Putting The Spring Back In The Old Girl's Step!

Putting The Spring Back In The Old Girl's Step!

On Sunday the Maori Hill Coronation Hall turned 100, but there is plenty of spring in the old girls step.

In July Greg MacLeod and Heidi Hayward premiered Little Winter Cabaret, a night of live musical entertainment and dance, and an effort to contribute to Dunedin's burgeoning boutique scene.

The show was a sell out and so they have embarked on a repeat season, scheduled for December. However, they were surprised to discover it was quite hard to book time to use the hall. It seems that, after many years of limited use, Maori Hill Coronation Hall is back in full swing.

Maori Hill School are regular users, along with B@tCH (Breakfast at the Coronation Hall), a branch of the Highgate Presbyterian Church, operating from the Hall each Sunday.

The Hall is no stranger to dances, having been a regular band venue in the past. The sprung floor remains in place, just prefect for the resumption of dances!

Little Christmas Cabaret will provide an option for friends and family getting together in the festive season and an alternative to the traditional ‘work do’.

Greg and Heidi will again collaborate with Katrina from No 7 Balmac, who will provide the nibbles included in the ticket price. Seating is true cabaret style with tables but, of course, we leave plenty of room for dancing!

Greg says, “We came up with the concept for this event because it’s something we would go to, if only it was available in Dunedin. We have such a range of amazing talent here, and this is a perfect means to showcase some of that talent to a community of people who have been looking for it but don’t know where to find it. The Cabaret offers that ‘big band’ sound and an opportunity to dance if you choose. We find this sort of thing hard to find in Dunedin”.

Greg is a regular performer in Dunedin and has worked in most aspects of Dunedin's theatrical scene. Playing the Beast, in Beauty and the Beast and the Engineer in Miss Saigon top his list of favourites, and most recently Joseph in Musical Theatre Dunedin’s Joseph and his Technicolour Dreamcoat. Greg has also worked for Fortune Theatre, Opera Otago, The Oxo Cubans, and Musical Theatre Wellington.

The band Greg has gathered for the Little Winter Cabaret includes, John Meddings, Robert Craigie, Stevie Rice, Graeme Perkins a stalwart of composition and television, Oli Wilson from Auckland-based band Knives at Noon, and lecturer in Ethnomusicology at the University of Otago and Rob Burns, whose career spans four decades and includes performing with Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Anderson of Abba, and many TV shows such as Mr. Bean, Blackadder, Alas Smith and Jones, Three of a Kind, French and Saunders, 2.4 Children, A Perfect Spy, and Red Dwarf.

Little Christmas Cabaret

Doors open 7.15pm, show starts 8pm, Friday December 14 and Saturday December 15

Maori Hill Coronation Hall

Tickets $58, includes nibbles and a complimentary glass of wine on arrival

Bookings - cabaret@hotmail.co.nz

ENDS

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