Musicals at DEMBE Theatre

Musicals are the busiest part of the DEMBE programme, and the most sociable. A musical brings a bigger cast, a bigger crew and a bigger audience than almost anything else we stage, and on a show week the building feels like it is running at full tilt from mid-afternoon until long after the curtain call. This page lists the musicals coming up at the theatre in Tring, and the ones that have already been.

What kind of musicals are staged here?

Most of the year that means the shows that local companies and societies choose to take on: the Rodgers and Hammerstein and Lerner and Loewe standards, the big eighties and nineties book musicals, Sondheim for the companies who fancy the challenge, and the steady stream of titles released for amateur licence a few years after they close in the West End. Alongside those sit opera and light opera from regional societies, junior and youth editions performed by young casts, and the occasional concert staging where the score is the whole event.

Because the licensing works that way, the programme refreshes constantly. A company picks a title, spends six months on it, and performs it for three or four nights. Then the next company picks something completely different. It is worth checking back rather than assuming you know what a season holds.

Who puts them on?

Almost all of the musicals here are staged by companies from this part of Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire. Theatre companies, operatic and dramatic societies, youth theatre groups, dance schools staging a musical as their annual show, and charities using a production to raise funds. Some have been performing on this stage for decades.

That is not an accident of programming, it is the theatre's purpose. Two of the four endeavours in our vision speak to it directly: to be local, providing a professional, independent theatre in the heart of the community it serves, and to be economical, offering subsidised rates to amateur and community groups for performances, charity events and community projects. A musical is an expensive thing for a volunteer-run company to mount. Making the venue affordable is how a town this size gets to see one.

What should I expect on the night?

Expect a full house, because musicals sell. Expect a cast that is visibly enjoying itself, and an audience that contains a good number of people related to somebody on stage. Most productions run with live musicians where the company can field them, and to backing tracks where it cannot; the production page says which.

Running times vary a great deal, from a ninety-minute junior edition straight through to a three-hour show with an interval. Check the event page before you plan the evening around it, particularly if you are coming by train. The bar is open before the performance and at the interval.

Musicals are also the easiest way into theatre for a child who has never been. A young audience member who is slightly too young for a play will usually sit happily through a musical, because something is always happening. Any specific age guidance is given on the production page.

What does a musical cost to put on?

More than most people assume, which is worth understanding if you wonder why a local company stages one production a year rather than three. Performing rights for a musical are licensed per performance and are not cheap. On top of that sit scores and scripts, a musical director and players, a choreographer, costumes for a cast of thirty, set construction and a rehearsal schedule running for months.

That arithmetic is exactly why the subsidised hire rate exists. If a venue absorbed none of that pressure, the number of musicals staged in a town this size would fall sharply, and the first thing to go would be the youth and junior productions that have the smallest budgets. Keeping the rate low is a deliberate act of programming, not a discount.

Booking, concessions and access

Book through this website; each production has its own page with dates, prices and a seating plan. Popular titles and local casts mean musicals often sell out their best seats early, so booking in the first week of sale is sensible. Concessions are available on most performances for students in full-time education, children of fifteen and under, over sixties, and registered disabled patrons with their carers, subject to proof and one concession per person per transaction. Every ticket carries a DEMBE Theatre Restoration Fee, which is reinvested in the building.

You will find us at Penny Royal Court, Station Road, Tring, HP23 5QY, with free parking on site, a bus stop immediately outside and Tring station a short walk away, about thirty-five minutes from London Euston. Wheelchair spaces are available; contact us before booking if you need one or have any other access requirement, and we will make the arrangements.

What is on, and what has been

The list below shows every musical currently on sale, followed by those that have already played. Past productions stay on the site deliberately. If you were in the chorus in 2025, or you simply want to know what this theatre has staged over the years, the record is here.