Where the show is gay and bright!

Jan and Basil

As my dear regular reader will be aware, one of our favourite choices for an evening's entertainment is "Old-Time Music Hall" - and there is no finer ensemble in that genre than the company of The Players Theatre. So we were thrilled to get another opportunity to go and see them on Tuesday in the absolutely perfect environs of Wilton's Music Hall, and they certainly didn't disappoint!

With the traditional "firm hand on the gavel", the very funny - and splendidly-waistcoated - Chairman Mr Kevin Gauntlett introduced a fine line-up of old and new faces, including crooner Mr Philip Day, comedy operetta duo Mr Malcolm McKee and Miss Nicola Keen, Miss Hilary O'Neil as Florrie Forde, West End chorine Miss Alice Ellen Wright, comic singer Mr Ben Stock and conjurer Mr Steve Price - all accompanied on the piano by the peerless Music Hall Maestro Mr Tom Carradine.

All the old favourite classic sing-a-long numbers were there: Down at the Old Bull and Bush, Hold Your Hand Out You Naughty Boy, Oh! Oh! Antonio!, Daisy Daisy (A Bicycle Made for Two), The Lambeth Walk, Don't Dilly-Dally On The Way, When Father Papered the Parlour, Joshua, Joshua and so on - and we sang 'em all with gusto!

There were even some new songs in the old style, too - courtesy of Mr Josh Bryant-Jones and his She Pushed Me Into the Parlour.

However, the undisputed "star turn" of the entire revue was the irreverent superstar puppet Mr Basil Brush, beloved icon of generations of children and adults alike and "national treasure" [he's been on and off British telly regularly since 1962]! Here's a (very) short snippet from Tuesday's performance:

...and here's one from the archives - the legend at work on his prime-time show, charming none other than Twiggy almost half a century ago in 1976:

It was an absolute gem of an evening's entertainment, and full kudos for the whole thing must go to the lady who was behind it all - another veteran of children's telly (Crackerjack!) and of the Player Theatre Music Hall [we've seen her performing as part of the troupe on many occasions [click her name and/or the Players Theatre link in the labels at the foot of this post for more] and hoped to do so again on Tuesday, but no such luck - although she did smile and wave when she saw us as she wandered around the auditorium!] - producer/director Miss Jan Hunt!

However, let the last word go to The Maestro, Mr Carradine:

Tom Carradine - Let's All Go to the Music Hall

Faboo!

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]

Why am I dressed in these beautiful clothes? What is the matter with me?

It has been a very slow Sunday. I have been in a bit of a haze after partying on Friday for the History Boy's 40th, and our gang's trip to the legendary Wilton's Music Hall (both followed by verrrry late drinkies at Halfway to Heaven- oo-er).

But what a show we were treated to last night! The Players' Theatre Company - founded in the 1930s to keep the spirit of the old-time Music Hall alive - is a fine collective of troupers, and in true Variety fashion they created a wide-ranging bill of entertainment in the fitting surroundings of the oldest surviving Music Hall in the world.

Hosted by the traditional patter and gavel-banging of our "genial and worthy Chairman" Johnny Dennis, we had comedy characters such as John Styles' "Chelsea Pensioner" (who also came back later and did a very entertaining magic show), a pair of energetic young dancers The Todd Sisters (Tiffany and Georgina, who gave us a tribute to The Dolly Sisters as well as traditional rousing Victorian numbers) and another youngster, the banjolele-playing Mark Walsh.

Among the rollicking ditties the marvellous Players' stalwart Jan Hunt sang for us was Why Am I Always The Bridesmaid - which was fab! Here's the original by Miss Lily Morris, for your delectation:

Lily Morris - Why Am I Always The Bridesmaid?

Why am I dressed in these beautiful clothes?
What is the matter with me?
I’ve been a bridesmaid for twenty-two brides
This one’ll make twenty-three
Twenty-two maidens I’ve helped off the shelf
No doubt it seems a bit strange
Being the bridesmaid is no good to me
And I think I could do with a change.

Why am I always the bridesmaid
Never the blushing bride
Ding, Dong, wedding bells
Only ring for other gals
But one fine day
Please let it be soon
I shall wake up in the morning
On my own honeymoon.

Twenty-two times I have been to the church
Following the bride up the aisle
Twenty two maidens have answered I will
Meaning I won’t all the while
Twenty-two couples I’ve seen go away
Just to be on their own
Twenty-two times I’d wished it was me
And gone back home to Mother alone.

