Teacherheads backto the stage with musical

A HEAD teacher who gave up his job in the hope of producing a West End musical hit is launching a fresh attempt at success after his first ground to a halt.

Four years ago Andy Platt, then a deputy head, gave up his career to work on a musical called No Horizon which followed the story of a blind man called Nicholas Saunderson from South Yorkshire who became a professor of mathematics at Cambridge University.

Although the production was well received and Mr Platt, of Thulrstone, near Penistone, made many contacts he failed to get the breakthrough he needed.

After more than a year of working on the project, financial necessity forced him back into work and he is now head teacher at Hillsborough primary school in Sheffield.

However, in the meantime he has extensively reworked the show and hopes to get it on stage at the Edinburgh Festival.

Mr Platt said he had too little time originally to get the show to the stage professionally.

“Some of the contacts we made last time are interested in seeing where we have got. Some were disappointed that we didn’t get on with it.

“It was a massive learning curve. Unfortunately we would have been better doing the show earlier in the year than we did. The interest we had came late in the year and we didn’t have the opportunity to build on the interest we had,” he said.

In the short term, he has worked on another musical called Hoffmann’s Medal, which is to staged in Penistone for several days from November 24.

That follows the fortunes of a German shopkeeper living in Britain at the outbreak of the Second World War and originated as a school project. Mr Platt believes the material had greater potential and has worked with others to produce a version for a more mature audience.