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Natwest Theatre Company

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NatWest Theatre Company

The NatWest Theatre Company usually puts on two productions a year in central London, generally a play in the spring and a musical in late autumn. Our first records of the Company are details of the third annual dramatic entertainment at the Royal Aquarium Theatre by the London and Westminster Amateurs in 1 7 . The production was a double bill, 'An Ugly Customer' and 'The Honeymoon'. There are however, clear indications that the Company existed as early as 1876. After the First World War the Company was renamed the Westinster Bank Dramatic and Operatic Society, with productions included 'The Arcadians' in which a live horse was ridden across the stage! Up to the Second World War the Company presented three shows a year, with Gilbert and Sullivan well represented. Theatres used included the Piccadilly Theatre in London's West End. Postwar productions were restrained due to a lack of finances and a change in musical style was seen in the late 1950s and early 1960s with productions of 'Oklahoma' and 'Carousel' (received well by theDaily Telegraph critic 1966 saw the Amateur Premier of 'Little Me' following the Southern Amateur Premier of 'How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying'. Throughout the 60s and 70s various venues were used by the Company, including the Steiner Theatre. the Westminster Theatre and Queen Mary's Hall. In 1974 the Company produced 'Me and My Girl', introducing the late Buster Merryfield (remembered fondly by many as 'Uncle Albert' in the BBC TV comedy 'Only Fools and Horses'). Then followed a period of six years during which, as well as their musical offerings, the Company held festivals of One Act Plays, and the Golden Lane Theatre became its home. The 1980s saw musical spectaculars including 'Half a Sixpence', The Boyfriend 'The Pyjama Game', 'Fiddler on the Roof, 'Calamity Jane', 'Hello Dolly', and the ever popular 'Grease'. However, the cost of producing lavish shows rose as audiences increasingly compared them to professional West End blockbusters. As the Company's finances reduced, a period of cost containment began with shows chosen carefully to keep expenditure low but ticket sales high. Successfull productions including 'Bedroom Farce', 'Cabaret, 'Charley's Aunt', and 'The Best little Whorehouse in Texas' were staged at the Steiner, with fund raising 'one nighters' produced at Southwark Cathedral. More recently, shows have included 'Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street' (reviewed very favourably in the Independent on Sunday), 'Into the Woods', 'The Importance of Being Earnest', 'The Hound of the Baskervilles' and 'Encore!' which was performed at Covent Garden's Fortune Theatre and included numbers from famous West End and Broadway musicals.
http://www.amdram.org.uk/natwest"