Puerto Rico meets West Side New York

CECILIAN Musical Society has made its first booking with Lime Tree Theatre, taking ‘West Side Story’ there at the end of November. The 500-seater venue at Mary Immaculate College (MIC) is already host to rehearsals by Cecilians for the four night production running November 29 to December 1. This is the 1957 musical that gave us memorable song classics such as ‘America’, ‘Jet Song’, ‘Maria’ and ‘Tonight’. With Nigel Dugdale of Limerick Local Heroes cast as Tony (The Jets) and Jean Wallace as his estranged love interest, Maria (basking with The Sharks), the Bernstein musical should prove a hot ticket.

Delightfully, this proves a second time out as Tony for the handsome Mr Dugdale, who played the doomed Romeo first when aged just 17.
“That was way back in 1995 at the Crescent Hall when I was Tony and Jean McGlynn, Maria in an edited production by Expressive Arts school,” the actor recalls. “Pearl Kiely and May O’Halloran directed, and Liam O’Brien, Cathy McGlynn and Cian O’Siocháin, now with TV3, were on board as well”.
‘West Side Story’ is a fantastic musical, he feels, “Certainly my favourite and a favourite with Cecilian’s musical director Noel Lennon. I am so pleased to have this opportunity to do it in a big proscenium theatre such as Lime Tree in an adult production. Sondheim’s lyrics and Leonard Bernstein’s music are amazing and Noel is getting a big band together to do it justice, give us the passion”.
Nigel Dugdale and Cecilian Musical Society first met 21 years ago in 1995 for the show ‘Oliver!’ in which Dugdale played the loveable, wayward orphan. Scrolling forward to 2012, Des Henn is artistic director for ‘West Side Story’ and Barbara Meaney is choreographer, this husband and wife time having shored up AIMS awards for Cecilians with previous shows.
Anyone who saw Limerick Musical Society’s ‘The Pirates of Penzance’ pair Dugdale with the dulcet tones of Jean Wallace as Mabel, one of the modern Major’s many daughters, will know the harmonious match they are on stage. Hard at work four months before final billing at the South Circular Road, Cecilians have surely another hit in the making for their fans.