the Cromer Pier Pavilion Swedish Nightingale soaring.The rest of the cast is a non-stop kaleidoscope of cameos and colourful circus characters from clowns to jugglers to strongmen and acrobats - along with freak show-show novelties such as General Tom Thumb, whose size is cleverly highlighted by surrounding him with people on stilts. Some of the chorus numbers, when the voices, costumes and choreography came to the boil - such as One Brick At A Time and Black and White - were outstanding.But there were moments when the inevitable dropped juggling balls and clubs, some slightly muddled mass movement on the stage and not-quite-on-cue lighting was a bit of a distraction from the songs - whose clever words need full focus and clarity.Overall however, this brave venture is a triumph.Barnum managed to complete his first-night tightrope walk without falling off, to earn rapturous applause. And so indeed, in their own way, did the rest of the cast. Richard Batson

We were delighted to donate £500 to Sheringham Woodfields School, on our gala opening night. The school caters for pupils from 2 to 19 years with severe or complex learning difficulties. It was recently awarded "outstanding" status by Ofsted inspectors, and all monies raised and generously donated by our audiences throughout the week will go towards the cost of a minibus. Our audiences added a further £1682 to the Society contribution by throwing their loose change into collection buckets as they left the theatre. So total donations of £2182. THANK YOU.

CROMER CARNIVAL 2009

Members promoting Singin'In The Rain in the scorching summer heat of Cromer Carnival Day, bringing a burst of colour to the procession, and proving we are very much part of local North Norfolk life.

Website Editor: Andrew Payne