Theatre Trips
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Calendar Girls
Standing
Camilla Dallerup, Kathryn Rooney, Sue Holderness, Helen Fraser, Lesley Joseph, Kacey Ainsworth
Seated
Deena Payne
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One of the things that we have really enjoyed doing is visiting the Theatre whether it be locally in Cornwall or Devon, or more widely in London.
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The O2 from the Emirates Cable Car
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We have been to two live concerts many years apart. Andrew and Mary took us to see Gloria Estefan at Wembley Arena back in November 1996. We were in the back row and it was not easy to see what was going on. There was, however, no problem hearing, in fact the noise rebounded from the wall behind us and I had to cover my ears whenever the saxophone started wailing. The second concert was much more easy on the ears. This one was to see Andre Rieu at the O2 Arena on 17th December 2012. Despite the fact that we were way up at the top of the arena, we thoroughly enjoyed the concert and found the O2 easy to negotiate despite its size.
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December 2012 - Covent Garden
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I had arranged this trip for Maria’s birthday and our Wedding Anniversary and coupled it with a visit to see ‘The Lion King’ at The Lyceum Theatre, which is a fabulous show. We have seen it again in Plymouth and although it was good, somehow it didn’t have the same impact as the first visit. Whilst we were in London on this trip we also had a ride on the Emirates Airways Cable Car, which is an interesting experience although walking around on the north side of the Thames was disappointing because there did not seem much to do and see. It was, however, lovely to walk around London just before Christmas and see all the decorations. We were particularly taken with the huge ‘Rudolph’ in Covent Garden and ‘Winter Wonderland’ in Hyde Park.
Newquay Amateur Operatic Society
For some years when we lived in Newquay we would support the local Amateur Operatic Society who would put on a musical event at Tretherras School. I was particularly taken with the actor who played Professor Higgins in ‘My Fair Lady’. He was superb. One other memorable occasion was when we arrived to find that the leading lady in ‘Annie Get your Gun’ had been taken ill. A stand-in had been found but she didn’t know all of the dialogue and songs and spent the whole performance referring to a script that she held in one hand. All things considered, she performed brilliantly.
Newquay Dramatic Society
We also supported the ‘Lane Theatre’ in Newquay, home of Newquay Dramatic Society, where we saw mostly comedies including ‘‘Allo, ‘Allo’, ‘Run for your Wife’ and ‘No Sex Please, We’re British’. We haven’t been since we moved out of Newquay so perhaps it is a case of out of sight, out of mind so to speak. One other reason is that some of the people who were heavily involved with the theatre worked for Safeway/Morrisons and when Maria stopped working there we lost touch with them. One very different production was put on by the ‘Pyramid Theatre Company’ and was called ‘All Shook Up’. It dealt with the problem of Type 2 Diabetes. The cast of three played a total of eight characters who were involved in one way or another with diabetes. The play centred around Frank who was a 45 year old lorry driver by day and Elvis impersonator by night. It was incredibly well done and I think that everyone in the audience learned something about diabetes, including two health professionals present. The shame of it was the size of the audience, which cannot have been more than 15. For a free evening’s educational entertainment, that was a great pity. I learned from the cast that they had had audiences as low as 4 in number. I guess that a combination of indifference to a serious health problem and lack of advertising was to blame.
Hall for Cornwall
The Hall for Cornwall, as may be imagined, has been a regular haunt for us. Shows that we seen include ‘Laughter in the Rain, the Neil Sedaka Story’ and a quite a few musical offerings including a number of ‘Abba’ and ‘Rolling Stones’ tribute bands and The Central Band of the Royal Air Force.
We have seen at least two Amateur productions, those being ‘Oklahoma’ and ‘The King and I’. Maria and I thoroughly enjoyed the Truro Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society’s version of The King and I. I was slightly worried to start with because the basic story, although it has many light moments, is quite serious and the definitive King played on screen by Yul Brynner is a hard act to follow. As the story progressed however, it became obvious that this was a really good production with splendid singing from the lead characters. The children were wonderful and the fact that the younger ones had a habit of looking to the audience at odd times (presumably searching for their families) was very endearing. I thought it a shame that the youngsters could not take the curtain call because it was too late for them to be on stage. I understand the reasoning but I am sure that they would have got an outstanding reception. There were many young children in the audience and I would imagine that they struggled at times to make sense of it all but the support for friends and family is always important in amateur productions and that support was certainly evident on the night.
Maria, Annette and I went to see Jane McDonald in June 2009. The show was excellent with plenty of songs, mixed up with some comedic stories including plenty of references to ‘Loose Women’. As backing, there were a musical director/keyboard player, a brass section of three, two guitarists, a drummer and three backing singers so plenty of noise. The theatre was almost full with the only two empty seats that we could see being right next to us. Speaking of seats, I must remember not to buy seats less than 10 feet from the speakers! I know that I am old, but I still like to guard my hearing.
