30 Jan 2026
If you haven’t been fortunate to see one of St Albans Gang Show’s many productions over the past 25 years, then nobody would forgive you for having certain preconceptions about what to expect.
In fact, reviewing my first show last year, I had an idea of an all-singing, all-dancing variety show punctuated with comedy sketches, but never expected something so polished and professional – a tightly-choreographed tour de force of youth theatre.
So having been suitably humbled by my lack of faith in both the cast and the backstage team, I resolved to beat the publicity drum even louder this year, and do my bit to encourage sell-out audiences to every production.
Trudging down to the Alban Arena in the rain on Sunday morning, I met up with producer and director Hermione Drew and production manager Sam ‘Prickle’ Keates to find out how things were progressing with just a couple of weeks to go before showtime.
With the sound of showtunes echoing into the street, it was no surprise to see the entire cast of this year’s show – around 105 young people aged from 11 to 21 – in full-on rehearsal mode on the Arena stage.
Grabbing a table in the foyer with Hermione and Prickle (the name dates back to his time in the show during the 1980s, when his long flowing locks were cut into a spiky hedgehog style), there was almost a sense of guilt from dragging them away from the auditorium and precious time spent honing the production.
Between them, they have more than half a century’s experience working on the production of the show, and were both on stage for many years on top of that.
Hermione first joined the team in 2004 after coming back from university, and moved into director and producer roles from about 2012.
Prickle was in his first show as a Scout in 1987, and has never really stepped away, with his first year helping backstage in 1995.
Hermione says it helps that they were both in the show as youngsters as it ensures they continue to appreciate how important the event is to those taking part.
“It’s useful to have your own memories of how you benefited from it when you were 16 or 17. They were the best days of my life and Gang Show changed my life forever. I met all the best friends I still have today through the show, and I know how much of a massive difference it made to my life.
“It’s about remembering that it’s not just about the show itself, it’s all those connections and bonds and friends and memories and everything else that you benefited from.”
The Gang Show team have just a handful of weeks to use the Arena space once the annual festive panto has packed up, but have been rehearsing in various school halls and Scout huts since October.
Hermione explains that being able to experience the space and dynamics of the Arena is crucial: “It’s very hard for the cast to visualise the space on the stage when they’re in a Scout hut, or really understanding that one day you will be in front of an audience, whereas once they’re in here it just comes to life, something clicks in the cast and the focus goes up a notch.”
This is particularly important for new recruits who might never have been on a proper theatre stage: “The more we’re in here the better, because they start to make friends with the building and realise it isn’t a scary place.
“We’ve always performed at the Arena, it’s never been a different theatre for the entire 40-plus years of this Gang Show, so it feels like your theatrical home, and it’s nice for the younger kids to start to have that same feeling about it, rather it being a shock in show week.”
Because of the popularity of the show, they are inevitably oversubscribed for auditions, which means having to turn some people away because there’s only so many they can fit on the stage.
“The positive is that most people are still interested so we don’t have to worry about new cast coming in,” explains Prickle. “The negative is that we have to turn people down, which is horrible, but that’s purely from a logistical and safety point of view. We can’t have 200 people on the stage, they just don’t fit, so there’s a really fine balance of making the show work and giving as many people as possible the opportunities to be involved.”
Of course, there are also those youngsters who reach an age when they no longer take part, but this is part of the cycle of the cast and means they will all eventually have the chance of being the older and experienced performers.
“Of course people go off to do different things,” says Hermione. “But then this year we’ve got one of the previous cast who has gone to university, but from his accommodation there he’s arranging some of the songs for our band. We’ve two or three who were in the cast last year who are supporting with the dance teaching, which is kind of the future of the show really.”
Pulling together an annual production must surely take the best part of a year then?
Prickle elaborates: “The logistics of the show every year are different, but the principle of every show is the same. We have the big performance numbers, the small front-of-curtain sketches, and it’s a case of making that all work around what the ideas team have come up with.
“It’s a balance of ensuring we need at least 75 per cent of the cast on stage at all times to get the noise and the gang feel, and then producing that is sometimes more luck that judgement in terms of how this is achieved.
“It’s not a set format, but we know what works in terms of a main item with three or four songs in it around a loose theme, then a funny or clever front-of-curtain thing with either singing and dancing or comedy followed by another big number, and the cast get it.”
Hermione pipes up: “You do a lot of thinking Prickle in terms of the flow, which of those items need a lot of set, where in the show should a particular item be so there’s enough time for the stage crew to do their job… They can’t all have massive sets, some of them have to be simpler.”
Prickle agrees: “But if the cast haven’t got the West End feel in terms of a big hamster wheel in the background or a boat or whatever then it loses some of the magic for them and the audience, so we try and have one item that is very set heavy, we have one that is very costume-elaborate, then there are finances that go with it. Everything is a case of ‘we’d like to do this, but we’ve chosen to do that, which means we can’t do this’.
“Everything has pros or cons against it, and it’s just a case of balancing the flow with what the cast want and what the audience will want.”
So this means a balance between the well-known numbers and the contemporary stuff then? Can we expect any K-Pop Demon Hunters for example?
