On the evening of October 30, 1932, an all Boy Scout review entitled "The Gangs All Here" began a three night season at the Scala Theatre in London England. It was put on in the hopes of raising funds to pay for a swimming pool at a permanent scout camp at Downe in Kent.
In 1934 a cherubic 13 year old joined 150 fellow Boy Scouts to take part in the "Gang Show" produced by Ralph Reader at London's Scala Theatre. Some 25 years later In 1959 that same boy, Les Maynard, though a little older, was busily organising and producing the first "Gang Show" in Auckland, New Zealand. and on the evening of 12 September 1959, the North Shore Scout Gang Show began a two night season with a cast of 57 Boys and 7 Leaders. The Saturday night performance was held at Takapuna Grammar School and the Monday night performance at the now non-existant "555" Theatre in Browns Bay. The stated intention was to raise funds for a scout campsite on the North Shore. Today "Camp Maynard" at Albany is a living testimony to the fact that those objectives have been met.
Since then, many a young scout, or leader for that matter, was guided and cajoled into giving their best performance at a "Gang Show" by that same man until his final curtain call in 1984.
In 1965, North Shore Scouts and leaders joined with their brothers from across the water (the Waitemata Harbour) and put on the first Auckland Area Gang Show. This was staged at His Magesty's Theatre in Auckland City.
The Auckland Area Gang Show, as it was then known, continued until 1969 when the Gang returned to the North Shore and was again truly the North Shore Gang Show. At the same time the Auckland Central Gang Show began, giving us two Gangs in the Auckland Metropolitan area.
Over the years North Shore Gang Show have played in various venues on the North Shore and have taken their show to other upper North Island centres including, Whangarei, Hamilton and Tauranga.
The two Gangs in the Auckland area now stage shows in alternate years and the respective Gangs regularly patronise each others shows giving encouragement, support and friendly banter to the respective casts.
Since 1984 the North Shore Gang Show has continued to evolve until in 2000 the show organisers were unable to get sufficient numbers to Audition for that show. With a modified structure designed for smaller cast and a move to The PumpHouse Theatre in Takapuna the 31st season was staged to mainly full houses. 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016 & 2018 seasons were once again at The PumpHouse. In 2020 in the middle of Auditions the show was cancelled due to COVID. Now for 2022 we will once again take the stage at The PumpHouse with what promises to be another great show for what will be our 40th season.