The Leicester Amateur Operatic Society began life in 1890 as ‘The Amateurs’, a title still used affectionately by its members today. Throughout its first half-century the society performed at numerous venues such as Leicester’s Royal Opera House on Silver Street, The Theatre Royal on Horsefair Street and the Palace Theatre on Belgrave Gate. These venues were sadly demolished in the mid-1900s but the society continued to thrive, becoming ‘L.A.O.S.’ in 1947 and finding a new home at De Montfort Hall in the 1960s.

 

In 1974, LAOS were proud to gain a regular slot at the newly opened Haymarket Theatre, where they performed until the theatre’s initial closure in 2003. Since then, the society returned to De Montfort Hall and The Little Theatre whilst Curve was under construction, in anticipation of presenting a sell-out of The Full Monty in Curve’s opening season in 2009. 

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LAOS returned to the Haymarket Theatre in 2018 and 2019, The Little Theatre in 2022 and 2023, and we will make a triumphant return to Curve in 2024.