Betty Blue Eyes New Musical Comedy at Novello Theatre London
Betty Blue Eyes a new musical comedy opens at The Novello Theatre from 19th March, 2011. The Novello Theatre can be found at The Aldwych London WC2B 4LD.
Belts are being tightened together with the country’s long-suffering citizens are being told by the government that you will get fair shares for everyone in return for surviving Austerity Britain. Meanwhile local officials feather their very own nests by taking much more than their very own fair share. It is of course 1947, and having won the war Britain seems to have lost the peace, and also the country is staggering underneath the burden of acute rationing, unemployment as well as the coldest winter for years. The only real bright spark on the horizon is definitely the impending marriage of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip.
Twenty six years back Alan Bennett and Malcolm Mowbray wove this story in to a hilariously funny but sharply observed comic film referred to as A Private Function, which centred around Betty, an adorable pig, who will be being illegally reared to ensure the local dignitaries can celebrate the Royal Wedding with a lavish banquet while the local population get by with Spam.
Ron Cowen and Daniel Lipman have brilliantly adapted and expanded this story for the stage and George Stiles and Anthony Drewe have written a deliciously infectious, toe-tapping, retro contemporary score. The result is an utterly British musical, full of eccentric characters, such as the strange odd couple, Gilbert – an evangelistic chiropodist, and Joyce – a nobody determined to be somebody; Inspector Wormold – an obsessive destroyer of illegal meat; Mother Dear -’She’s seventy four and ravenous’; along with a weird assortment of bullies, spivs and snobs and of course, our star, Betty the pig.
By having a simply marvellous cast of great British actors headed by Sarah Lancashire and Reece Shearsmith, Betty Blue Eyes is like no musical you will have ever seen – but she is worth saving up for!
The Novello Theatre is a theatre in The Aldwych in the West End of London. The theatre was constructed as one of a couple of with the Aldwych Theatre on both sides of the Waldorf Hotel, both being designed by W.G.R. Sprague. The theatre opened as the Waldorf Theatre on May 22, 1905, and was renamed the Strand Theatre in 1909. It was again renamed as the Whitney Theatre in 1911 before once again becoming the Strand Theatre in 1913. In 2005, the theatre was renamed by its owners (Delfont- Mackintosh) the Novello Theatre in honour of Ivor Novello.
The black comedy Arsenic and Old Lace had a run of 1337 performances here in the 1940s, and Sailor Beware ran for 1231 performances from 1955. Stephen Sondheim”s musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum opened here on the day of Kennedy”s assassination, running for almost two years. In 1971 the comedy No Sex Please – We”re British opened here, remaining for over 10 years of its 16-year run until it transferred to the Garrick Theatre in 1982.
The theatre was extensively renovated in 1930 and once again in the early 1970s. For its 100th anniversary in 2005, the theatre is experiencing yet another extensive refurbishment. The current capacity is around 1,050. It reopened on 8th December 2005 with the Royal Shakespeare Company”s annual London season, playing to 4 week runs of Twelfth Night, The Comedy Of Errors, A Midsummer Night”s Dream and As You Like It, concluding in March 2006. Beginning in 2009 with A Midsummer Night’s Dream and then The Taming of The Shrew. Recently concluding is Onnassis, starring Robert Lindsay.
Visit The Novello Theatre London and see Betty Blue Eyes a new musical comedy. Book Betty Blue Eyes Tickets online or by telephone – you will not be disappointed!
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