Prøve GULL - Gratis
Just A Spoonful Of Sugar
Country Life UK
|November 27, 2019
’Tis the season for a treat. The musical is vying with the pantomime as the traditional Christmas outing, but the main thing is that hearts are warmed and spirits cheered
-

CHRISTMAS is coming and the theatre, like the goose, is getting fat. Up and down the land, theatres seek to swell their coffers by putting on lavish shows that will provide some kind of insurance against possible hard times ahead, but, although pantomime is still popular, I am struck by the changing nature of Yuletide entertainment.
When I was a child in the postwar Midlands, panto, Peter Pan and Toad of Toad Hall were the seasonal staples. I can vividly recall seeing a young Norman Wisdom in Robinson Crusoe, Phyllis Calvert as J. M. Barrie’s boy-who-wouldn’t-grow-up and Patrick Wymark as A. A. Milne’s bombastic hero. I’m sure you can still find their equivalents today, but what is immediately apparent, as you scan the brochures, is how many of the big regional theatres rely on classic American musicals to draw the crowds.
At the Sheffield Crucible, Robert Hastie is directing Frank Loesser’s 1950 landmark show Guys and Dolls, with Kadiff Kirwan, lately seen on TV in Fleabag and This Way Up, as Sky Masterson, who wins a bet by luring a Salvation Army lass to Havana. At the Curve, Leicester, Nikolai Foster recreates the gang warfare of the Jets and the Sharks with a revival of West Side Story. And at the Royal Exchange, Manchester, Jo Davies is directing a revival of Gypsy which, as West Side Story does, has lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by Arthur Laurents.
This is by no means an exhaustive list. You can catch a stage version of The Wizard of Oz at Leeds Playhouse and, although it’s not an American show, expectations are running high at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre for a musical version of David Walliams’s The Boy in the Dress with songs by Robbie Williams and Guy Chambers. One of the most joyous shows in London right now is the revival of Mary Poppins at the Prince Edward, with Zizi Strallen giving a terrific performance as P. L. Travers’s unearthly nanny.
Denne historien er fra November 27, 2019-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Abonner på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av kuraterte premiumhistorier og over 9000 magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
FLERE HISTORIER FRA Country Life UK

Country Life UK
Dogged work uncovers Rembrandt secret
ALTHOUGH history doesn't record how passionate Rembrandt van Rijn was about dogs, he clearly liked them enough to feature them in several of his paintings, such as his Self-portrait in Oriental Attire with Poodle (1631-33).
1 min
October 08, 2025

Country Life UK
The royal treatment
Edward VII swept away the cobwebs of mid-Victorian style, Queen Mary had passion for all things small and the Queen Mother bought rather avant-garde art. In a forthcoming talk, Tim Knox, director of the Royal Collection, charts a century of regal taste
3 mins
October 08, 2025

Country Life UK
The garden for all seasons
The private Worcestershire garden of John Massey
5 mins
October 08, 2025
Country Life UK
When in Rome
For anyone considering tweaking pasta alla carbonara-a work of art as fine as the Trevi Fountain-the answer is always: non c'è modo! Or is it, asks Tom Parker Bowles
3 mins
October 08, 2025
Country Life UK
The scoop
\"The planned article was on the damson harvest; instead, we got Donald Trump's ally's taps turned off\"
3 mins
October 08, 2025

Country Life UK
The goddess of small things
For Rita Konig, interior design isn't only about coherence and comfort: it should be a celebration of stuff. Giles Kime charts her transatlantic career
4 mins
October 08, 2025

Country Life UK
Farmers vent fury at Labour's conference
THE Labour party's controversial proposed reforms of farm inheritance tax were the catalyst that led 1,200 disgruntled British farmers to converge on Liverpool and stage a protest at the Labour Party Conference.
2 mins
October 08, 2025

Country Life UK
Vested interest
Favoured by Byronic bluesmen, Eton pops and rotund royalty, the waistcoat and its later iterations are an integral part of the Englishman's wardrobe, says Simon Mills
5 mins
October 08, 2025

Country Life UK
The easel in the crown
Together with ancient armour, Egyptian cats and illuminated manuscripts, this year's Frieze Masters sees a colourful work by an even more colourful character, a Nigerian prince who set out to make 'contemporary Yoruba traditional art'
5 mins
October 08, 2025

Country Life UK
Everything you need to know about trees and shrubs
SOMETIMES, it is difficult to remember how we functioned before the internet took over the way we garden.
3 mins
October 08, 2025
Translate
Change font size