TWENTY years after playing the gloriously off-key Lina Lamont in Singin’ in the Rain, Dora Bishop is returning to the same show at Frome Memorial Theatre.

Frome Musical Theatre Company’s Youth Section, Spellbound, brings the much-loved musical back to Frome two decades after its last production in 2006, when a 13-year-old Dora took to the stage as the silent movie star.

Set amid the glitz, glamour and chaos of Hollywood in 1927, Singin’ in the Rain tells the story of silent movie stars Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont as the film industry is turned upside down by the arrival of sound.

Her performance as the wonderfully self-assured but vocally challenged Lina earned Dora The Charles Hart Trophy. Twenty years later, she has swapped the coat for the director’s chair, while this year’s Lina, Florrie Walker, has inherited both the costume and the challenge of delivering one of musical theatre’s great comic roles.

Florrie has been part of Frome Musical Theatre Company since 2018, making her debut as Morton the Elephant Bird in Spellbound’s Seussical.

Dora said: “Watching Florrie take on one of musical theatre’s most iconic comic roles is another wonderful full-circle moment in Spellbound’s story.”

Returning to the show she performed in as a young member of Spellbound has an added significance for director Dora. Since that 2006 production, she has gone on to train professionally in musical theatre and build a career as a director, performer and teacher, and is now helping another generation of young performers take their own turn on the Frome Memorial Theatre stage.

Singin’ in the Rain runs at Frome Memorial Theatre from Thursday, August 6 to Saturday, August 8, with performances at 7pm on Thursday and Friday and at 2pm and 7pm on Saturday.

Tickets are available from the theatre Box Office on 01373 462795 or at https://fromememorialtheatre.org.uk