As asides, I have two little stories associated with the audience members. When we were passing through the ticket checks, an elderly woman, using a wheeled walking aid, arrived very slowly and asked the ticket check lady for assistance to reach her seat; this happened to be almost immediately in front of us. The front of house manager duly arrived and she was helped to her seat. Very good of the theatre to be so concerned you might think! The trouble was that towards the end of the performance, this same woman suddenly got out of her seat unaided and got down to the stage rail and promptly jigged around quite happily.
The second story is about the woman immediately in front of me. She was very noisy and was obviously a great fan of Jane. I am not sure what was in her water bottle but, by the time the second half came around, she was, to put it politely, rather sozzled, so much so that, at one stage, she slumped in her seat, leaned her head back onto my knee and fell asleep briefly! Sorry, I cannot understand the wish to pay good money to see a live concert and then not know what is going on. As Sir Terry Wogan would say "Is it me?"
Never mind, we all enjoyed ourselves and we got the chance to see Jane again on 25th June 2010; once again a great show but this time without the problems with the audience and further away from the speakers.
One very interesting night out was to see Ken Dodd. Ken was well known for exceeding the normal times for the show and our show was no different as we got out sometime around midnight. Mind you we had been warned; as he said “if you have a baby sitter at home, by the time you get back, your children will be adults”. It has to be said that he was great value for money, very funny and not a swear word within hearing.
We saw ‘Calendar Girls’ for the second time in Truro in June 2011. I chose the lead picture for this chapter from the Hall for Cornwall publicity for this show. (I wonder why?)
Having seen Chicago at the Adelphi in London we saw it a second time at the Hall for Cornwall in July 2012. It is not my favourite show but the touring version was better for us because we knew the story and some of the cast were familiar from various television programmes.
I think that we have seen ‘Buddy’ three times now, the last two being at the Hall for Cornwall in 2003 and 2006 having previously seen it in London in about 1996 with Andrew and Mary. I love the show because of the music, which brings back memories of my latter day teenage years. Maria is not quite so keen.
We have seen Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat twice at the Hall for Cornwall, firstly in August 2003. In 2009 Maria, Annette and went again and the lead was played by Craig Chalmers who was one of the finalists in the BBC show, ‘Any Dream Will Do’, that chose Lee Mead to star in the West End version of the show. We had booked quite a while before the show started and managed to get seats in the second row on Wednesday but, as the due date came closer, I realised that we had also managed to book a holiday in Madeira and we were due to fly from Bristol on the same Wednesday. Oh bother!! Now, the only date that we could actually get to the show was on the Tuesday, which happened to be opening night. Well we did manage to get seats on the second row, but this time they were second row from the back! Never mind, the show was excellent and we had a splendid evening.
Because we both enjoy watching ‘Strictly Come Dancing’, we got tickets to see Brendon Cole in Truro in January 2013. He and his company could certainly dance but I am not sure that we would not want to see it again.
Our most recent theatre trip was to see Vincent Simone and Flavia Cacace in ‘Dance ‘til Dawn’ at the Hall for Cornwall on 19th June 2014. We were expecting to see a lot of dancing, and we were right there, but there was a little story to go with it and some very corny, but extremely entertaining, dialogue held together by a very good storyteller. A surprisingly enjoyable afternoon.
Theatre Royal, Plymouth.
‘We have had fairly regular visits to the Theatre Royal in Plymouth, some of the more memorable shows have been ‘Seven Brides for Seven Brothers’ and ‘Singing in the Rain’ in June and August 2002 respectively. Thank goodness we weren’t in the front rows of the stalls for the latter show; people got very wet.
In 2006 we saw ‘White Christmas’, starring Craig McLaghlan, of ‘Neighbours’ fame, and Ken Kercheval, from ‘Dallas’ and in 2009 we saw the same show, this time starring Aled Jones playing the Bing Crosby part. We have also seen ‘West Side Story’ and I have to say that the girl who played the part of Maria was absolutely brilliant.
In 2008, I had booked on-line for ‘Calendar Girls’, starring Linda Bellingham, Patricia Hodge, Sian Phillips, Gaynor Faye, Brigit Forsyth, Julia Hills and Elaine C Smith, but could only get seats in the Upper Circle. Once we had parked, we went to the theatre and asked whether we could get better seats and were pleasantly surprised to get a couple of seats in the middle of Row H in the stalls.
Princess Theatre, Torquay.
