WITH big numbers, big costumes and big characters, Hello Dolly is one of the best-loved classic Broadway shows.

Next week, it’ll be given the Morgan Academy of Performing Arts treatment when a cast aged between six and 18 give it youthful energy at the Palace Theatre, Westcliff.

Director Vanda Morgan, principal of the Leigh academy, says the cast are all excited ahead of next Wednesday’s curtain up.

“It’s wonderful working with children,” she says. “You just get so much back from them. They’re all extremely excited, which is great, just how you want it to be building up to it.

“They’re now all trying on costumes, which builds a whole new sense of excitement and makes it all the more real.”

Describing the plot she says: “It’s set in the 1890s and it’s about Dolly Levi, who’s a matchmaker, and Horace Vandergelder.

“There are other characters, Cornelius and Barnaby, who work for Vandergelder, Mrs Molloy and Minnie Fay and Vandergelder’s niece Ermen-garde and her beau Ambrose Kemper.

“They’re the main eight character really. It’s about Dolly’s matchmaking. She wants to marry Horace Vandergelder herself, but she puts other people in the way so she seems the best option of all. It’s just a lovely romantic story.”

Featuring songs, including Put on Your Sunday Clothes, Before the Parade and, of course, the sweeping title number Hello Dolly, the musical is one of the most enduring and popular of the Broadway catalogue.

Vanda says the result is all the more rewarding when she’s working with the youngsters, who relish the chance to get on stage.

“It’s just something I do every now and then,” she says. “I do my own dancing shows with the school regularly, but this gives them a more theatrical experience of doing an actual show.

“It’s a better learning curve if they’re interested in the theatre, it’s an opportunity to see how a show runs, rehearsing it from start to finish and the build-up gives them the experience.”

Vanda is looking forward to seeing her young charges on stage and adds: “I love to see them get so much out of it. It’s very good for their confidence.”

Hello Dolly, Palace Theatre, London Road, Westcliff, July 6-9, 7.30pm. Thursday and Saturday matinee 2.30pm, £10-£16, 01702 351135.