CELEBRATING 80 years of entertaining audiences in Suffolk this year, the Stowmarket Operatic and Dramatic Society have made sure their annual production will be a real pearler.
By James Fraser
CELEBRATING 80 years of entertaining audiences in Suffolk this year, the Stowmarket Operatic and Dramatic Society have made sure their annual production will be a real pearler.
Their production of the musical Me and My Girl – a classic tale of what can happen when you're a cockney born the wrong side of the blanket – boasts a real life Pearly King. And he's playing a peer of the realm!
It is a case of art mirroring life for Debenham man Gerry Baxter, who hails originally from London's Streatham, as the show charts the rise of a barrow boy cockney into the ranks of the aristocracy after he is discovered as the long lost heir to the posh pile, Hereford Hall. But his streetwise girlfriend Sally isn't though of as exactly "pukka" by her new in-laws!
Mr Baxter, who has for many years conducted talks on the lives of the fabled pearly kings and queens of the East End, has swapped the Lambeth Walk for the poise of playing Lord Battersby.
The curtain goes up on their long-awaited production tomorrowat 7.30pm and runs until June 1. With a matinee next Saturday at 2.30pm, tickets are £9, £6 concessions. A 10 per cent discount is available on bookings of 10 or more people on the same night.
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