Walberton Players

Welcome to the Website of the Walberton Players

The Walberton Players are based in the Village of Walberton in West Sussex. We can trace our roots back to 1977 when it was decided that Walberton should stage a musical event to celebrate the Queen’s Silver Jubilee. Since then the Society has presented a musical and a play every year with a generous sprinkling of concerts and other entertainments. If you would like to know more about our activities, or even get involved, do have a look around the site and perhaps then get in touch; we'd love to hear from you.

Thank you for the Magic

The cast and audience at the Saturday night performance of ‘Magical Musicals’, staged at Walberton Village Hall during the February half-term, gave producer Madeline Doman a rousing ovation to mark the end of her final show in the role. Madeline has produced shows for Walberton Players since 1985, when she took over after the retirement of Eve Dods, the founder of what was then known as Walberton Operatic Society.

Audiences have come to expect high standards from Madeline’s productions and tickets are always in demand. This show was no exception. Intended to run for three nights, ‘Magical Musicals’ quickly sold out and people who were disappointed to have missed out on tickets were given the opportunity to watch the dress rehearsal. The cast drew together previous and present members, all keen to make the show a fitting tribute to Madeline’s years at the helm.

Having set herself the dual challenge of producing a show to include more than forty of the best loved numbers from major musicals and to give every member of the cast ‘their moment’ on the stage, Madeline’s task was not easy but she succeeded and produced a seamlessly fast-paced, well choreographed production. Clever use of minimal, but very effective, costume changes enabled the large cast to remain on stage for most of the numbers.

Regular members of the audience were delighted to see and hear so many performers who they remembered from previous shows over the years. The sense of a coming together of everyone on stage really shone through when a convent of nuns took us from ‘Maria’ to ‘Climb every mountain’ and the men launched into a rousing, full-blooded ‘Dames’. The whole company performed a very memorable ‘Love changes everything’, making full use of the piano accompaniment.

Just before the upbeat ‘Oom Pah Pah’ conclusion of the show, Madeline, a soprano who has sung many leading roles, turned to the audience and sang a duet with her husband Chris. It was a perfect performance. ‘I remember it well’ might have been written for both of them and the audience went wild. Truly a ‘feel good’ night as one member of the audience said at the end of a memorable show.

Susie Peters