Masters -- A Revue of Modern Broadway'', featuring fully-costumed extracts from some of the most popular musicals of recent years.

And modern technology is all set to score a first, with a digitally arranged and orchestrated musical accompaniment to support the 38-member cast.

This novel approach is the brainchild of Gaynor Beaumont and Steve Gallant, who are not only combining their talents to direct the show, but are also getting married next month.

The show -- originally to run six nights but extended due to overwhelming ticket demand to seven -- is sold out.

Making her debut as musical director, Gaynor Beaumont will conduct the cast in selections from Les Miserables, Miss Saigon and a long string of hits by the English composer who has dominated Broadway for more than two decades, Andrew Lloyd Webber. These will include his first great success, Jospeh and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, Cats, Aspects of Love and Phantom of the Opera.

Steve Gallant, who has been involved for about seven or eight years as a member of various choruses and in the backstage brigade, will also be directing for the first time.

They are both convinced that the idea of using computerised music is a good one. As music teacher Gaynor Beaumont explains, the BMDS would require at least 60 competent players to form an adequate orchestra for this type of music.

"And even if we could organise an orchestra, there's nowhere to put them in a tiny theatre like Daylesford.'' Admitting that, as a classical musician, she is normally "against machine music'', Gaynor Beaumont says she was won over by the authentic sounds that she and Mr. Gallant were finally able to reproduce.

"It took about six months of really painstaking work to get the effect we wanted. Before that, of course, I had to learn how to use a music computer.

But I am very pleased with the final result,'' she says.

Another advantage of using computerised music was that some of the soloists were able to listen to the accompaniment and adjust it to their personal needs. Gaynor Beaumont will conduct the singers from the booth at the back of the theatre.

Steve Gallant has drawn on his experience as a software technician with American International Company and says that the whole idea for the Daylesford revue came about when he was experimenting with computerising some of his favourite music from Phantom of the Opera.

"Once I had done that, we began to wonder if it would be possible to orchestrate an entire show -- and Broadway Masters is the result.'' He confesses that music became a high priority in his life only after he had met his future bride.

"It was quite a romantic way to meet. Gay was playing (the oboe) in the orchestra for Carousel and I was assistant stage manager. I was sitting there in the theatre one night, with my ear-phones on and suddenly our eyes met across a lighted stage. That was three years ago.'' They are inclined to think that since they met, Gaynor has become more interested in lighter forms of music, while Steve Gallant has moved ever closer to the classical circuit. So much so, that he has now commenced percussion lessons with Graham Garton at the Dunbarton School of Music (where his fiancee is also a teacher). In fact, he played the triangle in the recent Bermuda Philharmonic performance of Beethoven's 9th Symphony.

"I think we work well together as a team,'' muses Mr. Gallant. "We bounce ideas off each other. Gay knows what will work musically and I feel I know what works on the stage.'' Gaynor Beaumont, who studied at Trinity College of Music in London, teaches oboe, bassoon, piano flute and recorder.

She is well known as a classical musician in Bermuda, as a member of the Philharmonic Orchestra. She was the soloist in the Vaughan Wil liams Oboe Concerto for the Society last April (she repeated this performance in New Hampshire at the impressive Keene Concert Hall). She has also performed as a guest soloist with the Saltus Concert Society.

The two directors were, hardly surprisingly, overwhelmed with the wealth of material to choose from when they began, about a year ago, to plan the Revue and tackling the huge task of orchestrating all the selected music.

"We decided we would have to narrow the scope down, so we chose musicals by Andrew Lloyd Webber for one half of the show, and the music from Les Miserables and Miss Saigon, both written by the French composers Alain Boublil and Claude Michel Shonberg for the other half,'' explains Mr. Gallant.

They are excited by the costumes which, they say, promise to be spectacular.

"We have the Shirley family to thank for that,'' he says, "Susan Shirley and her daughters, Candy and Holly, designed and are hand-making most of them and they are quite spectacular.'' One of the encouraging aspects of the show, says Gaynor Beaumont, is that there are many "new faces'' in the cast.

"There are no `stars' in this production -- 19 people will be taking on specific characters and we have a very fine chorus. Everyone has been working very hard and we're pleased, so far!'' she says.

There will be many favourite hits featured in the show. With Bob Duffy introducing and giving a brief synopsis of each segment of the show, some of the highlights will include "Don't Cry For Me, Argentina'', from Evita, "I Don't Know How to Love Him'`, from Jesus Christ Superstar, "Memory'', from Cats, "The Last Night of the World'' from Miss Saigon and, what they describe as the biggest number of the whole show, "Music of the Night'' from Phantom of the Opera.

Dee Edmunds will take on that other essential ingredient for a successful musical, the choreography, with set design and construction under the direction of Adrian Lee-Emery. Producer is Doehee Burgess.

The Broadway Masters will be staged at Daylesford from Monday, June 14 through Sunday, June 20 at 8 p.m. nightly.

TRIO TRISTE -- Pictured from `Les Miserables' are, from left, Carly Gresham, Derek Corlet and Holly Sinclair.

MUSIC OF THE NIGHT -- From `Phantom of the Opera' are, from left, Steve Morgan, Cyanne Thomas and Alan Gilbertson.

DIRECTING DUO -- Mr. Steve Gallant and Miss Gaynor Beaumont will make their directing debuts in next week's BMDS production of The Broadway Masters, a salute to some of the most popular musicals of the last two decades.