About
The Orpheus Club is the longest established amateur musical society in Great Britain, and probably the world, to have performed an annual stage production, WITHOUT A SINGLE BREAK, since The Club was founded in the south side of the City of Glasgow, Scotland, on 3rd October 1892. The club performs major musical productions to the highest artistic standards, employing professional stage directors, musical directors, choreographers, make-up artists, wardrobe assistants, and musicians.
The Orpheus Club made its name and established its enviable reputation, by mounting productions of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, at a time when both W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan were still alive, and had not even written their last two works together – UTOPIA LIMITED, and THE GRAND DUKE – performed for their first times respectively at the Savoy Theatre in London in 1893 and 1896; The Club’s very first production was TRIAL BY JURY in April 1893, and The Orpheus Club achieved and maintained its aforementioned reputation through the exceptional artistic tradition which it acquired in its authentic interpretation and presentation of the Savoy Operas.
The Orpheus Club is an amateur society, and anyone over the age of 16 years is very welcome to audition for membership – please contact The Secretary to audition; the current membership subscription is £50.00 per year per member, and £30.00 per year per member for students and unemployed. Members of The Orpheus Club are expected to sell as many tickets as possible for all the shows and concerts in which they appear.
Interested in becoming a member? Contact Us.
A History of the Orpheus Club – by Walter Paul
The Orpheus Club was founded on 3rd October 1892 within The Pollokshields Burgh Hall in the south side of the City of Glasgow – the same Hall in which The Club rehearsed up until 2006 – quite a record! The Orpheus Club’s first staged production took place in April 1893 within the same Burgh Hall, when Gilbert and Sullivan’s TRIAL BY JURY was presented for three performances; the performances were played for charity and Glasgow’s Victoria Infirmary received a donation of £25.00 from The Orpheus Club.
The importance of the existence of The Orpheus Club cannot be stressed too greatly. As far as can be confirmed, The Orpheus Club is the longest established amateur operatic society to have performed an annual production CONTINUOUSLY since its formation – certainly in Glasgow, probably in Great Britain, possibly in the world. Many other societies who have long histories, stopped performing annual productions during the First and Second World Wars – The Orpheus Club never ceased performing during The Boer War, The First World War, and The Second World War, and thus boasts a unique record in both amateur and professional theatre.
After The Orpheus Club’s first show had been performed within The Pollokshields Burgh Hall, it was recognised that larger venues would have to be utilised, and The Orpheus Club has played most of Glasgow’s top theatres during its long history – The Old Athenaeum Theatre in Glasgow’s Buchanan Street; The Royalty Theatre, (which became The Lyric Theatre, and was demolished at the end of the 1950s), in Sauchiehall Street; The Theatre Royal; The Coliseum Theatre in Eglinton Street, (sadly and controversially destroyed by fire in 2009); The King’s Theatre in Bath Street, home of our current annual productions; and the now demolished Alhambra Theatre in Waterloo Street.
There is no doubt whatsoever that The Orpheus Club established itself and made its name in the presentation of the Gilbert and Sullivan operettas; when it played TRIAL BY JURY for the first time in 1893, both Gilbert and Sullivan were still alive, and their last two Savoy Operas, UTOPIA LIMITED and THE GRAND DUKE had yet to receive their premieres at The Savoy Theatre in London. The Orpheus Club has performed all of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas over the years, (with the exception, of course, of the lost THESPIS), with the favourites such as THE MIKADO and THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE being performed and re-performed in new productions several times over. The Orpheus Club nurtured a close working relationship with The D’Oyly Carte Opera Company, first under Richard D’Oyly Carte, then Rupert D’Oyly Carte, and lastly Dame Bridget D’Oyly Carte, and it is said that The Orpheus Club’s 1912 production of RUDDIGORE was partly responsible for the eventual reintroduction of that opera to D’Oyly Carte repertoire, from which it had been missing since its very first production in 1887. Richard D’Oyly Carte donated part of his royalty fee, paid to him by The Orpheus Club, to the charity for which The Club happened to be playing.
Since a major production of THE YEOMEN OF THE GUARD in 1999, The Orpheus Club’s direction in repertoire has changed dramatically as far as the annual production in Glasgow’s main theatres is concerned; Offenbach’s frothy romp, ORPHEUS IN THE UNDERWORLD, was presented in 2000, and this was followed in 2001 with a major staging of Jerome Kern’s SHOW BOAT, with a cast of black and white artists and including the emotive scene, Mis’ry’s Coming Around, performed by arrangement with the Rodgers and Hammerstein Library in New York. In 2002 The Club presented the Scottish Amateur Premiere of Rice and Webber’s EVITA, with a representative of The Really Useful Theatre Group travelling up from London to see two performances of The Orpheus production; this was followed a year later by one of the most ambitious productions in The Club’s long history – Stephen Sondheim’s SWEENEY TODD, which proved so popular with audiences who saw it that The Orpheus Club decided to present another Sondheim piece, A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, uniquely in the round in Glasgow’s G12 Theatre, (sadly now closed as from August 2010), in June of 2007; and Frank Loesser’s wonderful show GUYS AND DOLLS, was performed in 2004 to packed houses at The Theatre Royal. The first Rodgers and Hammerstein work to be performed by The Orpheus Club, CAROUSEL, was the Club’s 113th consecutive annual production, presented in 2005. The following year saw another Glasgow premiere when The Orpheus Club presented TITANIC – THE MUSICAL, by Maury Yeston, with a huge cast of over 70 performers. The connection with the Gilbert and Sullivan operas continued with a new stage production of THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE in the unique performing space of Gilmorehill G12, where a very funny updated production of THE MIKADO was presented in June 2006 as part of that year’s West End Festival; this same production was successfully transferred to The King’s Theatre in January 2007, when The Orpheus Club returned to that theatre for the first time since 1996. And after the aforementioned Sondheim chamber opera was performed in a most exquisite production at G12 in the summer of the same year, The Orpheus Club returned to The King’s with a powerful new production of JEKYLL AND HYDE – THE MUSICAL. Nothing but praise was heaped on the artistic side of that particular venture, but sadly it played to disappointingly small audiences. In May 2009, The Orpheus Club mounted a most unusual choice of production for a Club of its distinguished history and pedigree – THE WIZARD OF OZ – and this enabled two large companies of young performers and children to appear with The Club on the stage of The King’s Theatre. 2010 proved to be one of the busiest years in recent memory when The Club appeared twice at Glasgow’s King’s – in February a new and controversial production of the Broadway classic FIDDLER ON THE ROOF was mounted, and seemed to capture the imagination of most of the audiences who attended; and in September a stunning and massive new production of JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR played to sold-out houses, and a full company of 70 performers performed as an integrated talented cast to present what must be ranked as one of The Orpheus Club’s biggest successes in recent years – in both artistic and financial terms.