Don’t miss auditions for ‘Let the Good Times Roll’ revue
AUDITIONS for the 2018 edition of the Clover Showtime Awards young talent development revue, Let the Good Times Roll, will be held at Charlo Primary School next weekend.
Singers and actors will audition in the school hall next Saturday August 12 at 1.30pm. They will return on Sunday August 13 from 2.30pm, together with specialist dancers (tap dancers should bring tap shoes), for the movement and dance tryouts.
The show is presented in collaboration with Pemads and will run in the Little Theatre from January 22 to 27, and with the Junior Clover Awards Ceremonies on January 23 and the main awards on January 26.
Rehearsals will start in the school holidays in early October and continue over all subsequent Saturday mornings and weekend afternoons, until December 2 and 3, and then cease for resumption on January 2.
The revue is again devised and written by executive producer Bob Eveleigh, who created the Showtime concept 27 years ago.
Eveleigh is joined by the same production team as this year’s A Grand Night for Singing – Marlene Pieterse, Wayne Hughes and Siobhan Day.
But there will be one major change this year with Day, who staged the dance numbers last year, taking over as both director (in her adult theatre debut) and choreographer of all the song numbers and dance and company routines, except for tap, which will be staged by Simone Buchner, of Ellen Bunting Dance Studio.
Pieterse will be mentoring Day, while Hughes is again the musical and vocal director, with Lance Bright and Rocky Mann once more functioning as technical consultants.
The team is seeking a core cast of 12 performers – eight females and four males – within the ages of 14 (turning 15 before January 27) to 22 , with as many all-rounders (singers/actors/dancers) as possible included, plus a dance troupe of six girls, who also will be required to sing in ensemble numbers in the show.
They will again be supported by a group of 10 pupils from Charlo Primary, who will not be selected at these auditions but separately at school by Hughes.
The musical score and comedy will salute the 1950s, the brightest decade in US showbiz history, including numbers made famous by such stars as Teresa Brewer, Patti Page, Doris Day, Julie London, Connie Francis and many others, while the males include Pat Boone, Elvis Presley, Sammy Davis Junior, Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra.
The Broadway and Hollywood hits to be saluted include Singin’ in the Rain, The Bandwagon, My Fair Lady, The Pajama Game and West Side Stor y. Bye Bye Birdie, a 1960s’ success, will also be featured.
The period also saw the birth of rock ’n roll by such stars as Bill Haley and the Comets, Fats Domino, Buddy Holly, Presley and Boone and also featured the start of Sinatra’s amazing second rise to fame, while comedy gems come from the one-liners of the likes of 50s’ headliners Bob Hope, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Sammy Davis Junior, Groucho Marx and Phyllis Diller.
For the auditions, singers, who may bring their own backing tracks, perform with their own accompanists or sing a cappella, should also acquaint themselves – most easily via YouTube – with the songs of the decade, but will also be taught one of these at the tryouts.
More information from Bob Eveleigh at beveleigh@centrestage.co.za or call him (all hours) on 083-452-7556.