Late and Early Joys at the Players' Theatre

Late and Early Joys at the Players' Theatre PDF Author: Paul Sheridan
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : English drama
Languages : en
Pages : 106

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Late and Early Joys at the Players' Theatre

Late and Early Joys at the Players' Theatre PDF Author: Paul Sheridan
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : English drama
Languages : en
Pages : 106

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Book Description


Late Joys at the Players' Theatre

Late Joys at the Players' Theatre PDF Author: Jean Anderson (acting director of the Players' theatre, London)
Publisher: London : T.V. Boardman
ISBN:
Category : Music-halls (Variety-theaters, cabarets, etc.)
Languages : en
Pages : 128

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And This Is My Friend Sandy

And This Is My Friend Sandy PDF Author: Deborah Philips
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 135017422X
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
This book situates the production of The Boy Friend and the Players' Theatre in the context of a post-war London and reads The Boy Friend, and Wilson's later work, as exercises in contemporary camp. It argues for Wilson as a significant and transitional figure both for musical theatre and for modes of homosexuality in the context of the pre-Wolfenden 1950s. Sandy Wilson's The Boy Friend is one of the most successful British musicals ever written. First produced at the Players' Theatre Club in London in 1953 it transferred to the West End and Broadway, making a star out of Julie Andrews and gave Twiggy a leading role in Ken Russell's 1971 film adaptation. Despite this success, little is known about Wilson, a gay writer working in Britain in the 1950s at a time when homosexuality was illegal. Drawing on original research assembled from the Wilson archives at the Harry Ransom Center, this is the first critical study of Wilson as a key figure of 1950s British theatre. Beginning with the often overlooked context of the Players' Theatre Club through to Wilson's relationship to industry figures such as Binkie Beaumont, Noël Coward and Ivor Novello, this study explores the work in the broader history of Soho gay culture. As well as a critical perspective on The Boy Friend, later works such as Divorce Me, Darling!, The Buccaneer and Valmouth are examined as well as uncompleted musical versions of Pygmalion and Goodbye to Berlin to give a comprehensive and original perspective on one of British theatre's most celebrated yet overlooked talents.

Out of the Firing Line ... Into the Foyer

Out of the Firing Line ... Into the Foyer PDF Author: Bruce Copp
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0750965460
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
War hero and '60s Soho doyen Bruce Copp has lived a unique life. With an address book brimming with celebrity names and numbers, he swam regularly with a James Bond, dined with Charlie Chaplin, hung out with Lenny Bruce and spent an unforgettable night with Marlene Dietrich. A reluctant hero, he served in the army throughout the Second World War where he dealt with prejudices towards homosexuality, witnessed the deaths of his comrades and tried to commit suicide by walking into enemy fire. He miraculously survived and was mentioned twice in dispatches for bravery before being transferred to British Counter Intelligence where his duties included tracking down high-ranking Nazis. After the war, Bruce went on to become an important figure in London's 'swinging sixties', running a series of successful theatrical restaurants including Peter Cook's legendary The Establishment club, which attracted such icons of the era as Michael Caine, Jean Shrimpton and the Kray twins. Out of the Firing Line ... Into the Foyer is a fascinating memoir covering nearly 100 years of social history and personal experiences.

Reviewing the Situation

Reviewing the Situation PDF Author: John Snelson
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350279609
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 209

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Book Description
The British musical in its formative years has appeared in strikingly different guises: from the lasting hits of Oliver!, and Me and My Girl, to the successes of The Dancing Years, Bless the Bride and Expresso Bongo. This authoritative study traces what made these shows successes in the West End and how their qualities define a uniquely British interpretation of the genre. Cultural, sociological and political influences entwine with close reading of the dramatic and musical elements of this repertory to reveal a fascinating web of connections and contrasts between the times, the shows and the people who made them. Through detailed case studies, such as of The Boy Friend and Bitter Sweet, the rich individuality of each West End work is spotlighted, posing vital questions and intriguing answers as to what a British musical can be. Interdisciplinary in nature, this study brings together all the core materials to discover this period in the story of the British musical. Reviewing the Situation is insightful and lively, an invaluable resource for students and scholars of musical theatre and all those theatregoers drawn to the power of these classic British shows.

A National Joke

A National Joke PDF Author: Andy Medhurst
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134702558
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
Comedy is crucial to how the English see themselves. This book considers that proposition through a series of case studies of popular English comedies and comedians in the twentieth century, ranging from the Carry On films to the work of Mike Leigh and contemporary sitcoms such as The Royle Family, and from George Formby to Alan Bennett and Roy 'Chubby' Brown. Relating comic traditions to questions of class, gender, sexuality and geography, A National Joke looks at how comedy is a cultural thermometer, taking the temperature of its times. It asks why vulgarity has always delighted English audiences, why camp is such a strong thread in English humour, why class influences what we laugh at and why comedy has been so neglected in most theoretical writing about cultural identity. Part history and part polemic, it argues that the English urgently need to reflect on who they are, who they have been and who they might become, and insists that comedy offers a particularly illuminating location for undertaking those reflections.

Hattie

Hattie PDF Author: Andy Merriman
Publisher: Aurum
ISBN: 1845138171
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
The hardback of this first and authorised biography received very good reviews and immediately reprinted. It tells the story of one of the heroines of post-war British comedy, on radio, film and TV. Hattie Jacques is known as the billowing, imposing Matron in the Carry On films, as the star of such BBC radio classics as ITMA, Educating Archie and Hancock’s Half Hour, and as the fictional sister of Eric Sykes in his long-running TV sitcom. But the formidable, frumpy galleon-in-full-sail screen persona could not have been more at odds with the real-life woman, as this biography reveals for the first time. She had a tempestuous wartime affair with an American officer, and then a strange marriage to the actor John le Mesurier (Corporal Wilson in Dad’s Army) whose dissatisfactions she circumnavigated by moving her lover, a flashy Cockney car dealer, into the matrimonial home. But as well as being warm and sexy and generous she was also, owing to her lifelong struggle with her weight, needy and melancholic, and rueful that her size persistently typecast her and excluded her from many roles. This biography has been written with full co-operation from Hattie’s son, and show business friends like Barbara Windsor, Clive Dunn, Galton and Simpson and Ian Carmichael.

The Kaleidoscope British Christmas Television Guide 1937-2013

The Kaleidoscope British Christmas Television Guide 1937-2013 PDF Author: Chris Perry
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 190020360X
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 624

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Book Description
A Guide to British television programmes shown at Christmas time, throughout the years.

Theatre World

Theatre World PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Actors
Languages : en
Pages : 540

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Subject Index of Modern Books Acquired

Subject Index of Modern Books Acquired PDF Author: British Library
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 664

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Book Description