Why am I always the bridesmaid
Never the blushing bride
Ding, Dong, wedding bells
Only ring for other gals
But one fine day
Please let it be soon
I shall wake up in the morning
On my own honeymoon.

I had a good chance a week or two past
And took my young man home to tea
Mother got playful and gave him a pinch
And pinched my fiancée from me
Being a widow she knew what to do
No use for me to complain
Then they got married today if you please
I was only the bridesmaid again.

Why am I always the bridesmaid
Never the blushing bride
Ding, Dong, wedding bells
Only ring for other gals
But one fine day
Please let it be soon
I shall wake up in the morning
On my own honeymoon.

Operetta star Marilyn Hill Smith gave us a beautiful tribute to "dear old" Ivor Novello as well as the eternally catchy Oh Velia, Oh Velia from Lehar's The Merry Widow. We all had song sheets for some of the Players' sing-along numbers such as Daisy, Daisy, Down At The Old Bull and Bush, Hold Your Hand Out You Naughty Boy, Pack Up Your Troubles, Knees Up Mother Brown, My Old Man (Said Follow The Van) and the like, but we couldn't quite hit the high notes during Miss Hill Smith's repertoire...

Unfortunately our headliner was the smarmy Don Maclean [not that one], who was never particularly funny as a TV host in the 70s, let alone now. His routines were dated, un-PC and cringeworthy on occasions, as one might have expected from someone whose career began on The Black and White Minstrel Show. More importantly, they were not what we would call "Music Hall".

However he was merely a part of a greater whole, and there were certainly some very memorable moments indeed. Apart from the ever-marvellous Miss Hunt, the two appearances by Julia Sutton were exceptional - especially her hauntingly beautiful take on Albert Chevalier's The Coster's Serenade. [No video footage exists of anyone doing this song unfortunately (in fact there is a shocking lack of actual Music Hall performances on the web).]



But the avowed highlight of the evening was the legendary character comedian Peter John with his "Coster songs" - and, best of all, "Bertha the Barmaid" and her Stout and Bitter routine, which was deserving of a show all of his/her own!

I have written many times about our trips to Wilton's before (fortunately the venue has recently benefited from some Lottery money to help its much-needed conservation), and about our "Late Joys" courtesy of the Players' Theatre. They are national institutions, both deserving of every support we can give - and long may they carry on!

Here's a special feature, on the occasion of the Players' 75th anniversary two years ago:

The Players' Theatre Company 75th anniversary

Players' Theatre Company

Wilton's Music Hall

The love children of Freddie Mercury and Dawn French

We had a very special evening indeed last night, in the company of the fantabulosa Fascinating Aida.

These ladies - founder Dillie Keane and almost-founder member Adele Anderson, appearing in this penultimate show in their London run with another excellent newcomer Sarah Louise Young (there have been several "third ladies" over the almost 29 years of the group's existence) - have always been firm favourites here at Dolores Delargo Towers, and I personally have been dying to see them live for years. And here they were at last, in all their glory (well almost, as Dillie was suffering rather badly with a streaming cold)!

I raved about the ladies' Silver Jubilee album back in 2009, and many of the songs from that particular album were featured, including (of course) their massive YouTube hits the hilarious Cheap Flights ("It's gone fungal." "I think you mean vinyl.") and Dogging:

Fascinating Aida - Cheap Flights

Fascinating Aida - Dogging

As we know, Fascinating Aida leave no target unmauled in their satirical ditties, and from the opening number CUNTS (Companies Using Nifty Taxation Systems), through One True Religion (Is Me) (taking a pop at the Tantric/Feng Shui/mysticism-choosing middle classes), a song about using an orang-utan as a surrogate mother, and a beautiful ballad about taking your mum to Dignitas, to the excoriating finale of Jesus Saves, But Tesco Saves You More, they certainly kept up the pressure.

"Fascinating Aida are operatic and jazz-trained female singers who out-satirise Rory Bremner and out-beguile Eartha Kitt. It's as though they're the love children of Freddie Mercury and Dawn French. Is that possible? Impossibly good is what it is."
Ken Russell

The true success of the girls' satire is of course the fact it is delivered with the finest harmonies and musicality. All three have an excellent vocal range and dexterity, admirably demonstrated in the very poignant (and surprisingly serious) ballad Goodbye Old Friends, Adele's solo on her paean to a threesome relationship Mr and Mrs and Me, and Sarah-Louise's own composition One Night Stand.

