Gigi is a free-spirited teenaged girl living in Paris at the turn of the 20th century. She is being groomed as a courtesan in her family's tradition. Before she is deemed ready for her social debut, she encounters the bon vivant bachelor Gaston Lachaille, whom she captivates as she is transformed into a charmingly poised young lady.

Director: Nancy Turner

Musical Director: Frank Burke

Choreographer: Marcel Carrièrre

A fairy tale about Hans Christian Andersen, the great spinner of fairy tales.

A struggling cobbler in Denmark, Hans Christian Andersen is better at making stories than shoes. As he discovers his potential as a storyteller and writer, he ultimately gets the help he needs from the people who love him to make a future for himself.

Dramatic Director: James G. Mimnagh

Musical Director: Gary D. Morton

Choreographer: Debbie Miller

Indian Territory (soon to be Oklahoma)  early 1900s

The story of Oklahoma! concerns the romance of a young cowman, Curly McLain, who is in love with Laurey Williams, who lives on a Territory farm with her Aunt Eller. The two women operate the farm with the aid of a hired hand, Judy Fry, whose warped passion for Laurey is a cloud in her otherwise sunny existence. Also of some concern to Laurey are the machinations of Gertie Cummings, her chief rival for Curly’s affections.

Laurey’s friend, Ado Annie Carnes, is promised to another young cowman, Will Parker, but has great difficulty in making up her mind, even with the help of her strong-minded father. The current visit of Ali Hakim, a traveling salesman, has made Ado Annie even more uncertain.

Dramatic Director: James G. Mimnagh

Musical Director: Rod Holmes

Choreographer: Roberta Sametz

Gypsy’s plot centres around Rose, a domineering stage-mother, who moves her two daughters to New York to break into vaudeville. Needing an agent, she cons Herbie, a candy salesman, into the job. She builds an act around her star daughter June, but when June has the chance for a big break, and Rose refuses, June runs away to pursue her own interests. Although Rose feels defeated and shaken, she soon designates Louise to become "the biggest star in show business”. Vaudeville is dying, bookings are sparse, and Rose realizes that they have hit rock bottom. Nevertheless, plain Louise does get that needed break, and brings to the burlesque stage the freshness of youth and a winning style that soon elevates her to the top as Gypsy Rose Lee.

Dramatic Director: Richard Elichuk

Musical Director: Nina Alexandor

Choreographer: Marnie Edwards

Ancient Ephesus

Antipholus of Syracuse and his slave, Dromio, arrive in Ephesus and find themselves mistaken for another Antipholus and Dromio (who turn out to be their long-lost twin brothers), by merchants, the law, and even, to some chagrin on their part, wives.

Based on Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors.

Dramatic Director: Paul Gaffney

Musical Director: Rod Holmes

Choreographer: Judy Hayes

South Pacific is a World War II story of a Navy nurse who falls in love with a French planter many years her senior. It is also the story of a young Marine Lieutenant’s poignant attachment to a Tonkinese girl which is ruined by his inability to lose his Princeton background prejudices. Both romances are flavoured with the accents of two worlds meeting, of alien individuals thrown together in a remote part of the world against the background of war’s boredom and violence.

Dramatic Director: James G. Mimnagh

Musical Director: Norman 'Duke' McGuirl

Choreographer: Valerie van Veen

Fred Graham, an actor, director, and producer is opening a musical production of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew in Baltimore.  In the cast are his ex-wife Lilli Vanessi, his current love interest, Lois Lane, and her former night-club partner Bill Calhoun.

The personal interrelationships of these actors are further complicated but eventually resolved during the somewhat chaotic opening night performance of the Shakespearean classic.

Dramatic Director: Joseph L. Shaver

Musical Director, Programme Director: Frank Burke

Choreographer: Nicolaas Hilferink

Middle East  
Before, during, and after the Flood

On his 600th birthday, Noah is confronted by the presence of God who informs him of the impending flood and instructs him to build an ark.

He immediately calls a family conference to relate God’s command. Gradually we are introduced to his family: Esther, his wife; Japheth, Shem, and Ham, his sons; and daughters-in-law Leah and Rachel.

