One of the island’s theatre groups are regrouping and promising to carry on after they were forced to postpone their forthcoming show.

Centre Stage productions were looking forward to bringing its 2020 show, a version of the musical ’Annie’, to the Gaiety Theatre in the autumn.

However, they took the decision to postpone the show until October 2022, following the government’s decision to close the Villa Marina and Gaiety theatre until at least October 2020.

The producers of the show said that the decision was a difficult one to make but, given the amount of time needed to audition and rehearse, they would not have been able to put the show on this year.

Preparations had already been in full swing to get the show up and running before the restrictions hit home.

A workshop for children was held during March, where children could learn and take part in some of the songs and dance routines, under the direction of show director David Dawson, musical director Claire Temple and Centre Stage choreographers Gem Last and Hannah Taylor.

More than 30 children took part in the workshop, which was sponsored by Zurich International and held at the Youth Arts Centre, in Kensington Road, Douglas.

The young actors were given the opportunity to dress up as orphans and sing and dance their way songs such as ’It’s a Hard Knock Life’ during the fun and informal workshop.

Although not part of the audition process for the musical, it was hoped that some of the children would be encouraged to try out for the show.

Centre Stage are a relatively new company and have staged two highly successful shows at the Gaiety Theatre.

Their first show, ’Back to the 80s’, was held in 2018 and last year’s show, ’The Addams Family Musical’, also starring David Dawson, won several National Operatic and Dramatic Association awards.

Now that ’Annie’ has been put off for the near future, the next Centre Stage production will be ’Kinky Boots’, set to go ahead in October 2021. However, the team are still hoping that they will be able to hold some kind of show before the year is out.

Sending out a positive note, the Centre Stage committee said that they are looking into the possibility of putting on a small concert towards the end of 2020, involving current, past and new members.

Any plans for shows this year are dependant on the Covid-19 situation nearer the time.

No official details have been decided.