| Admin/Biograhical History | In 1930, a small society put on a production called Money in the Rollerdrome in Peterborough. The following year they put on three shows, and another in 1932.
With the influx of people from Willesden to Peterborough in 1933 came members of the Willesden Musical Society who, until then, had concentrated mainly on Gilbert and Sullivan productions. The two societies soon got together and, in 1934, put on their first production, Miss Hook of Holland. This was the first big show of the society and was staged in the old Empire Theatre, or The Little Theatre as it was known. The combined Societies became known as Westwood Works Musical Society.
The society went from strength to strength and by 1938 was ready to move into the newly built Embassy Theatre, being the first amateur society to use the 1,500 seat theatre. The show was Rainbow Inn. The new venue was ideal for staging the big, colourful musicals for which the society was becoming well known.
The start of the war in 1939 meant that the production of Jill Darling was the last the society would put on until 1946. It then had to start from scratch, but by 1949 the society was back in the big time with a second production of The Arcadians, again at the Embassy.
Since then the society produced a show every year up to and after 1992 when manufacturing ceased at Westwood Works. It was not unusual for the performances to attract a total weekly audience of as many as 10,000. The society continued to produce shows but with increasingly less company involvement, and was certainly still in existence in 2013. It went through various name changes over the years, finally being known as Westwood Musical Society from 1990. For further information visit www.westwoodworks.net |