It’s been a long wait for Richelle Brundle, but when the curtain goes up on the latest Lytton Players show she’s finally going to be among the Angels.

Richelle – who is playing Carla in the musical homage to the Hollywood film noir – was away at university the last time the Stevenage company staged the musical back in 2000.

She managed to see the show and loved it, and she’s been lobbying for City Of Angels to return to the programme at the company’s Vardon Road base every since.

But just as it seemed that her dream would be realised, the actor picked to play one of the leads dropped out a month into rehearsals.

Lichelle, right, was not to be denied – she suggested Stephen Deaville, who played the character of Stine in that original production 15 years earlier.

They’re still good good friends, Stephen got the part and with his previous experience of the role slotted in smoothly.

The curtain goes up on the show on Wednesday, October 14, and runs through to Sunday, October 18. Evening performances are at 7.45pm and there’s a Saturday matinee at 2.30pm.

The show is a musical comedy with music by Cy Coleman and lyrics by David Zippel, and the book was created by Larry Gelbart, the veteran screen and TV writer best known for long-running Korean conflict comedy M*A*S*H. It weaves together two plots, the ‘real’ world of a writer trying to turn his book into a screenplay, and the ‘reel’ world of the fictional gangster goings-on.

Although it’s a tribute to the golden age of gritty black and white dramas of the 1940s, it was first performed on the West Coast in 1989.

It’s won a string of awards in its time, including Olivier awards in London both for its original run in 1994 and a recent revival at the Donmar Warehouse.

Tickets are £11 with concessions of £8.50 available on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinee. Call 01438 357407 or visit www.lyttonplayers.co.uk to reserve yours.