Formerly known as Beeston Operatic Society, the group was founded in 1967 by Graham Anderson, John Hackney, Paul Middleton and Ted Morris all of whom thought Beeston should have its own operatic society. Their inaugural meeting sparked the interest of 90 people and with both Michael Wright and Andrew Nicklin on board the decision was made to form Beeston Operatic Society. Their first show White Horse Inn was performed at Round Hill School.
As the society grew in numbers and popularity, the decision was made to move to a theatre. The Co-Op Arts Theatre on George Street in Nottingham was the society’s chosen venue until 2000 when Beeston Operatic made the move to the Duchess Theatre in Long Eaton. This was short-lived when the theatre burnt down two weeks after our production of Kismet. It was around this time that the society decided to change its name, having never produced an ‘opera’, it was decided that the name should reflect what the society did and in 2003 the name was officially changed to Beeston Musical Theatre Group, with Kismet being the first production under the new name. After returning to Round Hill to perform shows between 2004 and 2010, there was a joyful return to The Duchess Theatre upon its reopening with My Fair Lady and The Full Monty in 2011.
Upon our return to The Duchess Theatre the society won the NODA Award for Best Musical for My Fair Lady. Since then the society has won NODA awards for our productions of Into The Woods and Jekyll and Hyde. At the 2023 Eagle Awards we received the Gordon Bewley Award for the Best Production of a Musical for our recent production of Fiddler on the Roof.
Recent productions include Sister Act, Hello, Dolly and The Addams Family!
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