THE Regal in Tenbury is gearing up for one of its most important periods of the year.

Work is pressing head on a busy programme that will take the venue through to Christmas.

Adey Ramsel, who is general manager at the Regal, has told Tenbury Town Council that he is optimistic for the rest of the year.

“The Regal is looking nice and healthy in our 80th year,” said Adey Ramsel.

One of the most important shows of the year involving the Tenbury community is in its final stages of preparation.

“Oliver, our first big community musical is due to open in less than for weeks and we have a cast of 40 local adults and children all working hard,” said Adey Ramsel.

“Bookings seem to be going very well.”

Once this show has finished all attention will turn to the most important show of the year.

“Next on the major production list is this year’s pantomime, Beauty and the Beast,” Adey Ramsel said.

“With the release of the Disney remake earlier in the year this looks to be as popular as other years’ and we have managed to maintain the same core team.”

The Regal will continue with the successful approach of combining professional and amateur performers for the big show of the year.

Booking for the 2017 pantomime opened at the end of last year and with only six months gone advance bookings are looking healthy.

The Regal has proved a popular venue for shows that enable people to relive their past and future events coming up include tributes to both the comedian Tommy Cooper and musician Roy Orbison, best known for his silver tongued ballads and sun glasses.

A British ‘institution’ in the former of television and radio presenter Nicholas Parsons will be performing at The Regal in September. He is probably best known to most people as host of the long running BBC Radio 4 quiz show ‘Just a Minute.’

Adey Ramsel said that the Regal is benefitting from important improvements to its studio theatre. It now means that it is possible to put on shows that would not be suitable for the main auditorium that seats 250 people.

“With the addition of curtain tracks, blacks and rostra for tiered seating we are able to transform the function room into a studio space which seats between 50 and 80 people,” added Adey Ramsel.

“Our own theatre group opened this space and since then we have hosted two plays that have included us on their tours,” he told Tenbury Town Council.

“This space enables us to attract live theatre which would not necessarily sell 250 seats and sit comfortably in a smaller venue. All comments from audiences have been positive.”

As well as live theatre and music The Regal is also the place that people in Tenbury go to see cinema.

“With the release of some big budget movies, the lead-up to Christmas looks positive,” said Adey Ramsel.

The Regal was built in the 1930s and is one of only a small number of examples of cinema venues built in small towns between the two wars.

Its historic importance was rewarded with a £600,000 refurbishment, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The Regal is owned by Tenbury Town Council but operated on a long lease by an independent trust.