Initially skeptical, they nevertheless reluctantly agree to follow what appears to be the will of God and work on the ark commences…

Dramatic Director: Richard Elichuk

Musical Director: John McGovern

Choreographer: Mitzi Hauser

Austria, 1938  

Maria Rainer, a postulant at Nonnberg Abbey in Austria, is sent to the home of a widower, Captain Georg Von Trapp to serve as governess for his seven children.

Although the Captain is engaged to wealthy Elsa Shraeder, both he and Maria find themselves falling in love with each other. After their marriage their happiness is short-lived because the Germans, who have invaded Austria, want Von Trapp to serve in their navy.

Dramatic Director: James G. Mimnagh

Musical Director: Rod Holmes

Choreographer: Roberta Sametz

Dames at Sea is a delightful small-cast musical parody of the beloved 1930s movie musicals which often starred Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler, with unforgettable dance extravaganzas created by Busby Berkeley for movies such as 42nd St., Dames and the Gold Diggers series. A young Bernadette Peters played Ruby when Dames at Sea ran off-Broadway in 1968.

Young Ruby arrives at a Broadway theatre from Utah with only her tap shoes and a prayer in her heart as temperamental diva Mona is dress-rehearsing for a show called, of course, Dames at Sea. When Ruby faints from hunger she is rescued by a young sailor, Dick, who has also retrieved her suitcase from the bus terminal. Ruby is immediately assigned to the chorus of the show because a showgirl has eloped. Ruby and Dick fall in love when they discover they are both from Centerville, Utah. Dick is also a composer and writes a song for Ruby, but Mona is jealous. Dick’s sailor pal Lucky arrives, an old beau of friendly wise-cracking cast member Joan. They sing about a “Choo Choo Honeymoon”. Ruby sings Dick’s praises as “The Sailor of My Dreams” in a letter to President Roosevelt. But alas, producer Hennessey brings bad news that the theatre is sold and to be demolished the next day. The sailors come up with a plan to move the show to their ship and everyone begins to pack up for the move.

As Act Two begins, we are aboard the battleship. Mona, recalling an old romance with the Captain, vamps him into letting them perform the show aboard the ship. Then she pursues Dick again, to the despair of Ruby, whose heart is breaking as she and the cast sing “Raining in My Heart” amidst many twirling umbrellas. Dick once again writes a production number, “Singapore Sue”, which is immediately added to the show. When Mona becomes seasick the leading role is given to – wait for it! – Ruby. She and the cast bring out all the red, white and blue for the grand finale, “Star Tar”. A new star is born! Ruby even receives a congratulatory telegram from President Roosevelt. The show ends with a triple wedding: Ruby and Dick, Lucky and Joan, Mona and the Captain as they all sing “Let’s Have A Simple Wedding”.

Director: Peter Cochrane

Musical Director, Orchestra: John McGovern

Choreographer: Susie Bregg

This delightful musical based on Charles Schulz’s beloved comic strip “Peanuts” was staged by Orpheus for an Ottawa Valley tour as it travelled easily with its basic set and small cast. The show presents a typical day in the life of Charlie and his pals through a series of vignettes revealing the well-known quirks of these characters. We meet the whole cast at the beginning as they sing “You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown”.  Lucy pursues Schroeder in song as he ignores her while playing Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata”. Linus clings to his blanket, dancing with it for “My Blanket and Me”, while Snoopy reflects on the ordinary and the exciting in a dog’s life. Charlie tries to get his kite to fly.  Act One ends with the students having to write a book report on “Peter Rabbit”.

The adventures continue in Act Two, as Snoopy goes in quest of the Red Baron. There is a chaotic baseball game. Snoopy enacts a Broadway-style production number for “Suppertime” as he imagines the possibilities. The characters share their powerful bond of friendship at the end of the show as sweet Patty begins to sing and the others tenderly review their day in the heart-warming song “Happiness”.

Part of a free summer series presented at the Astrolabe amphitheater at Nepean Point.

Director: Richard Elichuk

Musical Director, Orchestra: Frank Burke

Choreographer: Vicki Forrester

Part of a free summer series presented at the Astrolabe amphitheater at Nepean Point.

