IT MUST seem light years since the team at Huddersfield Light Opera Company started planning celebrations for its centenary year.

But as the company puts the finishing touches to the final event of its celebratory year there is much to look back on and to be proud of.

Next weekend, the Light presents a gala performance at the Lawrence Batley Theatre called what else but 100 Light Years.

It will be packed with music, glamour, nostalgia and humour. There will be dancers, beautiful tunes, and some of the performers audiences have grown to know from some of the shows the society has done particularly in more recent years.

The show, which is on Saturday, November 3, will be in concert form using songs from many of the shows with which the society has been associated with over the years.

So expect to hear tunes from well known and well loved musicals such as Show Boat, The Merry Widow, Pyjama Game, Barnum, Mack and Mabel, Kismet, West Side Story, Fiddler on the Roof, and many more.

And for a finale, what else but a snapshot from that real feel good show Me And My Girl, the show which packed the LBT earlier this year and helped the society celebrate its centenary in the highest of spirits.

The society has put together Saturday’s show in just the way you would expect so there are company numbers and lots of opportunities for those principals who have delighted audiences over the years to shine once again.

So step forward and take a bow once again principal performers and singers such as Richard Cook, Neil Broadbent, Zoe Cook, Helen Woodhead, Julia Garbutt, Wendy Smith, Chris Brearley, Norman Mellor and Steve Redfern.

And look out for a team of four young dancers from the Strickland Cook Theatre School.

Craig Ball will be on stage playing the theatre’s grand piano and Chris Brearley will be applying all his techno-wizardry to take the audience on a guided tour through the society’s history.

For one of the society’s off-stage centenary projects has been to up-date its archives and it’s a venture which has provided some real treasures.

Some of that material including photographs, programme covers, press cuttings and reviews will be projected on to a backdrop to illustrate the society’s rich musical history. It’s where the past meets the future!

This may well be the final event in the society’s centenary celebrations but it is one which will be packed with new memories to add to all those others it has made in the past.

Join them for what is likely to be a night of magical music shared by a company renowned for the quality of its productions and the warmth of its welcome.

Tickets for the show from the LBT box office on 01484 430528 or online at www.thelbt.org.