12:21pm Saturday 5th July 2008
Pupils have been dressing up, polishing their lines and putting on the style to bring some colourful shows to their schools
Some 30 youngsters from year six took part in two performances of the show at Beechcroft St Paul's Primary School.
They entertained other pupils in the morning and then gave a sell-out performance to parents in the evening.
It was the culmination of five weeks of hard work but year six teacher Emma Roberts said the result was fantastic.
She said: "It was a musical but very comical and very messy.
"They had a great time and the response from the other children in the school has been antastic.
"They walked out of the school hall absolutely buzzing. The evening performance to parents sold out within days and we have a hall with 120 capacity."
The story, set in 1920s New York, showed two rival gangs led by Fat Sam and Dandy Dan.
Highlights included ballads sung by Bugsy's love interest Blousey Brown and a lot of cream throwing.
Mrs Roberts said: "We used real cream, which looked great because it completely covered their faces when it was thrown, but was rather smelly.
"We had great costumes made by teaching assistant Cathy Romano, who also made the set, with the help of children and parents.
"All the cast were fantastic, I could reel off the whole class list, but James Burgess, who played the title role, was brilliant.
"He's an absolute star in the making."
As well as cracking the boards, the nine to 11-year-old pupils worked backstage on tasks like managing the lighting and set design.
The school's head of music, Helen Rewse, said the children did brilliantly and put on four abridged performances of the classic musical.
She said: "We've all been working on this production since March and it's gone really well, better than we could have hoped for, in fact.
"All the children have worked really hard to put on this quite ambitious production.
"We did adapt the script a little but we performed most of the songs that were in the original show."
She also wished to thank WOW Youth Musical Theatre and Wey Valley School for lending some of the costumes worn in the show.
Children aged between four and nine put on three sell-out performances in front of hundreds of parents and guests.
The 92 children have been practising the play and the 10 songs every Friday afternoon since January.
School secretary Claire Warne said: "It was great and the play brings the whole school together and the children really get an opportunity to shine. Some of the characters have been amazing and even the quietest children have done amazing things."
She added: "We are lucky because we get so much support from the parents and they really look forward to seeing their children in the play."
The play was directed by parent Jo Simons, who is a professional actress and was able to step in and get the children ready for the stage.
Parents all came together to make the costumes and support the play.
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