Showbiz Queenstown will be hoping audiences ask for more when it stages the revival version of Oliver! in May next year.
The society will hold auditions in mid-February and will assign the heads of its artistic and production teams over the next six weeks.
Showbiz president Marty Newell said the musical director and production manager would be the first positions to be finalised.
Showbiz is seeking expressions of interest for them and other department heads.
Wellington musical theatre director Stephen Robertson has signed on as the director.
He made his stage debut playing Oliver at age 12 and directed Grease for Showbiz in 2008.
Mr Newell said the dozen committee members of the society unanimously agreed to stage Oliver! at a meeting last month.
"Oliver! was chosen as a way for us to get more of the community involved in theatre again. Even though Les Miserables and Grease did have some children, this show expands the cast from 8 to 80."
The budget has yet to be finalised, but costumes were likely to be sourced from other shows held around the country, he said.
"We want to keep production values to the standard audiences expect from Showbiz Queenstown productions. We're not taking any backward steps."
More than 3000 theatre-lovers flocked to see the society's $100,000 production of Les Miserables last May.
Mr Newell said Les Miserables was a success on many levels.
"It was a financial success and in Showbiz Queenstown's relationship building with other societies around New Zealand and it was also a success from the response we got from local audiences."
Oliver! is a British musical, with music and lyrics by Lionel Bart, and is based on the novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens.
It features the popular songs Food, Glorious Food, As Long As He Needs Me, Consider Yourself, Oom Pah Pah and You've Got to Pick a Pocket or Two.
It premiered in the West End in 1960 and enjoyed a long run, followed by a successful Broadway production in 1963 and further tours and revivals.
It was made into a musical film in 1968 and remade in 2005.
Building on the success of the 2005 Roman Polanski film of Oliver Twist, a new West End production opened in January 2009, starring Rowan Atkinson as Fagin.
• Residents interested in getting involved with the production are invited to contact Showbiz Queenstown secretary Hilary Finnie at hilary.finnie@xtra.co.nz
