The Story & Music of Rodgers & Hammerstein hits the Bognor stage - how to get your tickets

Dean explains: “The Story & Music of Rodgers & Hammerstein tells the story of how Rodgers & Hammerstein met and collaborated to produce some of the most memorable musicals to be performed on stages around the world.

“The show will take you on a musical journey recreating songs from some of their most iconic shows including The Sound of Music, Carousel and Oklahoma.

"A cast of four will perform classic songs including You’ll Never Walk Alone, Edelweiss, Some Enchanted Evening and Shall We Dance to name but a few.

"There will also be two songs performed from their musical Cinderella. When the show was first aired on American television back in 1957, it attracted more than 100 million viewers.”

Dean created the show and will narrate the story: “Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II were undoubtedly the most influential and successful American musical-theatre writing teams. Their work has given and continues to give great and abiding pleasure to millions of audiences and performers alike.

“The pair first met in 1916 when studying at Columbia University. They met again after a matinee in 1917 and Oscar wrote he was taken back-stage where he met ‘a very tall, skinny fellow with a sweet smile and clear blue eyes.’ Their first collaboration together was Oklahoma which opened on Broadway on March 31 1943. Their last show was The Sound of Music which opened in New York on November 16 1959.”

Dean is chairman of The British Music Hall Society and appears and directs music hall and variety shows. He made his first professional appearance in Dick Whittington in Maidstone, Kent back in 2013. He is also an after-dinner speaker with topics ranging from The History of the Royal Variety Performance to the reign of Queen Elizabeth II.

Dean will be joined by musical director Carol Anne Wells.

Dean said: “Carol Anne’s versatility leads her from the classical concert stage as a soloist, accompanist to opera groups and soloists or ensemble player to performing her own arrangements of well-known film themes and songs in two one-woman shows, Screen Gems and Hooray for Hollywood. Carol Anne is in demand all around the country. She has performed for the Cunard Line and has recently toured three shows, a 1940s/1950s nostalgia programme, Unforgettable (a show based around the melodies and songs of the 1950s and 60s) and Glamorous Night, The Three Sopranos, a show that was a support act to Brian Conley at the Lakeside Country Club.”

“Jimmy Burton Iles has established himself as a leading pantomime dame and has appeared at The Harlow Playhouse for over five years.”

Tickets available on alexandratheatre.co.uk