Director: James G. Mimnagh

Musical Director: Frank Burke

Choreographer: Nicolaas Hilferink

A Salute to the Americam Musical traces the development of the American Musical from its origins in the mid 19th century through to the early 1970s. Writers Paul Gaffney, Frank Burke, and Nancy Turner developed the script and selected almost 50 musical numbers illustrating the evolution of the American Musical from it’s accident-inspired beginnings to the present-day multi-million dollar business which has become an integral part of North American culture.

Part of a free summer series presented at the Astrolabe amphitheater at Nepean Point.

Director: James G. Mimnagh

Musical Director: Frank Burke

Choreographer: Nicolaas Hilferink

London, 1730s

Hilaret is preparing to elope with Captain Constant. Meanwhile her doddering father Politic spends all his time arguing with his coffee-house confrère Dabble over conflicting reports contained in the 40 or more newspapers they read daily.

Ramble, after discussing with his buddy Sotmore his preference for wenches over wine, accosts Hilaret on her way to her rendezvous with Constant. After each accuses the other of rape, the constable hauls both of them off to appear before the corrupt magistrate Squeezum. Squeezum proposes an assignation with Hilaret in return for her freedom while Mrs Squeezum sets her sights on Ramble.

The various assignations take place in front of carefully planted witnesses. Ultimately everyone ends up in front of Justice Worthy and is rewarded or punished as appropriate.

Director: Brian O'Leary

Music DIrector: Norman (Duke) McGuirl

Choreographer (and assistant to the director): Vicki Forrester

Anne of Green Gables is a story that draws deeply on the spirit of a place where integrity is as natural as the roll of the tide, and the sincere encouragement of friend and neighbour fits seamlessly into a contented landscape of furrowed hills that, like those who work them, remember to reach up and embrace a sunset.

Anne Shirley comes to Avonlea having already learned to live by imagination and fancy, full of romantic ideas, poetic notions, and equipped with a tongue "that must be hung in the middle, it flaps so" in order to cope with the tragedies of her life thus far.

It is the honesty of her survivor's soul that prevents us from seeing her as a precocious child. Anne needs to belong, to be accepted, and to be loved but, as the years unfold, her temper and her stubbornness continue to stand in the way. Until she learns to control her temper, show forgiveness, and trust her own worth, Anne cannot find that for which she longs.

Dramatic Director: George Wilson

Musical Director: Rod Holmes

Choreographer: Marnie Edwards

Part of a free summer series presented at the Astrolabe amphitheater at Nepean Point.

This delightful musical based on Charles Schulz’s beloved comic strip “Peanuts” was staged by Orpheus for an Ottawa Valley tour as it travelled easily with its basic set and small cast. The show presents a typical day in the life of Charlie and his pals through a series of vignettes revealing the well-known quirks of these characters. We meet the whole cast at the beginning as they sing “You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown”.  Lucy pursues Schroeder in song as he ignores her while playing Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata”. Linus clings to his blanket, dancing with it for “My Blanket and Me”, while Snoopy reflects on the ordinary and the exciting in a dog’s life. Charlie tries to get his kite to fly.  Act One ends with the students having to write a book report on “Peter Rabbit”.

The adventures continue in Act Two, as Snoopy goes in quest of the Red Baron. There is a chaotic baseball game. Snoopy enacts a Broadway-style production number for “Suppertime” as he imagines the possibilities. The characters share their powerful bond of friendship at the end of the show as sweet Patty begins to sing and the others tenderly review their day in the heart-warming song “Happiness”.

Part of a free summer series presented at the Astrolabe amphitheater at Nepean Point.

Director: Richard Elichuk

Musical Director: Frank Burke

Choreographer: Marnie Gardiner

The plot of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum concerns the efforts of a wily slave, Pseudolus, to win his freedom by procuring the beautiful but vapid courtesan Philia (a virgin) for his master, Hero (also a virgin). Only these two walking anachronisms could sing "Lovely" and actually mean it. Pseudolus' plans are hindered somewhat by Hero's father, Senex, who is himself smitten by Philia, but Senex has to admit that with love, at his age, sometimes it's just "Impossible". This sentiment is echoed by his wife Domina in the haunting lovesong "That Dirty Old Man".

