I've got a little cat, and I'm very fond of that

From Victoria to Elizabeth: The Songs Go On! 86 Glorious Years of London's Famous Players' Theatre - the title says it all, really! Saturday's matinee show at the quaint Phoenix Artists Club by Britain's longest-serving Music Hall troupe was a brilliantly entertaining affair, and did indeed feature a vast range of songs from the centuries spanning both Queens' reigns; such standards as My Old Man Said Follow the Van, Hold Your Hand Out You Naughty Boy, A Little of What You Fancy (Does You Good), There's Something About a Sailor, Joshua, Joshua, On Mother Kelly's Doorstep, Dear Old Pals, Give Me The Moonlight, A Bird in a Gilded Cage and (the hilariously-performed) Oh, Oh, Antonio to name but a few, taking in Gilbert & Sullivan and Sandy Wilson for good measure, and we loved it.

We sang our hearts out, applauded like mad and congratulated the troupers after the event - including their new Honorary Vice President (the former "boy wonder of the piano") Mr Bobby Crush!

Host (and Chairman of the Players) Lee Taylor held proceedings together with his narratives about the long history of the Players Theatre Company - including the stars who launched their careers in the troupe, such as Clive Dunn, Peter Ustinov and Hattie Jacques, and the fact that that worldwide smash musical The Boy Friend began as a commission by the Players.

It was of course long-serving Players' Theatre stalwart Miss Jan Hunt who really "stole the show" - especially her brilliant Daddy Wouldn't Buy Me a Bow-Wow:

She, and the whole company, deserve glowing praise (yet again!) for giving us such a brilliant show.

Diverting somewhat (but not too far) away from the weekend's jolly japes, this being a Tacky Music Monday I think you too, dear reader, deserve nothing less than a good old-fashioned sing-a-long to lift the spirits! And here are some classics for you, starting with the very number Miss Hunt sang, performed here by a lady whose roots were also in Music Hall before she went on to bigger and brighter things:

Jessie Matthews - Daddy Wouldn't Buy Me a Bow Wow

From the biopic of the greatest Music Hall artiste of them all:

Jessie Wallace as Marie Lloyd - My Old Man Said Follow the Van

Quite a "surprise, surprise" indeed, from Cilla:

Cilla Black's Music Hall (clip from Surprise, Surprise!)

And to finish, a marvellous medley of mirth, merriment and musical mellifluousness (Oooh!):

Georgia Brown - British Music Hall Medley

Have a good week, “raise the roof — and to hell with the London, Chatham and Dover Railway!” *

[* read more about that in the New York Times, of all places]

No homo!

Russ, Joe and I got last-minute tickets to see a rare gem on Sunday - a traditional cabaret session in one of the quirkiest of throwbacks to "Old Soho" (and rapidly becoming one of our favourite haunts), the "compact and bijou" Phoenix Artist Club on Charing Cross Road.

This was not a big-name show by any stretch of the imagination, but the excellent voices of our performers - Matt Bateman (Phantom of the Opera - Her Majesty’s Theatre, Crazy For You - Watermill Theatre), Shani Cantor (Boys in the Buff - Kings Head Theatre, FatBusters The Musical - Park Theatre), Christina Meehan (Mamma Mia - Royal Caribbean, Thoroughly Modern Millie - Landor Theatre) and Jamie Ross (Footloose - UK & Belgium Tour, Loserville - Union Theatre) - were polished, professional and utterly bewitching. Mr Ross in particular was very pleasing to the eye...

Their self-chosen repertoire, too, was largely unknown (well, with one or two exceptions, it was to us, anyhow!), but melded beautifully - songs loosely tied together on the subject of self-doubt, hesitance and longing for love, such as these two hilarious numbers:

Anderson Davis and Natalie Weiss - The Temp and the Receptionist (by Kooman and Dimond)

Matt DeAngelis and Brandon Ellis - The Bro Duet (by Alexander Sage Oyen)

Utter genius - and in the hands of our talented foursome, part of a fantastic afternoon's entertainment.

I sincerely hope this becomes a regular event at the Phoenix Club; I most certainly will be clamouring for a seat!

"Frying tonight!"

We've had a bit of a hectic weekend, all told - topped off by spending five-and-a-half hours in the blazing sunshine (the hottest day of the year so far) revisiting the magnificence of Kew Gardens today...

But yesterday afternoon was spent in far different surroundings - the Phoenix Artist Club, a gloriously atmospheric (and "typically Soho") basement members' club under the Phoenix Theatre. And what would possibly draw us away from the delights of hot'n'steamy London in midsummer?

An audience with the timeless siren Miss Fenella Fielding, of course!

Now in her 90th year, Miss Fielding is one of the most captivating of "English eccentrics", and, although frail, remains utterly composed, witty and adroit. Most famous for her on-screen "posh vamp" roles in such movies as Drop Dead Darling, The Old Dark House, and, of course, her most famous role as "Valeria Watt" in Carry On Screaming, nevertheless her long, long acting career has encompassed many stage roles of a "weightier" (if wildly disparate) nature - including in plays by Ibsen, Shakespeare and Henry James, a one-woman show on the life and works of Collette, a musical version of Ronald Firbank's Valmouth, a dramatised performance of the letters between Nancy Mitford and Evelyn Waugh, and revues written by Harold Pinter(!) and Peter Cook.

And it was for her sumptuous reading of chapters from her memoir (named after the most-quoted line from Carry On Screaming - "Do you mind if I smoke?") that we devoted our Saturday. She has all the gen" on many of the famous names of theatre and film - she turned Fellini down for a role he was chasing her for; and worked with numerous stars of her day including Ron Moody (who encouraged her early career), Kenneth Williams, Dirk Bogarde, Tony Curtis and Janette Scott. Yet, had her parents (particularly her father) had their way, she would never have got to RADA, nor landed the parts in revue that began her career. One of the anecdotes she gave us was of her experiences of running away, ending up in rather swanky yet Bohemian digs in Mayfair, and how her mother and auntie finally caught up with her (as she was in the bath!).

Other pieces she read included her time as a tutor for drama students - imparting such invaluable advice on "technique" as how to sit in a chair on stage without fumbling, performing in panto, and how to successfully do an "audience aside"; and she also treated us to some little vignettes of Fenella the naive schoolgirl, such as this one:

Fenella Fielding at the Phoenix - The less you know, the easier it is to get into trouble

This was a superb event, and we loved it!

Facts:

• Miss Fielding was turned down the role of the first female "Avenger" opposite Patrick McNee, in favour of Honor Blackman.
• In The Prisoner, hers was the voice of the Village Announcer throughout the series.
• She was the voice of "the Blue Queen" in cult children's classic Dougal and the Blue Cat.
• Her older brother (also still alive) is the Tory peer Lord Feldman.

Fenella has one further date in the series of readings to promote her memoir, but she has many more plans up her sleeve and shows no sign of stopping - all the news is, or will be, on her official website.