Some people can be very kind.
When Phil announced to anyone who would listen at the Sunday matinée preview of By Jeeves at the Landor Theatre that he’d seen the original production, the overly generous and perhaps slightly naïve response was “That must be fifteen years ago!”
What of course Phil meant was the pre-London, Bristol Hippodrome tryout of Jeeves (as it was called in those long gone days back when Colin Firth was probably still on the throne).
If the Whingers had been together (in the co-dependent theatregoers sense) then its doubtful they would have made it even to the interval. Early previews apparently ran at four and three-quarter hours. Phil remembers the performance he endured going well beyond three and a half hours. Phil’s family became prototype Whingers unanimously agreeing it wasn’t very good and way too long. If only Sir Trevor Nunn had been brought in to cut it down to size.
Sheared of most of its numbers (only three remain from the original) and reworked in 1996 as By Jeeves it’s now running at an easier to digest two and a half hours (including interval).
But sadly, it felt every minute of it. Read the rest of this entry »
Inclement weather, a flurry of Oscar-nominated films to see, a nasty bug, seasons 5 of both Mad Men and Breaking Bad to plough through and vague attemps to understand the hammer rule in the curling. It seemed Phil could think of plenty of excuses not to go to the theatre over the last few weeks.
A West End Whinger 