As if that weren't enough, Philia is betrothed to Miles Gloriosus, a macho warrior, whose ode to love is "Bring Me My Bride". By the way, Philia was purchased sight unseen from the local dealer in courtesans, Marcus Lycus, who guarantees that she is untouched by human hands (and that includes the eunuchs). Infinitely more accessible are his other courtesans Panacea, Vibrata, Gymnasia, Tintinabula and the Geminae. These lovely ladies are real crowd pleasers and nobody is more pleased than Pseudolus, who dreams of buying one when he is finally "Free". Poor faithful Hero only wants Philia and so the plot continues.

To put Philia out of the running, Pseudolus concocts a plot that she is suffering from the plague, and blackmails Hysterium into aiding and abetting. Macho Miles arrives to claim his bride. Panic, chases and life-threatening situations ensue. The entire fiasco is finally saved by Erronius, a doddering old man who has just walked around the seven hills of Rome seven times, and the evening ends with "something for everyone - a comedy tonight".

Part of a free summer series presented at the Astrolabe amphitheater at Nepean Point.

Director: Geroge Wilson

Musical Director: Frank Burke

Choreographer: Roberta Sametz

Morocco, 1925...

French General Birabeau has been sent to Morocco to root out and destroy the Riffs, a band of Arab rebels, who threaten the safety of the French outpost in the Moroccan desert. Their dashing, daredevil leader is the mysterious "Red Shadow", a Frenchman. The Red Shadow, his Arab lieutenant, Sid El Kar, and their wealthy host, Ali Ben Ali, discuss the relative merits of the Eastern tradition of love for a harem of women (like having a garden full of fragrant flowers), and the Western ideal of loving one woman for life. Margot Bonvalet, a lovely, sassy French girl, is soon to be married at the French fort to Birabeau's right-hand man, Captain Fontaine. Birabeau's son Pierre, in reality the Red Shadow, loves Margot, but pretends to be a milksop to preserve his secret identity. Meanwhile, Benny, a reporter, and Susan, the girl who loves him, provide comic relief.

Margot tells Pierre that she secretly yearns to be swept into the arms of some bold, dashing sheik, perhaps even the Red Shadow himself. Pierre, as the Red Shadow, kidnaps Margot and declares his love for her. To her surprise, Margot's mysterious abductor treats her with every Western consideration. Benny and Susan are captured too. When the Red Shadow comes face to face with General Birabeau, the old man challenges the rebel leader to a duel. Of course Pierre will not kill his own father, so he refuses to fight, losing the respect of the Riffs. Azuri, the sinuous and secretive native dancing girl, who knows the secret of the Red Shadow's true identity, might be persuaded to reveal the information if she could capture the attention of Captain Fontaine. Eventually, the Red Shadow's identity is discovered, a deal is struck with the Riffs, and Pierre and Margot live happily ever after.

Director: Richard Elichuk

Musical Director: William Gordon

Choreographer: Judy Hayes

This original Orpheus musical was created as a touring production for children. Composed by Berthold Carrière with lyrics by John Marier, this show featured much audience participation. Beauty and her forgetful father, who has had to sell his belongings meet a shipless group of pirates who are wandering through the forest under the command of a totally, inept captain who cannot even snap his fingers. His faithful band include a new recruit and a pirate who resembles Harpo Marx. The Beast feels sorry for himself and tries to get some sympathy from the audience. The pirates not only plan to share their treasure with Beauty’s father but decide to rescue Beauty. But all turns out well in the final scene at the palace. The Beast, now a handsome Prince, invites the pirates to live at the palace, where there will be “no ship but friendship”.

Director: Richard Elichuk

Musical Director: Frank Burke

Choregrapher: Marcel Carrière

14th century England, on the road to Canterbury…

Resting at the Tabard Inn, Geoffrey Chaucer falls in with a group of Pilgrims on their way to the shrine of Thomas à Becket. Their host, Harry Bailey, decides to join them as guide and, to make the journey more pleasurable, suggests that each tell a tale, with the best storyteller to be rewarded with a meal paid by all.

The Priest is interrupted from telling his story by the drunken Miller who is allowed to tell his in order to keep the general peace. In the tale, Nicholas, a lusty Oxford student, and Absalon, a Parish Clerk, try to seduce young Alison, the wife of an old carpenter. Nicholas succeeds, but not before Absalon gets revenge for being the loser. The Reeve, a former carpenter, feels insulted by the Miller's tale and repays him with a similar tale about a thieving Miller whose wife and daughter are both seduced by two Cambridge students.

