AMUSICAL amateur dramatic group are looking to Cole Porter for their next toe-tapping extravaganza.

A Swell Party will feature more than 25 of Porter’s most popular and frequently covered songs, from I’ve Got You Under My Skin to I Get a Kick Out of You.

Ian Amos, who will help bring the musical numbers to life directing Platform Musicals’ new show, says he was thrilled to be asked to work with the group again.

It marks a return to directing musicals after more than three decades concentrating on plays.

“I sang with them back in 2007 in Show Boat,” he says, “and have admired their way of bringing large musicals, rarely performed, to the small stage.

“It is 30 years since I last directed a musical. It is how I began back in the early Eighties, directing the Wivenhoe Gilbert and Sullivan Society in Patience. But after that, I was side- tracked into directing plays.”

Ian adds he has a particular soft spot for the Cole Porter musical as it was written and first staged in the West End in 1991, when he was the agent for the writer of the libretto, John Kane. “So it is good to have the opportunity to re-approach the work, this time as director,” he continues.

“It is thoroughly entertaining, telling the life of Cole Porter through his wonderful music.”

The Platform Musicals’ cast includes regulars Kim Anderson, John Davies, William Hooper and Jayne Sheeran, with Graham Bowden and Barbara Ryan taking on the roles of Porter and his wife, Linda Lee Thomas.

A Swell Party is at the Headgate Theatre, Chapel Street North, Colchester, from May 16 to 19, 7.45pm, with 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Tickets are £10, £9 concessions. Phone 01206 366000, or visit: www.headgatetheatre.co.uk