Sarah-Louise Young - One Night Stand

Perhaps the most bizarrely hilarious moment of the whole evening was "P Dillie" and "da crew" half-rapping and dancing to their take on modern urban music, Down With The Kids. We particularly loved their hilarious Bulgarian Song Cycles (each taking a sideswipe at subjects as diverse as Paul McCartney’s marriages, Jeremy Clarkson, Tony Blair and Cheryl Cole).

With a back-catalogue such as theirs, the show would not have been complete without at least one number from their early days. I can't deny I was a tad disappointed it wasn't our house favourite Sew On A Sequin, but they did a fantastic job on the classic Lieder:

Fascinating Aida - Lieder

And, with two curtain calls including a section where the girls gave answers to all the predicted questions they always get asked, it was over...

An excellent show to start the season!

Fascinating Aida

Dear Old Pals

We had another rip-roaring time at the Victorian Music Hall evening at Wilton's on Sunday. As you might expect, the fabulous and long-serving Players' Theatre Company (celebrating their 75th anniversary this year, and now regularly resident at the Leicester Square Theatre) were in their element, "at home" at last at this, the most outstanding (and indeed the oldest) of Britain's surviving Music Halls.

Stalwart of the Players' company (and former Crackerjack star) Jan Hunt was not only the lead performer this time around, but also the show's producer. And as well as performing her "signature tunes" How'd You Like To Spoon With Me? and Why Am I Always the Bridesmaid?, she had chosen a fabulous selection of acts - Miss Judith Hibbert (who paid tribute to Gracie Fields), Mr Richard Winch, Mr Ben Stock, Miss Julia Sutton, Romany the Diva of Magic, comic juggler Mr Michael Pearse and opera diva Miss Jane Webster among them.

There are (sadly) few videos out there in internetland of the Players' Theatre star performers, but two of the acts who were on stage included:

Ukulele virtuoso Andy Eastwood, who played a remarkable William Tell Overture...

Andy Eastwood and his ukulele - William Tell Overture

...and the youngest member of the company, 14-year old Ellie Bamber, who sang an an almost innocent version (given her age) of the famous double entendre classic Daddy Wouldn't Buy Me A Bow-Wow and this, a typically mawkish Temperance Movement warning song, Father Dear Father:

Ellie Bamber - Father Dear Father

Here is the original version of Why am I Always the Bridesmaid?, sung by Miss Lily Morris:

Lily Morris - Why am I Always the Bridesmaid?

Ben Stock performed for us a wonderfully rollicking version of When Father Papered the Parlour (here sung by David Jones):

David Jones - When Father Papered the Parlour

Among many other gorgeous Music Hall standards the fantastic Miss Julia Sutton sang was the classic Hold Your Hand Out, You Naughty Boy - and here is a rare recording of the ebullient Florrie Forde singing it:

Florrie Forde - Hold Your Hand Out, You Naughty Boy

Another (rather wonderful) song Miss Sutton sang included the lyric "you told me you loved me, in The Old Welsh Harp down Hendon way". I cannot for the life of me find a trace of this song anywhere on the web, so if anyone has a clue please let me know...

I digress.

Let's finish off with an oddity - a medley of Music Hall classics recorded lord alone knows when by a long-forgotten ensemble called "The Coronets". It's jolly stuff nonetheless, and includes several choons from Sunday that I haven't included so far such as Don't Dilly Dally On The Way and Dear Old Pals (the Players' Theatre Company's traditional closing number):

The Coronets - Make It A Party!

The whole evening was exceptionally good entertainment, and all in aid of the capital restoration fund for Wilton's Music Hall - visit their website for more on how to donate to this magnificent cause!

Very big in Botswana

Patricia Routledge and Edward Seckerson. Photo by Matt Thomas.

Our gang went along to a very special occasion last night - an audience with one of our all-time fave entertainers, the supremely talented Patricia Routledge - Facing the Music.

More widely known nowadays for her role as Hyacinth Bucket, a worldwide smash hit - “I'm very big in Botswana”, she says - the evening instead focused on her largely forgotten career as a fine singer and musical actress. In the capable hands of interviewer Edward Seckerson, formerly the presenter of Radio 3's (late, lamented) programme Sight and Sound, Miss Routledge was every bit as charming and candid as we would have hoped of such a "national treasure". Interspersing anecdotes with many of her recordings, this was a sublime evening indeed...

