Gossip

Am-dram alert: Could you tread the boards at Drury Lane?

Amdramarama… no, it’s not a word, but it should be. Are you brave enough to audition for a place in a pantomime at the West End’s Theatre Royal Drury Lane?

Editorial Staff
London London's West End Off-West End

There are thousands of am-dram companies doing great work up and down the country, but not many who have the chutz-pah to stage their production at the West End’s Grade I-listed, 2,200-seat Theatre Royal Drury Lane. Wow!

So hats off to specialist pantomime group Back End Productions, who are staging a charity performance of Cinderella – “Boom or Bust!” at Drury Lane on Sunday 15 December 2013. And hats off too to all those good enough – and brave enough – to join them. Back End are holding open auditions for a titular Cinders, and all other parts in the show’s 50-strong company.

Auditions take place 7-11 September, with recalls on 15 September. If you are cast, you’ll have to take the week off work before the show for rehearsals to make sure the show is up to West-End standard. To take part in auditions, you must register your interest by filling out an online form on www.cindersdrurylane.co.uk by 3 September 2013.

By the way, the choice of Drury Lane is no accident. Cinderella’s first-ever performance in the UK was at Drury Lane in 1904. Profits from the Back End panto go to The SilverLining (www.thesilverlining.org.uk), a charity helping brain injured people rebuild their lives.

Speaking of am-dram, Robert and Frances Iles from Dynamic Listing, who provide WhatsOnStage.com with performance listings up and down the country, are taking the stage themselves this week. They play comedy duo Dogberry and Verges in he Royal Air Force Theatrical Association (RAFTA)’s production of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, which runs from tonight (28 August 2013) until this Saturday 31 August 2013 at the OFS Studio in Oxford. Break a leg to them too.