KINGSBRIDGE Amateur Theatrical Society won an award for their production of ‘Oliver!’ and are now rehearsing for ‘Singin’ In The Rain’.

KATS was awarded a NODA South West District 4 Achievement Award for their 2015 production of ‘Oliver!’, described as a ‘wonderful accolade for a wonderful show’ by chairman Christine Bonner, who added: ‘Congratulations to the whole team both on and off the stage’.

This year KATS moves from the gritty realism of Dickens’ London to the glitzy glamour of Hollywood in the late 1920’s, at the birth of talking pictures.

‘Singin’ in the Rain’ is a gentle spoof of the turmoil that afflicted the movie industry in the late 1920s when movies went from silent to sound.

Following the success of the first talkie, Al Jolson’s ‘The Jazz Singer’, the studio boss of Monumental Pictures decides, somewhat over-ambitiously, that the next film featuring stars Lockwood and Lamont must be 100 per cent all talking.

After an initial disastrous screening, success is clutched from the jaws of defeat when the film is made into a musical and a new star is born.

Based on MGM’s acclaimed 1952 movie with Screenplay by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, the story is full of charm, comedy and romance with a good sprinkling of Hollywood glamour.

All the action is interspersed with Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed’s glorious songs – ‘Good Morning’, ‘Make ‘em Laugh’, ‘Moses Supposes’ and the legendary ‘Singin’ in the Rain’.

Christine continued: ‘The cast ranges from the very young to the more mature, includes both new and familiar faces and all give the show the energy and sheer exuberance it deserves’.

Director, Wendy Morrall says, ‘We guarantee to send you out dancing and singing all the way home!’

‘Singin’ in the Rain’ runs from March 15-19 at Malborough Village Hall at 7.30pm with a matinee on Saturday, March 19, at 2.30pm. Tickets are available from Kingsbridge Information Centre and on-line at http://www.kats-kingsbridge.co.uk/

This amateur production is presented by arrangement with Josef Weinberger and Music Theatre International.