As the journey continues, the Wife of Bath gives her views on marriage, of which she has had the experience of five husbands and is now on the lookout for number six. The Merchant tells a tale of the dangers of an old man marrying a young pretty girl and of how women usually have the last say in marriage. In his tale, the aging January marries a virgin, May, and, to keep younger bloods away, continually has her by his side, especially after he mysteriously goes blind. In his private garden, however, his young servant, Damian, man- ages to lure May into a pear tree. The god Pluto restores January's sight at an awkward moment, but Pluto's wife, Proserpina, grants May a valid explanation of the goings on, thus enabling her to save herself from January's wrath.

The Wife of Bath then tells the tale of how a young knight is bid to find out what women most desire. With the help of an old hag, he is reprieved from an impending death sentence when he answers:

… desyren to have soverentyee

As wel over hir housbond as hir love,

And for to been maistrie him above;

this is your moste desyr.

As the Pilgrims approach the steps of the Cathedral, it falls to the courtly Knight to provide the solution as to whom should dominate in marriage. The secret is mutual love and respect. All agree with this dictum and that, indeed, "Love will conquer all”.

Director: Joseph L. Shaver

Musical Director: Rod Holmes

Choreographer: Wilf Dubé

Hello, Dolly! is the story of America's most beloved matchmaker, Mrs. Dolly Gallagher Levi.  On her way to trying to tie the knot herself with Horace Vandergelder (the famous half a millionaire!) she succeeds in matching up Mr. Vandergelder's two clerks (Cornelius Hackl and Barnaby Tucker) with the beautiful, widowed hat shop owner Irene Molloy and her assistant Minnie Fay.  She also has a hand in the relationship between Ambrose Kemper and Ermengarde, Mr. Vandergelder's niece.  We travel from Vandergelder's Hay and Feed in Yonkers, New York to Mrs. Molloy's hat shop in New York City, out into the streets of the city for the Fourteenth Street Parade and to the most elegant of New York restaurants, Harmonia Gardens, all the while following the events as Dolly maneuvers everyone into her court using those calculating ways of hers. In the end Dolly gets her way and, of course, her man; the fun is watching how she accomplishes that.

Dramatic Director: Bob Gardiner

Musical Director: Duke McGuirl

Choreographer:  Roberta Sametz

This delightful musical based on Charles Schulz’s beloved comic strip “Peanuts” was staged by Orpheus for an Ottawa Valley tour as it travelled easily with its basic set and small cast. The show presents a typical day in the life of Charlie and his pals through a series of vignettes revealing the well-known quirks of these characters. We meet the whole cast at the beginning as they sing “You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown”.  Lucy pursues Schroeder in song as he ignores her while playing Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata”. Linus clings to his blanket, dancing with it for “My Blanket and Me”, while Snoopy reflects on the ordinary and the exciting in a dog’s life. Charlie tries to get his kite to fly.  Act One ends with the students having to write a book report on “Peter Rabbit”.

The adventures continue in Act Two, as Snoopy goes in quest of the Red Baron. There is a chaotic baseball game. Snoopy enacts a Broadway-style production number for “Suppertime” as he imagines the possibilities. The characters share their powerful bond of friendship at the end of the show as sweet Patty begins to sing and the others tenderly review their day in the heart-warming song “Happiness”.

Dramatic Director: Richard Elichuk

Musical Director: Frank Burke

Choreographer: Marnie Edwards

Little Dorothy Gale of Kansas, like so many girls her age, dreams frequently of what lies over the rainbow.  One day a twister hits her home town and carries her away - over the rainbow to another world.  Come join Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tinman, the Cowardly Lion and Toto as they travel the universe of Dorothy's imagination and meet up with characters like the Wicked Witch of the West, Glinda the Good Witch, munchkins, jitterbugs, Osians, a castle and, of course, the great and powerful Wizard of Oz.  What more can I say about ruby slippers and three guys in funky costumes?