We have had one trip to this theatre, which was to see ‘Starlight Express’. This is an unusual show, which includes wearing 3D glasses for some periods so that the races between the Trains become very interesting and not a little alarming when crashes occur and various bits fly out towards the audience. The show was also memorable for me because, whilst I was applauding at the end of the show, my signet ring disappeared. That would have been the third or fourth ring that I have lost so no more. We had organised this visit to Torbay so that we could have a look around Paignton. This was mainly for me because my Mum was born there. We had an overnight stay in a Bed and Breakfast establishment about which the less said the better, except that the Breakfast was very good. It was a very cold weekend.
London Theatres.
In November 2001, I had arranged to see ‘Les Miserables’, and we had been invited to stay with Mick and Sue MEPHAM in Crowborough as part of a short holiday. On the way into London, I also arranged to meet Winifred GAY in Strood about which more in chapter 41. In those days there was no charge to drive into London and I used to drive to the Union Jack Club, arriving from the west. On this occasion I was obviously coming from the south, and without Satnav, so I planned the route carefully to drive via the Elephant & Castle to a roundabout on the south side of Westminster Bridge, then turn right onto York Road right at Waterloo roundabout and left to the Union Jack Club - simple. Unfortunately, when I got to the Westminster roundabout I couldn’t turn right and ended up over the bridge with no idea of where I was. After much driving around, we spotted a bus that was going to Waterloo and followed it, stops included, until we got back across the river. As for ‘Les Miserables’, I believe that it had been running for about 17 years at the time although we knew nothing about it. We had great seats in the front row of the Circle and thoroughly enjoyed the show. We would enjoy it much more these days because we know so much more about the story and the music.
One day we were wandering around Leicester Square wondering whether we could fit in a show when we came across a little place with a girl trying to sell show tickets. When we enquired whether there was anything for that evening, we were lucky enough to get two tickets in the stalls to see ‘We Will Rock You’. The cost was about £50. When we arrived and took our seats, we spoke to the people next to us who had booked some six months in advance and paid £50 for each ticket! Not only was it a great show but it was relatively cheap and we were very pleased with ourselves.
I cannot remember precise dates but we have also seen ‘The King and I’ at the London Palladium sometime between 2000 & 2002. There was also ‘Grease’, which was at the Cambridge Theatre, between 1996 & 1999, starring Luke Goss as Danny. The show seemed to be overly noisy to me and it detracted from the singing, particularly the girl who played Sandy.
Other shows include ‘Miss Saigon’, at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, which ran from 1989 to 1999; I would guess that we saw it sometime after 1997; Maria particularly liked this show although I was not so keen. ‘Phantom of the Opera’ was a show that we both enjoyed but I could not tell you who played the lead roles. Once again at the London Palladium we saw ‘Oliver’ with Russ Abbott as Fagin, probably towards the end of 1996. We saw ‘My Fair Lady’ at a matinee performance after my back became so painful that I could not walk around any more shops!!!,
We have seen at least three shows with Dot and John WASTELL . At the London Palladium, between 2002 & 2005, we saw ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’; on this occasion, the Car, which was most definitely the Star, worked perfectly all evening; it had been known to get stuck on occasion. The Child Catcher was played by Richard O’Brien and the sight of him disappearing in a net up into the roof of the theatre was quite a sight. I guess that it would have been 1998 that we travelled out to Hammersmith Apollo to see Philip Schofield in Doctor Dolittle. We thoroughly enjoyed the show although we did have trouble finding our way across various roads to get into the theatre. And then there was ‘Mama Mia’. Before we went to the theatre, we had a meal and poor Dot shook a bottle of ketchup but unfortunately the top was not attached. Ketchup flew everywhere, including onto the very gelled hair of a lady sitting next to us. Fortunately, she was very understanding and we managed to get out without a lawsuit attached. This incident did not spoil the show however, which was tremendous. The scene in the show with all the men wearing flippers was particularly memorable.
The other show that we saw with friends was ‘Dirty Dancing’, which we saw with Mick and Sue MEPHAM. We had been staying at their home in Crowborough and travelled up to London by train and spent a lot of time walking around London visiting the National Gallery along the way. We had a pre-theatre meal at the Criterion Restaurant in Piccadilly before catching a taxi to the show. Although I love the film, the show did not have the same impact even though the dancing was very good indeed. After the show, we got into another taxi and caught one of the last trains back to East Sussex and home.
It will be noticed that we appear to be addicted to musicals and this is true. My love of musicals started in about 1956 when I first saw the film of ‘Seven Brides for Seven Brothers’ and Maria has adopted my love whilst Annette has inherited it. It is very good for a marriage when there is some common ground where entertainment is concerned.
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