The much anticipated Parkes Musical and Dramatic Society's production of Les Misérables opened to a full house on Saturday night and was followed up by another maximum capacity house for the Sunday matinee.
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Co-Director Neil Westcott said he feels it's one of the best shows the society has produced in his 40 year association with it.
"I am just so proud of the whole team," he said.
"The performance of the cast on stage was exemplary and put that with the new captioning, the wonderful band, the tech site we have as well as the wonderful set - it was an experience to behold.
"The response from the audience was of a range of emotions that went from being ecstatic with the performance to just the sheer range of emotions that Les Mis gives to you as you sit through it."
In what has been described as a first in known history for regional theatre, the production features captions allowing people with a hearing impairment or those who may have difficulty understanding the sung dialogue to easily follow the story.
Neil said the feedback has been very positive.
"The captions seem to have been received really well," he said.
"Les Mis is a story and like reading a book you get engrossed in the story.
"You could feel it on the night - people were in the story, they felt the anguish, they felt the humor and the dilemmas that go through that story - it certainly pulls at your heartstrings.
Les Misérables continues for three more weekends, finishing on the October long weekend.
"There are still tickets available for all shows," Neil said.
"As usual, after the opening weekend tickets move more quickly because once people again get the message reinforcing that Parkes M and D really do put on a good value, quality performance word gets out and away we go."
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