Dramatic Director: Brian O'Leary

Musical Director: Duke McGuirl

Choreographer: Judy Winkler

The musical Annie Get Your Gun is about Annie Oakley, "an illiterate hillbilly with a knack for shooting guns. Persuaded to join Buffalo Bill's travelling Wild West Show, she soon falls hopelessly in love with Frank Butler, the show's featured shooting ace. But when Annie eclipses Frank as the show's main attraction, she realizes she'll have to make some hard choices if she wants to win the man she loves."

AUTHORS' COMMENT: "'Well', someone said to me somewhere along the way, 'the men of Gelngarry are hardly typical are they?' Sure they are. Ralph Connor found the same type crawling all over the West. More recently, a bunch just like them took to the rink in the Canada-Soviet Russia hockey series.

"Grace and style we've always lacked. This country is no Camelot. But Camelot didn't work - neither Arthur's nor JFK's.

"Glengarry worked. Canada worked. Putting together a bunch of overly vain, under-conditioned hockey players in a hurry worked - once they realized they were playing for something more than bucks or headlines. Macdonald Bhain would understand why Jean Paul Parise - one of the most gentlemanly players in the NHL - lifted his stick to an official or why a kid from Kingston would disgrace himself on TV with an ugly gesture to no one in particular.

"The men of Glengarry were sloppy, wild, unpredictable and at times, uncontrollable. So was Team Canada..... So is a loving heart."

This was an Orpheus commissioned show

At the Astrolabe

The madcap life of eccentric Mame Dennis and her bohemian, intellectual, arty clique is disrupted when her deceased brother's 10-year-old son Patrick is entrusted to her care. Rather than bow to convention, Mame introduces the boy to her free-wheeling lifestyle, instilling in him her favorite credo, "Life is a banquet, and most poor sons-of-bitches are starving to death." Figuring in the storyline are Agnes Gooch (Mame's personal secretary and nanny-in-law), Vera Charles (her "bosom buddy" baritone actress and world's greatest lush) and Dwight Babcock (the stuffy and officious executor of her brother's estate). Mame loses her fortune in the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and tries her hand at a number of jobs with comically disastrous results but perseveres with good humor and an irrepressible sense of style.

Mame then meets and marries Beauregard Jackson Pickett Burnside, a Southern aristocrat with a Georgia plantation called Peckerwood. The trustees of Patrick's father force Mame to send Patrick off to boarding school (the fictional St Boniface, in Massachusetts), and Mame and Beau travel the world on an endless honeymoon that stops when Beau falls to his death while mountain climbing. Mame returns home a wealthy widow to discover that Patrick has become a snob engaged to an equally priggish debutante, Gloria Upson, from a bigoted family. Mame brings Patrick to his senses just in time to introduce him to the woman who will eventually become his wife, Pegeen Ryan. As the story ends, Mame is preparing to take Patrick's young son, Peter, to India with her usual flair.

Director: Jospeh L. Shaver

Musical Director: Derek Stannard

Choreographer: Marjorie Bishop

Adapted from Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist, the musical stage version tells the tale of an orphan boy who dares to ask for more food at the workhouse where he and his fellow orphans are treated horribly. Oliver is thrown out of the workhouse and, while on the street, encounters the Artful Dodger who takes him under his wing and into the seedy underside of London where he joins a band of pickpockets who are controlled by Fagin. Eventually, Oliver is rescued from his life of crime by a wealthy and kind gentlemen, Mr. Brownlow, who turns out to be Oliver's grandfather.

Director: Biran O'Leary

Musical Director: Norman McGuirl

Choreographer: Roberta Sametz

One of many versions of the Arthurian legend, Camelot is certainly one of the best known and best loved...

The lords and ladies await the arrival of Guenevere, King Arthur of England's future Queen. A nervous Arthur tries to persuade Merlyn, his teacher, to tell him about her. Merlyn, who lives backwards in time and can recall the future as well as the past, refuses to tell the impatient king. An equally apprehensive Guenevere avoids the waiting crowd and on meeting Arthur alone soon becomes charmed with him, and his description of the magical Camelot. As predicted, Merlyn is lured away by a spirit and Arthur is on his own as far as running his kingdom and dealing with his new marital status.

Five years pass and Arthur, a slow thinker, finally grasps the course of wisdom set for him by Merlyn. He develops a new philosophy; a concept of chivalry whose advocates are charged with improving rather than destroying. The Knights of the Round Table are created.

