Music Hall is a very much a traditional British theatrical entertainment - with its orgins in London in the 1830s. It started off in public houses but grew in popularity and soon standalone music hall venues were being set up. These theatres were designed chiefly so people could consume food and alcohol and smoke tobacco in the auditorium while the entertainment took place. Sounds like a great night out to me - bar the smoking!
Music Hall made stars of people like Marie Lloyd, Dan Leno, Little Tich and George Leybourne. In fact Marie Lloyd was only 14 years old when she made her debut! Songs from the music hall have become part of our culture - everyone knows My Old Man, You are My Honeysuckle and of course there are so many songs from the First World War too such as Keep the Home Fires Burning, Pack Up Your Troubles and Goodbyee.
I was not in this Spring show as I decided to take a break - I started a new job in January and my commute is massive and tiring so I wanted to concentrate on getting established and settled. But boy did I miss it! I really wished I was up on stage on Saturday night as everyone looked like they were having so much fun. What was really nice is that the older members of our company really seemed to enjoy performing in this show and there were some great comedy turns and beautiful solos. A lot of my friends were in it and performed brilliantly - it was very well put together, colourful and fun. It's amazing what you can do in a village hall - with no scenery and just lighting to bring it all together. The costumes really make a difference - I loved the cockney section with the pearly kings and queens the best.
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| My theatre pals Cat and Jay lead the company in The Lambeth Walk! Oi! |
In true music hall tradition we sat at tables, with our bottles of wine and beer and in the interval had fish and chips. Simple but oh so enjoyable! My hubby always says he loves the Spring show because he likes the fish and chips. Not because he enjoys seeing his wife perform! I can't tell him off though as he took most of these photos for this years show and he made a really good job of it - I think I am going to offer his services to do our dress rehearsal pics for Jesus Christ Superstar which is our main show this year in November. More on that in another blog post as we have our first show talk tomorrow night - Yippee! To say I am excited is an understatement....we are all so looking forward to it. I don't really care what I am in but I have a secret hankering to be a leper covered in blood - I just want to build my part up as much as possible so I figure I will get noticed if I am covered in blood! ha ha. More of that later...
To get back to the Music Hall - here is the opening number from the show - Oh I Do Like to Be Beside the Seaside - now we all know that one don't we?
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| Love the way the beach ball is in mid air in this one! |
I had to include this one because I think it takes guts to wear a swimming costume like that - this was Swimmin' with the wimmin' - Richard came down with a nasty cold after the show - maybe it was the costume?
And this is of our lovely chorus girls doing Ta Ra Ra Boom Dee Ay.. Here's a little tip from me - get a corset if you are in a Musical Theatre group - you will wear it loads....
And finally a picture of the BSMTC ladies doing a number from Oh! What a Lovely War - fronted by my good friend Cat who was fabulous in the role of recruitment diva. I keep telling her she should be on the stage....;)
What about you? Have you ever been in an Old Time Music Hall - what songs did you sing? How did you stage it?
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