BWW Previews: BEAUTY AND THE BEAST at Centennial Theatre Epsom, Auckland

St Peter's College has gained a reputation for putting on a spectacular Musical and this year's offering is shaping up to be no exception. Drawing from a large talent pool and sourcing the lead costumes from WETA, the production team work has worked hard to put on a professional show.

A culture of enthusiasm for the school musical has been nurtured over the years and this show is the 7th for some of the boys. Competition is fierce at audition time and a place in the cast has to be earned from a pool of rowers, rugby players, musicians, water polo players, hockey, soccer, Prefects, seniors and juniors.

Being an all boys school, girls schools were offered the opportunity to audition. The female talent is being drawn from Marist, St Mary's, Baradene, Epsom Girls, Rangitoto and Avondale. This has evolved from the reputation of the high calibre of these shows over the last few years.

Having such a large talent pool to draw from has resulted in the show being double-cast. Over the ten-night season lead roles are shared night-on, night-off.

St Peter's likes to foster opportunity for diversity within their productions. One of the two people cast to play Luminere has been playing trumpet in the orchestra for the last 3 years.

Musical Director Catherine Carr is well known on the Auckland theatre scene. She attributes some of the success to how well she and Director John Hellyer work together.

"John and I are like-minded in all things theatrical so doing this is like breathing."

I have witnessed the love that John has for musical theatre at the annual iTicket Showdown Awards and his passion has permeated into the culture of St Peters.

She goes on to say, "We have no ceiling on our expectations from these young men and women and the growth they go on from audition to final performance is one of the reasons we keep coming back. It's a game changer for some of them."

Tickets are already selling fast so get in quick!

Beauty and the Beast
Centennial Theatre
Auckland Grammar School
Mountain Road
Epsom
Bookings:https://www.iticket.co.nz/events/2018/jun/beauty-and-the-beast#/buy-tickets

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