2026 Spring Term II Steps of St Paul's Cathedral performance (off-book)

IMPORTANT REMINDERS

1. Be off-book (no lyric sheets or sheet music allowed) therefore you must have the songs memorised.

2. Attend required Dress Rehearsal and be off-book for it.

3. Feel very confident performing this material / solid on the harmonies therefore perform to a very high standard.

4. As you know, we introduced a requirement this Term for singers who want to take part in off-book (high profile) performances needing to attend a min of 6 of the 10 Term in-person weekly rehearsals.

This just means that singers will have learned majority of the material in Term time & will therefore assure that we produce a really professional, awesome performance at high profile events. To be able to perform these high profile events, the Events Team obviously expect a very high standard.

To clarify, attending 2 rehearsals in one week only counts as one weekly rehearsal.

ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE:

We are thrilled booking is now open to perform with us again on the iconic steps of St Paul's Cathedral on Sunday 18th April 2025.

ABOUT ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL

St Paul's Cathedral is one of the world's most iconic landmarks.

It's dome is the second largest in the world at 366 feet high. Having been an iconic part of London's skyline for more than 300 years, St Paul's has regularly found its way into popular culture. From Canaletto's oil paintings of the 1700s to Doctor Who's Cybermen invading the City in the 1960s, Wren's great dome has provided a fitting backdrop to many a scene. But one of the most-cherished moments for many, is the use of the Cathedral's steps in the set for the now iconic 'Feed the Birds' song from the Disney film version of Mary Poppins. Mary Poppins has remained one of the silver screen's most enduring classics, watched by people all the world over. And right at the very heart of the movie, highlighting the merits of giving to charity, is Feed the Birds = a song which shows the Bird Woman sitting on the Cathedral steps selling crumbs for tuppence a bag.

FUNDRAISING:

We are thrilled to be performing to help raise awareness & funds for Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity.

DONATIONS: Due to cathedral restrictions, we cannot physically collect charity donations on the day of the performance, so we've instead created this Just Giving page to accept online donations now.

If you're able to donate £1, £5, £10 = every little helps! Our target is £500 - we can do this!

If you're not able to donate, please spread the word about this charity by sharing on your social media pages : )

https://www.justgiving.com/page/steps-st-pauls-april-2026?utm_medium=FR&utm_source=CL

Performance date: Saturday 18th April 2026

Performance Timings:

CAST 1 ARRIVE: 12:40 SHARP

CAST 1 PERFORMANCE: 13:00-13:35

CAST 2 ARRIVE: 13:25 SHARP

CAST 2 PERFORMANCE: 13:35 - 14🕛

CAST LISTS:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zseMFx-XpYyGysKalSMh1bHIR6zmYUmbwyUATtVci6k/edit?usp=sharing

Performance info:

Our official performance slot is: 13:30pm - 3pm (90mins)

Due to health & safety regulations (as St Paul’s predict there will be a large audience during our performances = wohoo!) we will be split into multiple Casts.

• Cast 1 = perform first

• Cast 2 = perform second

See what Cast you are in here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lddRkc3afzflo7lER9Jc1nWWvtBGKB9GoJcVGK0oJ3c/edit?usp=sharing

We've included Tenors & Baritones in both Casts (only should they like to perform in both)

Please note, we can't accept Cast requests for this gig.

Cast 1 Timings

Arrive & get into position: 13:30 SHARP

Warm up: 13:40 - 13:50 (10 mins)

Perform: 13:50- 14:15 (25 mins)

Cast 2 Timings

Arrive & get into position: 14:20 SHARP

Warm up: 14:25 - 14:35 (10 mins)

Perform: 14:35 - 15:00 (25 mins)

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NOWHERE TO HOLD YOUR BELONGINGS:

There is no where to hold your belongings lovelies! Therefore please do not bring any bags or extra 'non-performance' attire. As we are performing on the steps, there is no place for you to put your belongings close to you either.

TEAMWORK REQUIRED ON THE PERFORMANCE DAY!

As the St Paul's Cathedral Team provide very strict performance slot timings (due to high security, services and tours) we need all singers to be on their A GAME in terms of logistics.

This gig takes a huge amount of team effort all round... we've got this singers!

REQUIRED DRESS REHEARSAL

Dress Rehearsal date:  Saturday 28th March 2026

Dress Rehearsal time: 1:20pm - 4:20pm (3hrs) / Doors open: 1pm

* Be sure to check out your travel journey ahead of time, in case there are works / lines down etc.

** Do not be late! As we're recording Showtracks, we cannot allow latecomers! So just plan your journey ahead of times lovelies ;)

Dress Rehearsal venue: East London Tabernacle Baptist Church, Burdett Rd, Bow, London E3 4TU

Dress Rehearsals are an amazing opportunity to work with a specific group of singers and Musical Director, towards a high profile performance. Polishing the numbers & going in-depth into the material, making any necessary changes to fit the venue or for specific group of singers. Please note that the rehearsal is just for polishing / purposes / not for teaching.

RECORDING SHOWTRACKS:

As usual, we will be recording Showtracks at this Dress Rehearsal, to allow us to help boost our volume (as it can be quite windy on the steps of St Paul's Cathedral, at the sound can sometimes get lost.

OFFICIAL RUNNING ORDER

TRACK: Official Warm Up announcement for audience

TRACKS: Vocal warm up tracks

TRACK: Official start of set announcement for audience

1. The Greatest Show

2. Waiting On A Wish

3. Puttin' on the Ritz / Cheek to Cheek

4. Supercali'

5. Thank You For The Music

6. Feed the Birds (from a previous Term - as this is a simple arrangement, you can learn using your harmony tracks)

TRACK: Official end of set announcement for audience

DRESS REHEARSAL & PERFORMANCE ATTIRE:

EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE ALL BLACK!

As usual, we wear our Choir t-shirt or Choir hoodie and ALL black.

https://www.westendmusicalchoir.com/store

Everything worn must be a 'true' black colour therefore no faded black or items that have coloured stitching). No part of your Choir uniform can have colour, other than the logo on your Choir t-shirt or hoodie : )

IF WEARING TIGHTS

If wearing a skirt pleasure ensure to wear black tights.

SHOES

If wearing shoes that expose part of your foot please ensure that you wear black socks = no exposed skin in those places. No open toe shoes. Your black shoes must be ALL black therefore no coloured shoe laces, stitching or soles.

As we perform to a professional level, we are extremely strict about our performance attire... we need to look as good as we sound lovelies! If you turn up to a Dress Rehearsal or Performance not in your full performance attire, you cannot perform. No exceptions lovelies!

WE WOULD PREFER NO COATS / BUT NOT REQUIREMENT

As we want everyone to look unified and for the WEMC logo to be seen, we'd love for as many singers as possible to please not wear coats.

We'd really prefer if you can please layer up and not wear coats for the actual performance. Of course still wearing black gloves, black scarfs & black hats etc.

We will just need to bring those not wearing coats to the front & have those wearing coats towards the back. But remember, as we're performing on the steps, everyone will be seen clearly and can see the Musical Director : ) All good!