The Ghost of Sarah Haunting
A musical by Mike Benyon
Latest News
6th February 2023
Well it's over three years now since the last production of the show had to be cancelled. The covid-19 pandemic has meant that many plans for the show have had to be put on hold. In the meantime I have completed my second musical A Prince's Heart and I will add a page about this new venture on this site in the near future. My wife and I have now moved to Diss on the Suffolk/Norfolk border and I am planning to put on a one day show showcasing the songs of both shows. Further details to follow soon.
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11th October 2019
It is with great sadness that we have been forced to cancel our 2019 production. More details will follow. However, I am still working on the orchestration and cast album.
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12th September 2019
Rehearsals for the show are well underway. There have been a few cast changes in the last few months but we have assembled a truly wonderful team. Details can be found on the 2019 Cast page. The new cast members include Deborah Marsh as Mary and John Stivey as her long suffering husband. We are very fortunate to have on board Russell Gillary as Richard, Laura Maguire as Peaches and Jenny Storey as Anna the Girl in the Red Dress.
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The orchestrations for the production are almost complete meaning that the production of cast album is also well on the way to completion.
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Tickets for the show are selling well and with the Dugdale's autumn brochure now out it is well worth buying your tickets in the near future. It is now just over two months to opening night!
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A special mention to Roslyn Long, brother of the writer, who is not only designing and making the dress for Sarah Haunting but is also organising a coachload of people to see the production!
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We will very soon be posting videos and audio clips from the rehearsals so keep watching out for the latest news.
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4th February 2019
A fantastic double set of news today.
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Firstly, we have enlisted the services of the amazingly talented Matt McManus to design and build the set for the show. Matt has recently created the sets for SMP's last two summer musicals, Urinetown and Spamalot (see below).
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Secondly, the part of Sarah Haunting, aka the Girl in the White Dress has been cast. A huge welcome on board to Abbie Middleton-Evans. Abbie most recently played the part of LeFou in Beauty and the Beast at the Rhodes Arts Centre in Bishop's Stortford and the previous year played the title character in Snow White at the same venue.
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14th January 2019
We are very pleased to announce that the part of Susan Deron will be played by Elaine Neacy. Elaine will be reprising her role from the first production of the show in 2000.
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18th November 2018
A busy day working on some of the arrangements for the show. In amongst all of this I played this piano version of "A Matter of Time", the one new song that has been written for the 2019 production.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dn4y8nicf-s
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13th November 2018
With exactly one year to go to the opening night we are pleased to announce almost all of the casting for the show!
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David Short, Hayley Buckmaster, Stuart Piddington-Wall, Fay Kemal and Laura Nayman have all been in both previous productions of the show. Following popular demand Lionel and Jeanette Abrahams are reprising their roles of Percy and Mary from 2000 while Joanna McWilliams was also in the 2004 production as Clara. David Short reprises his role of Richard Haunting from the 2004 production while Stuart Piddington-Wall returns to the role of Frankie from the 2000 show. Fay Kemal also reprises her role of Anna, the Girl in the Red Dress from the 2004 production.
Our Draculettes Sophie Short, Perry Swain and Kate Sanders are three quarters of the vocal harmony group The Gold Tones and are joined by the director Laura Nayman, who was in the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company for a number of years.
We have a few Knights of the Round Table from SMP’s June production of Spamalot: Michael Lacey, Chris O’Shea and David Bowman while Charlotte Humpheys played The Lady of the Lake in the same production.
Our talented dancers include Hayley Buckmaster and Jo Bakhurst who both have their own dancing schools while Debbie Wall trained at Italia Conti.
Nathan Muir, along with a number of other members of the cast, have been integral members of the highly successful DASH Productions, who have been performing sell-out shows for the last seven years at The Dugdale Theatre.
AUDITIONS
The roles of Jerry Rawken, Susan Deron and Sarah (The Girl in the White Dress) have yet to be cast. Dates for these auditions are yet to be finalised. However, if you are interested in auditioning please let us know by sending a message on the Contact Page of this site. These are all major singing and acting roles:
Jerry Rawken (playing age 25-35): Arrogant womaniser, somewhat like Gaston from Beauty and the Beast
Susan Deron (playing age 40-50): Intelligent, vulnerable wife of John Deron
Sarah the Girl in the White Dress (playing age 20-25): Beautiful, innocent but humorous. Very girlish.
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11th November 2018
We are very pleased to announce that we will be producing next year's show in assocation with DASH productions. David Short's DASH have done a series of high quality sell-out shows at The Dugdale Theatre over the last seven years and their knowledge and experience of the venue will be absolutely invaluable.
The casting of the show is almost complete. We are going slightly against the grain by casting without auditions but having worked with so many talented local performers over the years we very much know what we are looking for from each character. Without giving too much away all the people cast so far have either done shows with SMP or DASH. If you would like to see the casting then this will be announced on Tuesday 13th November, a year to the date before the show opens.
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1st November 2018
Casting of the show has begun! Unlike most shows this will be done by invitation rather than audition as we know so many highly talented people. There is a need to cast a year early as we need to know what keys people will want to sing in before orchestrating and recording the cast album. Most of the casting will be taking place over the next few weeks so keep an eye on this page for the latest updates.
The orchestration has also begun as you can see from the small sample of the character John Deron's big solo below:
26th October 2018
We are very pleased to announce the production team for next year:
Director - Laura Nayman
Musical Director - Mike Benyon
Choreographers - Fay Kemal and Hayley Buckmaster
Laura directed the 2000 production of the show. She also starred as Jess in the 2000 production and Susan in the 2004 production.
Fay and Hayley were in both previous productions of the show. They were also co-choreographers of the 2004 production​
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9th October 2018
The dates for the next production of The Ghost of Sarah Haunting are confirmed. The show will take place at The Dugdale Centre in Enfield, North London, from 13th-16th November 2019. Tickets will be available in early 2019.
The show is being orchestrated by Stuart Rush. A new album will be available in the summer of 2019. I am hopeful that a couple of songs from the new cast will be uploaded to this site by the end of 2018.