Stagecoach worth the money?

[EWeatherwax]

Hi sorry another very general question - anybody used stagecoach ? worth the money for a DD6 - very uncoordinated and terrible singer but very enthusiastic lol

My eldest son, 9, has been in Stagecoach for a couple of years. It isn't cheap but he is having great fun. He is now much more confident and has turned into an excellent singer. His acting and dancing are also good. Earlier this year he got a part in the touring production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as one of the sewer children for 3 weeks while it was on at the Liverpool Empire. All the children of appropriate age in nearby Stagecoach groups were invited to audition and he was one of the successful ones. He seemed really at home on the stage and he now wants to be an actor when he grows up. If there are any agents out there who want to represent the next Daniel Radcliffe...

It is a franchise chain and I don't know how hot they are on quality control, so I don't know if ours is representative. On the negative side the fees make it quite an expensive activity and you will need to buy jazz shoes (which they can supply) and appropriate clothing (ours likes the children to wear Stagecoach T-shirts). Even if your child wants to go on stage I wouldn't join the Stagecoach Agency as they charge a large annual fee with no guarantee of work - our son didn't need to join the agency to get his role but the agency did take a cut of his earnings.

Thanks prh - She has lots of confidence but is socially quite young and loves dancing and singing.

I think it really varies from Stagecoach to Stagecoach as it is a franchise. My DD went for 3 yrs and has just stopped. She enjoyed it but I have to say I was deeply unimpressed with the end of term parent perfomrances they did for us, nothing special, she is only 6 so fine but the older kids showed no signs of doing anything better, singing was average, dancing average, stage presence awful to be honest. There are lots of other similar establishments around if you look, I had no idea - she has changed to doing one on a school night which suits us better, it is only an hour long so a third of the cost and so far so good. They are doing a big annual production in March too which we never got with three years of stage coach. I would see what else is out there or get some feedback about the stage coach you are considering.

Stagecoach is super expensive - they do 2 or 3 hr sessions and the cost is a lot (IMO) per hour so it mounts up.

I am talking more than £100 per month just for fees.

A friend of DD's goes and really enjoys it and has had lots of parts in shows tho (inc Chitty as prh says).

My DD has got involved with a local am dram group and the cost is obv a lot less (like, very little) and they are very impressive IMO. The downside is that yr DD is prob too young for similar groups (they mostly start at 8/9) or even council-run youth theatre groups.