Tracing her life right back to middle-brow Birkenhead (the opposite end of the Mersey Tunnel to Mr Seckerson's more humble Bootle roots), her enchantment with the theatre began at an early age thanks to her father (a 'high class tailor' - "Every shop called itself 'high class' in those days!") and his deals with the local theatre, which got the family free tickets every week. Yet her youthful ambition was to be “an avant-garde headmistress with a red sports car who had affairs all over Europe. What went wrong?”

She managed eventually to get into theatre school and onward to the hard slog of a real-life stage career - a career that was unfortunately dogged by a succession of well-respected but commercially disastrous productions.

She appeared in such flops as Sheridan's operetta The Duenna, the Victoriana musical Follow That Girl (from which we were treated to her duet with James Cairncross, Waiting For Our Daughter, which was hilarious), and the first musical for which she was leading lady, a pastiche of American operetta called Little Mary Sunshine - complete with its OTT chorus of singing Mounties (very Monty Python!).

America beckoned (in the form of Jule Styne, who asked her to audition after seeing her in pantomime!) and in 1968 she appeared on Broadway in the musical Darling Of The Day alongside a woefully miscast Vincent Price. It closed after only 32 showings, but she scooped a Tony award for a performance that was hailed in The New York Times as "the most spectacular, most scrumptious, most embraceable musical comedy debut since Beatrice Lillie and Gertrude Lawrence came to this country." Miss Routledge liked that bit.

From that show, here's Miss Routledge's "eleven o'clock song" (the show-stopper near the end of a musical) Not On Your Nellie:

Patricia Routledge - Not On Your Nellie

However, the biggest and most spectacular flop was to come when she was hand-picked to star in the ill-fated collaboration between theatrical giants Leonard Bernstein and Alan Jay Lerner 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, in which she portrayed every First Lady of America. As she said, however, "It was four hours long. Lenny was trying to write an opera. Alan was writing a musical. It didn't work." Speaking of the opening night she said, "The warmth and good will of the audience lasted until roughly the interval”. The show played for seven performances.

She managed a little more success in the tribute revue Cowardy Custard (for which The Master himself chose the name) - and her version of Mr Coward's A Marvellous Party was probably the highlight of the evening's music for me!

Among her other notable accolades was her part as "the old lady with one buttock" in Candide which won her a Laurence Olivier Award, and the famous production of The Pirates of Penzance co-starring Kevin Kline and Linda Ronstadt in New York's Central Park (in the middle of a heatwave, apparently). She also had a modicum of commercial success with a studio recording of The Sound of Music, on which she sang Mother Superior's classic Climb Ev'ry Mountain:

Patricia Routledge - Climb Ev'ry Mountain

Concluding at the crossover period between her life as a theatrical performer, her collaboration with Alan Bennett and her whirlwind success on television, Mr Seckerson himself chose one of Miss Routledge's beautiful ballads from Darling of the Day to close - That Something Extra Special.

Visit the Sound of Vincent Price website to hear that song, and the rest of the Darling of the Day score.

An appropriate end to a fascinating evening!

Bazazz!

Had another fabulous evening's entertainment last night thanks to the magnificent Rick Skye as Slice O'Minnelli! This is the fourth time we've seen him/her perform (first st the late lamented Theatre Museum, then the Scarlet Fever Revue at Cafe de Paris, and last year in the Barbra and Liza show), and each time he just gets better and better!

Capturing the lady's every eccentricity, gesture and vocal tic perfectly, all the classic routines were there - My Wheelie Chair, the Married routine, the Aznavour ("Schnauzervour") numbers - but we were very happy that there's a lot of new material this time round as well. Liza doing Beyoncé is a wonder to behold! The audition for Sunset Boulevard is marvellous, and the second half's "Liza story" really shows off Mr Skye's vocal power and talents to perfection. The Betty Ford tribute song is a hoot! (And his/her pianist Michael Ferreri is dead sexy too...)

We sat with Rick/Liza in the bar of the Players' Theatre for an hour afterwards, chatting. We spoke a little about "Liza"'s recent cameo in The Big Gay Musical movie, and apparently a sequel is in production, in which Rick/Liza will have a bigger role. (You heard it here first!)

