Carlisle Set for Christmas Spectacular
Carlisle’s St John’s Church is once again set to be transformed into a lavish Christmas wonderland as the annual Christmas Spectacular returns for its fifth year.
Showcasing the talents of Cumbria’s award-winning youth theatre; more than 150 youngsters aged between four and 18 will be taking to the stage from Tuesday December 13 to show off their vocal and performance skills in the festive extravaganza.
Promising stunning voices that surprise and impress, audiences will be treated to an exciting programme of everyone’s favourite Christmas tunes, providing the perfect way to celebrate the season.
Beginning rehearsals back in September, StagedRight principle and director, David O’Neill, said: “It’s all beginning to take shape now. We have just confirmed this year’s story line and once again it will link all of the songs together. It’s a very traditional show with a few extra bits thrown in for good measure. People know what they are getting, so we have gone a bit up-tempo, which will hopefully get people sitting up.”
This year’s highly anticipated performance will include a section dedicated to the Carpenters, as well as the retelling of the nativity and a new take on the ‘Twelve Days of Christmas’.
While a mass of effort goes into ensuring the smooth running of the show, the venue is also given just as much attention. As part of the production, the entire front section of the church will be turned into a Yuletide performance area lit up by more than 2,000 twinkling lights and adorned by number of Christmas trees.
David continued: “We have got extra trees and lights coming in this year. It’s such an amazing venue to put on a show. We have such a big cast so it really is the perfect place.”
Those wanting to bag a ticket to the unique performance should act quickly as tickets to last year’s show sold out almost immediately.
David added: “Ticket sales are going really well. It’s quite scary how quick they go, sometimes they’ve been sold before we’ve even finished making the show. Friday’s performance is now sold out, and Thursday is doing well, so we are expecting them to all sell out.”
The whole production is put together by David and his wife; David has 30 years of experience directing theatre productions and has worked on some of the largest shows in theatre including Cats, West Side Story, and even Les Miserables.
From humble beginnings the group has grown from 20 members to an impressive 180 with students travelling from across Cumbria and South West Scotland.
David started his creative career as a window dresser and before he knew it he was directing shows for the Carlisle opera. Since then he has worked for some of the biggest production companies in Britain.
Public tickets for Carlisle’s Christmas Spectacular cost £12.50 and will be available to buy at Carlisle’s Tourist Information Centre in The Old Town Hall on Thursday November 17 – the show begins at 7pm. For more info please click here to visit their website.
Spectacular
Spectacular
Spectacular
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