Amateur theatre company Harlequin Productions is ready to stick it to the man in Aberdeen – with their take on School Of Rock.
Bagging tickets to the opening night of the famous musical in West End and later seeing the touring production at His Majesty’s, Stuart Mearns is over the moon to have secured the rights for Harlequin Productions to stage Andrew Lloyd Webber’s show in the north-east.
Stuart, who also loved the 2003 film starring Jack Black, said he jumped at the chance to once again bring School Of Rock to Aberdeen.
“Earlier this year, I went to see the professional touring production of School Of Rock at HMT and I also went to the opening night show in West End.
“I also loved the film and I loved the way they’d done the musical. They tried to keep it as close to the film as possible. It’s a wonderful piece and it aged so well.
“It’s always been a case of if it did become available (for amateur theatre companies), it would definitely be something we would want to do.”
School Of Rock perfect for Harlequin Productions
And Stuart thinks the rock musical encapsulates what his company Harlequin Production is all about.
“It’s fresh, it’s out there and it’s fun,” he said.
“When we looked at the programme, there was a short window to stage School Of Rock in 2023 so I jumped in and it took weeks trying to get the rights. We’re the only company in Aberdeen that got the rights.”
The show’s director has been counting down the days till he could share the exciting news.
He said: “I knew in February that we got the rights, but unfortunately, due to their official tour, I was sworn to secrecy until their tour ended.”
“It has been something that’s been eating away at me for months,” added Stuart, laughing.
Providing opportunities for young Aberdeen actors
Another reason why Stuart is so thrilled to be bringing the show back to Aberdeen is to provide acting opportunities for north-east children.
He said: “The professional tour sold very well and we’re hoping to join in on the back of that. But for us, it’s also a chance to use local kids.
“Aberdeen kids would never get an opportunity to do this. Unless they’re moving or studying down in London, they wouldn’t have the chance to do this. Harlequin Productions like to incorporate school kids.
“This will be a really fun thing to do for kids – they’ll even get to play instruments live on stage.”
Return of 24-hour Musical
But before School Of Rock takes to The Tivoli Stage from November 22-25, Harlequin Productions will once again stage a 24-hour Musical on Saturday January 28.
“We staged one back in 2019,” said Stuart.
“The clock will start ticking at 7.30pm on Friday night – that’s when the production team, the cast and crew discover what the musical is going to be.
“Nobody from the team and nobody from the audience will know what it’s going to be.
“So we’ll spend 24 hours preparing the musical – it’ll be curtain up on a version of a full stage musical at 7.30pm on Saturday.
“We’ll soon be holding auditions to be part of the musical.
“Because we don’t know what the 24-hour musical is going to be, we’ll need a varied cast.”
The event will support the charity Make 2nds Count, which raises funds for research into secondary breast cancer. The 2019 performance raised £7,500.
“It was a remarkable amount – wensold out two-three days before the event,” said Stuart.
“We’d like it to be exactly the same success again.”
You can follow Harlequin Productions on social media here, to keep up to date with the amateur theatre company’s news and announcements.
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