Production Officials
Director	David Tyldsley
Musical Director	Kenneth Bayliss
Choreographer	Eunice Ogden
Cast
Lavender Brown	Rosemary Nightingale
Lily Brown	Susan Briggs
Rose Brown	Christine Roberts
Daisy Brown	Mary Whittaker
Violet Brown	Glenys Poole
Willie	Clive Austin
Sam	John McGuire
Joe	James Unsworth
Tom	Gordon Green
Captain Brown	Ernest Pollitt
Uncle Fred	Harry Lee
Bob Brown	Ken McMinn
Chrysanthemum Brown	Irene Taylor
Ma Carroty	Freda Wigson
Mary Ann Blessington-Briggs	Glenys Entwistle
John Blessington-Briggs	Arnold Knowles
Emily	Brenda Dixon
James	Tom Topping
Pepe	Robin Foster
Ching Loo	Jeff Taylor
Policeman	Edwin Williams
Cynthia Potts	Audrey Raistrick
Edith Hackett	Brenda Dixon
Monica	Helen Bennett
Fourth Suffragette	Dorothy Yardley
Horace	Maurice Windsor
Chorus
Audrey Austin, Dorothy Bramwell, Sylvia Fishwick, Chris Foster, Millie Hackett, Barbara Haslam, Carol Lever, Joyce Richardson, Linda Salt, Mary Topping, Jane Trotman, Janice Warburton, Maureen Wright

Bolton Evening News

Chrysanthemum Brown went for the morning milk. That little chore had some pretty unexpected consequences, including a trip to Buenos Aires, kidnappings, assignations, re-assignations, discoveries, opium dens, conflagrations and visits to the Skull and Chopsticks. This odd mixture is the sum and substance of “Chrysanthemum” a sort of musical play by Neville Phillips and Robin Chancellor with music by Robb Stewart, which the Walmsley Church Amateur Operatic Society are putting on at the church hall all this week. It may sound a bit confusing but it all seems quite logical at the time and this is much to the credit of David Tyldsley, the producer, who contrives to keep the action fast moving. For some of this he is, in turn, indebted to the stage staff, who cope with innumerable changes of scene with that efficiency for which they are already famous. This time they bring off a heavy rainstorm  and a fire with complete success. Irene Taylor is a lively, attractive Chrysanthemum and Arnold Knowles supports her well as the slightly stuffy John Blessington-Briggs. Both sing and dance charmingly. Glenys Entwistle, as Mary, and Ken McMinn as Bob, provide a secondary or sub-romance – nothing is stinted in this show. Good characterisations come from Ernest Pollitt as Capt Brown, Harry Lee as Uncle Fred and from a whole host of sisters, firemen, Chinese and suffragettes. The music is good and under musical director Kenneth Bayliss the company sing it with conviction. C.P.

Manchester Evening News

This saga of Miss Chrysanthemum Brown, who went out for the morning milk and returned three years later an abandoned woman, is a send up of melodrama with all the pitfalls this implies for amateurs. It was no saving grace for poor Chrysanthemum that she did not forget the milk, for was she not a wanton woman. But Walmsley Church Operatic Society were not exactly innocents abroad. They had two saving graces at their Egerton, Bolton school room Irene Taylor as the flame of Buenos Aires, and Arnold Knowles as the greenhorn of Greenwich, the primly proper Mr Blessington- Briggs. This was brilliant casting. I cannot think of two other players who would be so
exactly right for the parts and who could complement each other in two such completely contrasting characterisations as perfectly as they did. An audience which began the evening in dubious mood finished it eating out of their hands and relishing every morsel of well timed wit and sly innuendo. There were other neat character cameos - Dorothy Yardley was a splendid principal dancer - and some imaginative production touches by David Tyldesley, including the ship impression in a chorus ensemble. But this show unmistakably belonged to Irene and Arnold, who have given this remarkable church society another show hit. Tom Wildern