Archive for the ‘Comedy’ Category
ANN WIDDECOMBE TO STAR IN PANTO
Author: Webmaster
Ann Widdecombe to star at The Orchard, Dartford
It’s difficult not to be inspired By Ann Widdecombe, whose career spans Maidstone and Weald MP, novelist, dancer and now pantomime star.
Having turned down the opportunity to star in the West-End Musical Grease, “because of the Strictly tour – they clashed”, Ann is preparing for her stage-debut opposite Craig Revel Horwood in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs this Christmas at The Orchard, Dartford.
Read more in Nov/December Words and Music Magazine!
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La Belle Hélène
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Sunshine with Troy Boy
Kent based Merry Opera brings Offenbach’s to the Stag, Sevenoaks Theatre, Tenterden on October 1st. Awarded 4 stars by Whatsonstage and described unpretentious fun”, this production is written and directed by Kit Hesketh-Harvey, known Widow, a panellist on Radio 4 and a translator of libretti for Opera North and ENO.
In this version of the story Chislehurst housewife Helen is married to Menelaus. He is married to his Blackberry. Should she break free and succumb to the charms of a dishy young waiter in their local Greek restaurant?
Her fantasy transports her to Ancient Greece, where she becomes Queen Helen of Sparta, the most beautiful woman in the world. A mysterious shepherd arrives and steals her heart. Could he be Paris, Prince of Troy – her Troy Boy?
Desperate to forget the appalling scandal of Helen’s budding affair with Paris, the Greek kings decamp to the party hotspot of Faliraki. But the question remains – how will they recover their loss of face if their Queen runs off with the Trojan prince?
Read more in Sept/Oct Words and Music Magazine!
A look at the life of Dora Bryan
Author: Webmaster
A Words & Music Tribute
Dora Bryan - much-loved actress, singer and comedienne.
It was in early 1923 that Mr & Mrs Broadbent added to their family. They already had a three year old son named John and, on Wednesday February 7th a daughter was born to them. They named her Dora May.
Soon after the baby was born the family must have moved home for, although in later years Dora only recalls living in Oldham, her birthplace was actually Parbold, a small Lancashire township about 10 miles east-south-east of Southport.
Her dad was a director of a cotton bobbin mill and travelled about the northern counties in a small Austin, and her mum, originally from good farming stock, was a happy and capable housewife and mother.
Read more in Sept/Oct Words and Music Magazine!
From army band boy to universal comedy star
Author: Webmaster
Norman Wisdom - universal comedy star
Norman Wisdom - universal comedy star
Sir Norman Wisdom
4th Feb 1914 – 4th Oct 2010
by Iain F. McAsh
It was in May 1955 that I first met Norman Wisdom on the set of Man of the Moment, his third Rank film, following location at Lake Geneva, featuring one of his favourite leading ladies, Lana Morris. Norman’s role required him to exchange his familiar gump suit for more regal attire for a scene shared with Fifties T.V. celebrity chef Philip Harben. He was putting final touches to a soufflé when Norman in a very smart suit followed Lana, who was being chased by two heaviers from a rival Embassy pursued by Norman, but not before smashing the bowl containing the enraged chef’s soufflé
Like Sir Charles Chaplin before him, Norman and his brother Fred were the products of a broken home and forced to survive as best they could on the mean streets of London.
After an early episode as a Liptons errand boy, a kindly coffee stall owner suggested that, as a boy of fifteen, he should join the army. “I went along to the recruiting centre near Scotland Yard, passed the medical and they took me in. From boot camp at Aldershot I was sent to India with the Tenth Royal Hussars. They taught me to ride a horse and there was swimming and cricket.