“It was close,” says Hermione.
“It was discussed!” says Prickle. “We do try to cover a really broad spectrum, so there’s stuff in this year’s show that is what I would call ‘current’,” he laughs, “the cast on the other hand may not…
“There are traditional Gang Show songs, some show tunes the cast had not heard of, but they have ended up liking as much as their favourites.”
This year’s cast will perform hits by artists such as Katy Perry, Sam Ryder, Blondie, REM, Queen, Ariana Grande and Madness, and Hermione says they make sure to the cast what songs they want to perform, if only because the production team consider themselves completely out of touch with modern music.
“You think every year you’re going to learn who the latest artists are, only for them to say Queen, Meatloaf, David Bowie, which is not what we want! They might have been influenced by the music their parents have played, or West End shows like We Will Rock You and the Tina Turner musical, so there’s a lot of stuff like that which they’re familiar with.”
While much of the focus is obviously on the musical numbers, it’s important not to ignore the small scale comedy sketches, which have their own challenges in terms of timing, delivery, script…
Prickle explains how they put the material together: “It’s a bit of a combination – we try and write some stuff ourselves and other stuff we borrow off YouTube, but we always credit everyone. We can’t do anything violent or sexual because that’s not appropriate for young people, but there is a lot of really good stuff on YouTube which we can adapt.
“We’re also lucky that we’ve got a lot of people who are naturally funny – they’re very talented, they understand the delivery, they understand the dramatic pause and the need to wait for the punchline.
“But like all of Gang Show, we’re really lucky that our volunteer team are really, really skilled in everything from sewing on buttons and programming the lighting desk to doing comedy. We’ve got people in our team who have done a lot of am-dram theatre, so they have the experience of delivering a line or focusing this way or that – the cast get so much from them because they know what it feels like to get a line wrong or get the rip-roaring laugh that you hope for.
“That helps with everything we do, and we can’t thank our volunteer team enough. Thank you, thank you. That makes such a difference, especially as the comedy is often stubborn and adapted to make it more friendly – it’s difficult because the audience we have are Beavers and Rainbows from the age of six, parents who appreciate a sophisticated form of comedy, and grandparents who don’t really understand anything but are giggling and laughing anyway!
“Trying to hit all those markers in terms of comedy or the main items is really difficulty. We’re trying to appeal to such a massive spectrum of the audience that makes choosing material quite hard. It all comes down to balance.”
The St Albans team also liaise with other Gang Show production teams around the country, including attending a national conference every couple of years, sharing advice and inspiration for future shows.
With just a couple of weeks to go before curtain-up on Wednesday February 11, how are things coming together? Is the production in the right place at this stage of rehearsals?
“It’s quite scary to say this,” Hermione says cautiously, “but I think it might be. It’s where we would expect to be at this point. You always feel nervous, like are we really going to be ready for a dress run-through in two weeks, but we’re on track, which is reassuring.”
Prickle adds: “There’s always the unknown, because we will have choreographed something that might not work when they’ve got their costume on so we need to make a change, but that’s the joy of theatre. Show week will always be full of troubleshooting and sorting all those bits out.”
With both of them having spent so long immersed in the Gang Show world, do they ever reach the point of thinking that it’s time to call it a day?
“There are times every year when you think, ‘I’m not doing this ever again’,” laughs Prickle. “But then you go in and see a young person excel and the joy on their face when they’ve just learned to do a cartwheel or whatever, and you think, yes it’s a lot of work and it’s a lot of effort, and I haven’t seen my family for a year – which has its pros and cons! – but that makes you realise there’s a reason, a purpose and a benefit, and it sounds a bit icky but you do get that warm, glowing feeling.
“So we’re not at that point yet, but I think we’re all really aware that we need new people at the bottom. When the cast reach that age when they’re going to work or university we need to keep that connection with them, so they commit a little more each year. That will give us the opportunity to go, ‘Right, now it’s yours!’”
“The more hands on deck does help,” says Hermione. “Like any volunteering it’s always a lot, but we often have to say to each other, anything that’s worth doing will always be hard work. But it is always worth doing.”
Prickle agrees: “It’s one of those horrible clichés but you get out what you put in, and the joy on the young people’s faces when they get it right, when they see their costumes or the piece of set they’ve got to interact with, it just makes so much of a difference.”
Prickle said it’s even more important to provide a platform for the arts as schools cut back on these resources to focus on more academic pursuits: “The life skills that young people learn here mean they can go for a job interview and hold eye contact, they learn about respect for each other, teamwork, community, confidence, self-projection – all that sort of stuff which I think is kind of lost from education at the moment.”
With the ongoing pressures of rehearsals calling them back to the auditorium, there’s just time to ask whether they can give any hints of what people can expect from this year’s show.
Hermione thinks for a bit: “There’s an item themed around something edible, we’ve got a nice children’s character-based item which will appeal to all ages, and we’re also tackling the topic of different emotions – through the medium of dance and song!” she laughs.
To enquire about tickets visit stalbansgangshow.com/tickets, text/call the volunteer run box office number on 07885 661780, or email tickets@stalbansgangshow.com.
All photos by Roger Morton.