Word of the Round Table spreads to France where Lancelot du Lac heeds its call and journeys to Camelot. In a chance encounter he almost kills Arthur, but is forgiven and accepted as a member of the Court. Guenevere and the Court have gone a-maying and are entertained by the arrival of Pellinore, a comic old knight in search of a "questing beast". The joyous mood is soon altered when Lancelot pontificates on his virtue and strength. Guenevere arranges for a joust against her three strongest knights, hoping he will be defeated and will learn a lesson in humility. However, Lancelot defeats all three and is invested as a Knight of the Round Table.

As time passes, Guenevere and Lancelot find themselves falling for each other, but vow never to consumate their love for fear of destroying the Round Table and Arthur himself. But Arthur already realizes the situation and becomes despondent over the choice he will one day have to make: save Guenevere from herself or save the Round Table.

Mordred, the conniving bastard son of Arthur, arrives at the Court and begins to undermine Arthur's authority and to plot for his downfall. He persuades his aunt, Morgan Le Fey, to detain Arthur and Pellinore overnight during a hunting expedition. That night as Guenevere and Lancelot meet in her bedroom, Mordred and several guards burst in and arrest them for treason. There is a fearsom struggle but the lovers eventually escape and flee to France. Arthur sets off after them, knowing that he must declare war on France if the Round Table is to retain its integrity.

Prior to the battle, he meets them both. Aware that he has lost the love of Guenevere, Arthur forgives them and prepares for battle. Whether or not he is killed, he knows that the Order of the Round Table as he envisioned it will probably die. In a final gesture of hope, he dispatches a young boy back to England to spread the word and help keep alive the dream that was his Camelot.

Fiddler on the Roof, composed by Jerry Bock, with lyrics by Sheldon Harnick and book by Joseph Stein, is set in Tsarist Russia in 1905 and is very closely based on the books Tevye and his Daughters and Tevye the Dairyman by Jewish author Sholem Aleichem.  The story focuses on Tevye, the father of five daughters, and his attempts to maintain his family and Jewish religious traditions while outside influences encroach upon their lives.  He tries hard to cope both with the strong-willed actions of his three older daughters - each one's choice of husband moving farther away from the customs of their faith - and with the edict of the Tsar that will eventually evict his family and all the Jews from their little village of Anatevka.

Maggie Flynn is based on a true story set in New York City during the Draft Riots of 1863. Maggie is an Irish girl who is struggling to run a home for Black refugee children orphaned by the Civil War. She is also waiting out the necessary seven years to claim her runaway actor husband Phineas legally dead so that she can marry Colonel Faraday, a Union army officer. Inconveniently, Phineas turns up as a clown in a circus parade. Maggie succeeds in having him sign the divorce papers. With a wedding now possible, the Colonel is posted to New York, but Maggie is no longer sure about marrying him and Phineas wants to win Maggie back.

In the uneasy atmosphere of New York during the Civil War, Maggie and the children are arrested under suspicion of harbouring Confederate spies. After acquittal, Maggie loses faith in the Colonel and the romance ends. When rioting erupts in New York, the orphanage is burned down. Maggie and Phineas decide to start all over again, taking care of the orphans together.

Director: Bob Gardiner

Musical Director: Rod Holmes

Choreographer: Marjorie Reynolds

"Bucking the popularity of fast-moving, up-to-date musical comedy and the plotless revue, The Student Prince in Heidelberg (the complete title was used throughout the New York run) set the record as the longest running musical of the decade. That fact is all the more impressive since the theatre in which it played, on 59th Street and 7th Avenue, was some distance from the theatre district (the playhouse, later renamed the New Century, was demolished in 1962).

"Based on Old Heidelberg, a popular turn-of-the-century play which had been adapted from the German Alt Heidelberg, the sentimental operetta is set in 1860 in the German university town where Prince Karl Franz (Howard Marsh) has gone with his tutor, Dr. Engel (Greek Evans), to complete his education. There he meets Kathie (Ilse Marvenga), a waitress at the Inn of the Three Golden Apples, and it isn't long before they are professing their love through the melting strains of, "Deep in my heart, dear, I have a dream of you..." The prince, however, is soon called away to assume the throne. Two years later, King Karl Franz returns to Heidelberg in a vain effort to recapture the golden days of his youth."