Show Name
Show Month and Year
Acorn Antiques 2015
It was Curtain Up! on a new era for Denmead Operatic Society as we presented "Acorn Antiques The Musical", by Victoria Wood - our first show under the new name of Curtain Up! Productions at the Petersfield Festival Hall from 25th-27th June 2015.
Mack & Mabel 2014
Mack and Mabel, the story of the relationship between early film producer Mack Sennett and his star Mabel Normand, was presented at the Petersfield Festival Hall from 15th-17th May 2014.
Masquerade 2013
This was an exciting new venture: presenting our very own show, written especially for us by Ian Clark, at the Park Community School in Havant from 29th May to 1st June 2013.
Titanic The Musical 2012
To mark the one hundredth anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, we presented this spectacular musical at the Park Community School from 6th-9th June 2012. It was a great success and we won a NODA Accolade of Excellence for the production.
What's next?
We are reprising our 2010 production of 'Allo 'Allo at the Petersfield Festival Hall from 9th to 11th June. This is the stage version of the hilarious BBC TV series of the same name, set in France during the second world war. Click here to find out more about the show and buy your tickets.
2015 John Westbrook Award
As Hilary Westbrook, John's widow, could not attend any of the Acorn Antiques performances due to prior commitments, she delegated the nomination of the John Westbrook Award for 2015 to Val Sykes. Val chose to award the trophy to Mandy Clowes, saying: 'When there are not so many people on stage, each member of the supporting cast is clearly visible and it is extra important to give it everything. Mandy was always fully involved om each scene she was in, acting and reacting to others very well. I loved the three backing "beehive" singers number and she was clearly really enjoying it,'
Raise FREE money for CUP
Doing your shopping on-line? Why not raise money for Curtain Up! Productions at the same time - at absolutely no cost to yourself? You get access to all of your favourite on-line and high street retailers and pay the same prices that you would normally - all that happens is that CUP receives a percentage of the total of your shopping, which can be as much as 3% of the amount you spend. Since we started this scheme, the society has received a total of £580.59 at a cost of absolutely nothing! Click here to find out more and sign up to start generating money. Note that we are still registered as Denmead Operatic Society with easyfundraising.
What's Next
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Recent Events
Mandy Clowes was awarded the 2015 John Westbrook Trophy for her performance in Acorn Antiques. Read more >>
Cowardy Custard
5th-8th April 2001
Purbrook & Bognor Regis, reprised in 2002 at NTR Portsmouth & Horndean
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Directed
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Photos from the show |
About the show |
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'Cowardy Custard' had a triumphant first night at the Mermaid Theatre, London on July 10th 1972 and ran for a year. Of all the affectionate tributes paid to 'The Master' after his seventieth birthday celebrations in 1970, this was the most successful.
Collaborators Gerald Frow and Alan Strachan were faced with the
formidable task of sifting through fifty years
of Cowardian material: plays, musicals,
operettas, songs, sketches, poems, press
cuttings, autobiographical and previously
unpublished work. The result was an attempt to
reveal 'something of the man' behind the
self-made, svelte image. "We wanted to show the
struggle that so many people appeared to think
he'd never had....the impoverished gentility of
his suburban background ... and a young Noel
dreaming of the future, reaching for the crown".
For those young enough to have missed Coward the first time
around, the show came as a revelation in the
freshness of the famous pieces, the delight of
less familiar material, and the continued
relevance of Coward's powerful satire. A
successful recording and book based on the
Mermaid production followed acclaim from
critics, the public, and the arch-entertainer
himself.
Coward was no exponent of dry intellectualism, or of powerful or
subtle moral ideas. He wrote playfully to Nancy
Mitford: 'I am just mad about books, and you
being so brainy and all...might give me some
ideas, which I may say would be bitterly
resented'. His writing echoes Restoration
Comedy, Sheridan, Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde.
Sir Noel himself proposed the title, good naturedly rejecting
suggestions such as 'Carry on Coward', 'The
Cream of Coward' ('that would be asking for
trouble'), or 'This is Noel Coward' (too near
'This was Noel Coward' ). No-one much cared for
'Cowardy Custard' either, but the phrase stuck. |
