National Operatic and Dramatic Association Award
David Wood was the recipient of a National Operatic and Dramatic Association Musical Director of the Year award in 1987 for the theatre season 1986/7.
David received the award for his musical direction of the Meredith Willson musical 'The Music Man' which originally opened on Broadway at the Majestic Theatre in 1957, and arrived in the London's West End at the Adelphi Theatre in 1961.
The 1957 Broadway show was a hit on Broadway and won five Tony Awards (including Best Musical) and ran for 1,375 performances. The original Broadway cast recording won the first ever 'Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album' and spent 245 weeks on the Billboard charts.
Although the musical's signature tune has become 'Seventy-Six Trombones'; the musical's beautiful love song 'Till There Was You' was a 1959 US Top 40 hit for Anita Bryant, released by the Beatles in 1963, and covered by everyone from the Chet Atkins and Peggy Lee, to Ray Charles and Rod Stewart.
Founded in 1899, the National Operatic and Dramatic Association – aka NODA – is the national body that represents amateur theatre with around 2,000 society members and over 1,000 individuals staging musicals, operas, plays, concerts and pantomimes.