CADS presents Back to Those Music Hall Days (2019)

By CLAIRE McCABE

Crookwell Amateur Dramatic Society (CADS) is returning with six performances, including two matinees, this June.

Back To Those Music Hall Days is a nostalgic journey and resurrection of CADS' old time music halls which were first staged at the Crookwell Memorial Hall in the 1990s.

Director Anne Cleary, and assistant director Rhonda Cummins, recall street-long queues and sell-out performances during those early performances.

CADS, which reformed in 1987, performed nine music halls, with the last of this style of performance held in 2004 and the earliest in 1990.

The directors had around 300 items and 60 chorus items to choose, and this seasons comeback will see a re-emergence of the best of those early acts.

Farmers, school teachers, community workers, professionals, retirees and a retired clergyman will take to the stage, many of them are returning to the stage from those early shows.

There will be a few new faces making their music hall debut. .

"We take ordinary people and at times get them to do extraordinary things - and that's the magic of it," Ms Cleary said.

Original cast will revisit 27-year-old melodramas, musical skits, comedy routines and chorus items.

Both of the musical directors Helen Campbell and Helen Lowe return.

Ms Campbell has been the musical director for all 14 music hall shows, and is a founding member of CADS.

"She was the impetus to get people back, and we decided to make it a nostalgic," Ms Cleary said.

"It's going to be fun to be reunited."

CADS will present Back To Those Music Hall Days with performances at Memorial Hall. Opening night is on Friday June 21. Performances at 7.30pm on June 22, 28, 29; 2pm on June 23 and 1pm on June 29.

Tickets: adults $25, concession $20. For information and bookings contact the Crookwell Visitor Information Centre, 4832 1988.