Our wonderful production of Oliver!, reported elsewhere, continues Newington’s long tradition of musical productions.

As far as we know, the first musical to be performed at Newington was a production of the Gilbert and Sullivan short comic opera, Trial by Jury, as part of a ‘Recital of Music and Drama’ presented over three nights in July 1962. The evenings’ performances, which also included the farce, The Crimson Cocoanut, and a variety of ‘Chansons Francaises’ by the French Choir, took place in the Assembly Hall (now the Prescott Hall).

Trial by Jury was organised by long-serving teacher Miss Joan Gray, the new Director of Music, Donald Hollier, and another teacher, G. Price. A report in The Newingtonian praised the excellent casting and singled out Christopher Leonard (now von Keisenberg) for his fine acting as the judge ‘who fell in love with the rich attorney’s elderly ugly daughter’. Overall, ‘the co-ordination of setting, timing and action was a triumph’, The Newingtonian reported.

It was a revival of Trial by Jury in 1973, as part of ‘An Evening of Gilbert and Sullivan’, that started an era of ever more ambitious musicals and other productions under the leadership of Headmaster Tony Rae and Director of Music Elizabeth Swain. Newington’s first performance of Oliver! in 1978 was one of these productions. The legacy of that era continues today.

Mr David Roberts
College Archivist