The company celebrated its 60th anniversary last year, when it staged a spectacular version of Joseph and The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat at the Grove Theatre.
Under its previous name, Dunstable Amateur Operatic Society (DAOS) produced a series of operettas and musicals at the old Queensway Hall, where it was particularly proud to have been allowed to perform My Fair Lady soon after its record-breaking London run. Chris described the restrictions imposed on amateur societies by the owners of hit shows, which forbid performances too close in date or location to professional productions. The costs involved are also high – he listed the initial outlay for a show at the Grove Theatre as being in the region of £36,000 with plans having to be in place fully two years in advance of opening night. The society is already preparing a production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang for 2026.
But smaller shows, presented at Dunstable’s Little Theatre, take less time. The society is currently rehearsing the musical version of Return To The Forbidden Planet.
Performances of musicals in Dunstable date back to shows on the stage at the old Palace Cinema, where The Geisha Girl was performed in 1923.
A curate at the Priory Church, the Rev Rupert Child, initiated a production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Trial By Jury in 1964 and a series of DAOS shows followed.They have included Fiddler On The Roof (three times), Kismet (twice), Hello Dolly, South Pacific (featuring a tap-dancing routine on a sandy beach!), Kiss Me Kate and sell-out performances of Oklahoma.
Me And My Girl was the last musical at the Queensway Hall, and the society performed shows including The Sound of Music, Annie and Barnum at Queensbury School until the Grove Theatre opened. The society’s first show there, 42nd Street, has gone down in local history for its over-use of the stage lighting system – it blew the electrics!
The history society’s next meeting will be at 7.45 pm on Tuesday, May 13, in the Methodist Church Hall, where speaker Paul Brown will describe the creation of Leighton Buzzard’s market cross by the area’s richest lady, Alice Chaucer, grand-daughter of the Canterbury Tales poet. Entry fee for non-members is £3.