Talented teenagers christened their school’s new theatre by taking on ambitious roles usually played by actors twice their age.

Sixth Form students at newly rebuilt Langley Park School for Boys in Beckenham delighted audiences with their American accents and powerful singing voices in Stephen Sondheim’s Company last week.

The adult-themed production was the premier public performance at the state-of-the-art 600-capacity theatre.

Company centres on Robert, a single man unable to commit to a steady relationship, his best friends – who are married couples – and his casual girlfriends.

Set in the early 1970s, upper-middle-class Manhattan and told through a series of vignettes in no particular chronological order, each character and scene is linked by Robert’s 35th birthday.

Martin Costello, director of the Broadway Theatre in Catford, directed the production which ran for three nights with a cast of 14.

News Shopper: Young actors tackle ambitious roles

He said: “It was really fantastic.

“The theatre is absolutely magnificent – you have to see it to believe it.

“I produced Company professionally at our theatre about seven years ago so I know it very well and it’s a really tough show to do so I was a bit nervous but the talent was awesome.

“It was a very small cast for a school production and it’s an incredibly difficult score to sing but they were amazingly talented.

“It was a challenge but they all certainly rose to it and it was very well received.”

Martin’s gifted young cast acted like true professionals when it came to portraying older characters.

He added: “The story is about angst-ridden, neurotic New Yorkers which does not come easily to 17-year-old Londoners.

“But they were all way ahead of the standard I would have expected.

“Some had New York accents and others sounded slightly Southern, but what cosmopolitan group of friends doesn’t have mix of different accents?”