He told us how happy he is with this current tour - straight from headlining the Dublin Festival - his love for the West End, and the shows he would like to bring over to London, such as the War of the Mama Roses and of course his show with the acerbic puppet "Madame". A lovely man, and a superb show!

Bazzazz! - "Slice O'Minnelli" UK Tour Scrapbook

From there we eventually ended up at the Black Cap in Camden for the lovely Mrs Moore's birthday show with The Boy George Experience as headline act. However, it was the dame herself we'd come so see, and her "Battle of the Basseys" (with Ebony and some other drag queens bitch-slapped off the stage by Mrs Moore) was hilarious, and a fitting way to round off a great evening...

Your own, your very own...

Before going to the Chris and Richard's wedding reception last night [which was a fab evening - friends, evening wear, posh poofs, drunken uncles, canapés and Ceilidh - a typical society wedding], we had a visit from our mother, whose birthday it was last week. As a treat my sister and I took her to the Players Theatre Victorian Music Hall at Leicester Square Theatre. It was excellent, as always!

Starting with a celebration of St Andrew's Day we were "entertained" by a bagpipe player, but we forgave them this as the show proper began. Opening (of course with the MC and his traditional "patter"), we had a full two hours of top class entertainment, including Players stalwart (and former Crackerjack regular) Jan Hunt, a tap-dancing tribute to Hollywood classic musicals, a portly comedienne from Wolverhampton (who was hilarious), a one-man interpretation of a Victorian melodrama (in which the player played all the parts, villain, girl in peril, mother and policeman), a cruise ship singer who tackled Nessun Dorma (and didn't quite make it), a chorus line of young lasses from drama school, and a lovely trilling singer of sentimental arias.

Mother loved it, we loved it, and for a couple of hours on a miserable Saturday afternoon we were transported back to the halcyon era when the marvellous Good Old Days was essential viewing on the BBC. I wish they'd bring this show back! And why-oh-why has the BBC not put their back catalogue of this series out on DVD? They've probably destroyed the archive I expect. To remind everyone how remarkable this type of entertainment really is, here's a fuzzy old clip of an original programme from 1974...

The Good Old Days

And here is a very inventive piece called Let's All Go To The Music Hall by a chap who goes by the name of "Ukulele Eric"...

Ukulele Eric - Let's All Go to the Music Hall

Players Theatre

Love Is Called My Old Piano

We have become Piano Bar aficionados!

Spending some time with the family (Madam Arcati's niece and nephew) in the West End last night, we stumbled across the late night piano bar at the New Players' Theatre under the arches opposite Heaven. We hadn't been there for years - but what a find!

Although last night's pianist limited his repertoire to interpretations of MOR music (Police, Elton, Marvin Hamlisch), the atmosphere was great, and we had a fab time. The place has a reputation for attracting thesps and players from all the West End shows, and true to form the place was heaving with bow-tie-wearing orchestra members and chorus boys'n'girls. On certain nights, some of them are tempted up to the piano to do their own songs, and I am certain we will be making this one of our regular haunts in future on the off-chance of catching a performance such as this...

If You Were Gay

Oh The Fairies

Oh, the Fairies, whoa, the Fairies
Nothing but splendour and feminine gender.
Oh, the Fairies, whoa, the Fairies
Oh for the wing of a Fairy Queen.

We went to a matinee Music Hall show by the Players Theatre company today, and what a fantastic time we had...With sing-along songs such as Daisy Daisy and Hold Your Hand Out You Naughty Boy, performed by some true stalwarts of the theatre, we were in our element!

With what must possibly have been the oldest audience in the world ever - just by walking into the theatre we managed to lower the average age by about twenty years - it was a miracle there was any audience interaction at all, but everybody joined in to the best of their ability. Half of them didn't need the song sheets, as they probably remembered the songs from the first time around.

The Players Theatre has been going since 1936, and is a camp old institution. Indeed the company's traditional opening number is a song called Oh, the Fairies. Its original home was under the Villiers Street arches opposite gay mega-club Heaven, but despite losing that premises they have maintained the traditions made famous on the BBC in The Good Old Days ever since.

There were some great performances indeed - especially Mr Peter John's rendition of Nobody Loves a Fairy When She's Forty - and to celebrate I found a version of this that is startlingly similar:

Nobody Loves a Fairy When She's Forty