DAY
NINETEEN. AGE NINETEEN.
Seen here as Mary Poppins. |
I longed to be a guitarist rock musician when I
grew up, for no other reason than that’s what Marty McFly wanted to be so it must
be the best thing to want to be. I was obsessed with guitars for many years,
seeing them as a symbol of greatness.
Characters I made up for games were always skilled guitarists, I drew cartoons
who owned or were guitars, and if ever I met someone with a guitar I would have to touch it
and wonder if I should get them to teach me to
play. It was always The Intention to one
day learn to play the guitar, despite having no musical abilities whatsoever.
It wasn’t until I was an adult that I realised
that actually, I don’t like guitars very much.
I mean as instruments go, guitars aren’t very interesting or varied to
listen to, I cannot stand electric guitar
riffs, and I can’t name any piece of music I really like that relies heavily on
guitars. I love string instruments and
the amazing sounds they can make, and guitars are probably the lowest of the
low in that group.
The same pretty much goes for skateboards
too. Sorry, Marty.
I think I stood on one once and couldn’t make it go. Then fell over. End of dream. |
So anyway, as you will have seen in the last couple
of weeks, going to the theatre was very memorable for me as a kid. So I hope other children get to experience
this stuff. It’s unique and it’s magical
and it really stays with you.
And we got a
lot of rubbish kids’ shows at The Theatre when I worked there. But every now and then we got an absolutely brilliant show. The kind of show I can only dream I could
have seen when I was a kid.
And remember, I worked there for over three
years. So here is the huge list of great
kids’ shows that came our way in that time:
1. Guys And Dolls (based on a story and characters by Damon Runyon, music and lyrics by Frank Loesser, book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows/The Portsmouth Grammar School/30th
November-2nd December 2006) – okay, technically not a kids' show as
such, but performed by kids so it kinda counts (although considering some of
the characters are strippers and several of the numbers are their nightclub show,
you’ve got to wonder at the appropriateness of school children performing this). This was the first time I had ever seen Guys
And Dolls and it blew me away. It is so funny. I thought the kid playing Nathan Detroit
(Alex Radcliffe) was particularly great.
You wouldn’t have known that this was a school production.
I had happened to recently read a book of random short
stories and I now noticed that the one really good story had some similar
character names to that musical, and after reading the words on the sign
advertising the show (‘based on a story and characters by Damon Runyon’) I
realised that Guys And Dolls is a musical based on the short stories of Damon
Runyon.
I loved the show so much that I wanted a Guys And
Dolls soundtrack. I decided on the one with
Nathan Lane on it (I believe when he had to change his name for equity, he picked
Nathan after Nathan Detroit, so it’s very cool he went on to play him) but was
disappointed that the songs aren’t particularly funny after all. It must have been the dialogue that was so
witty. Oh well, I got a book of Damon
Runyon short stories instead and he’s brilliant.
2. Tweenies Live! – The Enchanted Toyshop (25th-26th
May 2007) – I don’t much care for the Tweenies but this show was far above the
usual ‘people in suits’ shows we got. It
was a quality production with impressive sets and costumes and a decent plot to
hold it together and it engaged the audience (it really felt like your money’s
worth), even if one of the heads did malfunction and cut up the actor’s face
and caused the interval to drag on twice as long as it should.
All I will say is that Jake’s family should take
him away from that nursery because the other Tweenies are all horrible bullies. (Sadly when the Tweenies came back, they had
dumped the idea of having a plot and were therefore rubbish.)
3. Chuckle Brothers – Spooky Goings On (2nd
June 2007) – I don’t particularly remember anything about the show now, but I
do recall being really impressed by it at the time. It was just really well made and the Chuckle
Brothers are evidently very good and very funny entertainers and I really
enjoyed the show as an adult so if I’d have been a kid it would have been
totally awesome. This show was far
superior to the pantomimes our theatre put on.
I was really glad that the Chuckle Brothers were good, because I used to
watch their TV show when I was a kid and I didn’t want that reality check. Although I did basically run past them at
stage door because I couldn’t deal with meeting someone off the TV of The Childhood. They were still really good
when they came back the next year too.
4. High School Musical (Songtime Theatre Arts/15th-19th
July 2008) – another youth production, but you’d hardly know. This was incredibly professional and about
eight thousand times better than the film.
The actors were actually singing for a start, so the songs were made
more stagey and less electronic and a lot of plot and character development had
been added and all in all this was just a really energetic and fun romp. The baddies even had their own
themetune. It was great.
5. Horrible Histories – Terrible Tudors and the Vile
Victorians (written by Terry Deary, based on the best-selling books written by Terry Deary/The Birmingham Stage Company/13th-15th November 2008) –
this was one of the best shows we ever got.
The basic premise was something like a band of travelling actors led by
a guy called Dr Dee (who seemed to be some kind of vaudeville villain) were
either trying to convince or be convinced by a woman to join them/let her join them. So I guess the acting they did was various
historical ‘lessons’ which involved a 3D screen, or was it time travel? I mainly remember them scooping up poo. Anyway, it was loads of fun and Dr Dee (Charles
Davies) was just perfect. I don't recall if he had a hat or a moustache, but let's just say he does in The Memory. Ahem.
6. Sooty In Space (1st March 2009) –
written by Matthew Corbett and starring his successor Richard Cadell, this was
a proper Sooty show. I didn’t really see
how a puppet show could possibly work in a theatre, so I went in to watch this
one from curiosity. And there was this
guy behind this little table in the middle of the stage, with the Sooty and
Sweep and Sue puppets, just as small as you’d imagine and I thought, okay, this
is not a theatre show. So anyway, this
show was so good it made me cry.
I tend to think of Guys & Dolls as something kids perform because of the Sgt. Bilko remake with Steve Martin, where his fiance is helping to put that show on with kids, BUT IT'S ALSO A PARALLEL OF HER RELATIONSHIP. I like that movie, shut up!
ReplyDeleteStill baffled that High School Musical made for a pretty good live show. I guess it's how you do it.
The Chuckle Brothers are inexhaustibly brilliant, and so is Sooty. It's nice to have your childhood validated: not everything you loved when you were little was secretly shit!
What about the film? Marlon Brando isn't a kid. (He's really good in that.)
DeleteThe main thing I remember about High School Musical the stageshow is that it was overt that Sharpay's brother (Ryan, is it?) was gay, which got rid of the creepy incestuous stuff that plagues the film. Also cool that a kid's show performed by kids could have a gay character in it.
Didn't you see Sooty recently and get mind-blown by his magic?