A SUSPECTED theatrical conman has duped Borders families after lying about his career.
Newcastleton-based Gary Adams earlier this year said he was looking for teenagers to stage a production of Les Misérables.
More than 30 children signed up and went to the show’s first rehearsal in Melrose on Sunday.
But there they were told he had lied to them and did not have a license to stage the production, nor would he be granted one.
The families had paid £100 each for the young thespians to take part.
And so convincing was the musician that many parents did not believe what they were being told on Sunday.
Mr Adams is the artistic director of the charity Music Theatre Scotland (MTS) he set up with his wife Angela and theatre director Mike Lyons in 2010.
In an interview with TheSouthern in April this year he claimed to have had a 20-year career in West End musicals and played the lead role in Les Misérables.
He said he was going to stage a schools edition of the musical next year and tour Scotland with it. He also said he’d starred in Phantom of the Opera and he told parents he had been in Miss Saigon.
He told us in April: “I have lined up a number of people who are working on West End shows to come up and give advice on everything from production to directing to backstage or costumes and set designs.”
But the company of world-renowned producer Cameron Mackintosh, which owns the rights to Les Misérables, Miss Saigon, Phantom of the Opera and other productions, told us it has never heard of Mr Adams.
It has a worldwide database of every company licenced to perform any of their productions and a list of every cast member who has ever performed in them. And Mr Adams does not appear anywhere.
The news that there would be no licenced show was broken to parents in a dramatic episode at the start of Sunday’s rehearsal by Deborah Lyons, Borders representative of the National Operatic and Dramatic Association (NODA), a group that advises and helps amateur productions.
She said: “Some parents were absolutely flabbergasted because Gary is an accomplished musician, he’s a good singer and he definitely is a charismatic character.
“The children very much believed all that he has told them about the West End and that they were going to be mentored by the people from the cast of Les Misérables, and get backstage and go on tour. But he didn’t have the performing rights to do any of these things [tour or stage the show].
“He isn’t known to the people he says he is and that’s wrong, he shouldn’t be building kids’ hopes up, but he is a very plausible man. For the kids to be duped by someone like this – it shouldn’t be happening.”
She said Mr Adams produced documents at the rehearsal claiming they were performing rights certificates.
She continued: “MTS’s reaction was denial, absolute pure denial. Some of the mothers didn’t believe us or what was being read out to them and Gary asked us to leave the meeting.”
Mr Adams’ story started to unravel when a theatre-loving parent, one of a group of nearly 20 locals, went to see him perform in the Les Misérables lead role in London last month. He’d said he was covering for opera star Geronimo Rauch for two weeks and had left tickets for the group at the box office.
Closer to the time, the parent was told Mr Adams was in hospital with pneumonia. But since they were nearby they decided to go anyway and use the tickets. However, there were no tickets and the box office had never heard of Mr Adams.
“I was absolutely gobsmacked,” said the parent, whose two children were involved in the MTS production.
They added: “My children were supposed to be involved [with MTS’s Les Misérables], they were distraught in London after finding out this man had lied to them. They had never encountered anything like it before.”
Another parent said: “It’s a big deal for the kids. Many of them, even though they have been told, don’t believe it. This guy seemed so genuine.”
Cameron Mackintosh sent MTS a letter on August 22 asking the company to “cease and desist” work on Les Misérables .
The company also wrote to one of the parents saying: “We would not agree to license MTS to present Les Misérables schools edition at any time.”
It also said Mrs Adams, MTS’s administrative director, had written saying; “No final decision has been made on what musical we plan on doing in 2013” and going on: We would in no way consider proceeding with any production without first obtaining a license, nor will we advertise or suggest that we intend to mount a production without first obtaining the necessary license and authority.”
The parents who have asked for their money back have been promised it but it has not yet been returned.
Calls made by TheSouthern this week to speak to Mr Adams or anyone at Music Theatre Scotland were unreturned.