Friday 16 November 2012

Idiot at the Palace...



Until I saw this sign at the Palace Theatre I had no idea that Green Day's excellent American Idiot concept album was being performed as a musical. Sounds interesting. The title track lays into the USA of 2004, with lines referencing the danger of the "new, biased media." It's now on at the Palace Theatre, running from 12th to 17th and 19th to 24th November.

After a run of tame musicals it is good to see quality and thought provoking performance at the Palace Theatre again. The theatre was originally known as The Grand Old Lady of Oxford Street and opened on 18 May 1891. The opening presentation, to a capacity audience, was the ballet Cleopatra.  Sadly the theatre then had to go down a more commercial route to meet costs. During the early part of the 20th century it came into its own, with artists such as Danny KayeGracie FieldsCharles LaughtonJudy GarlandNoël Coward and Laurel and Hardy making appearances.

In September 1940 the theatre took a direct hit from a German bomb. In the 1970s audience numbers declined, as they did in many live venues, and it was threatened with closure. The Arts Council supported it in the 1980s, and after major internal refurbishment and an enlarged stage facility, it was run by a charitable trust, Norwest Holdings.

It is now one of the best equipped and popular theatres outside London. In its repertoire it hosts major touring musicals often with major celebrities and performances of opera and ballet along with various other comedy acts and one night concerts.


With thanks to Wikipedia for some of the above information ;-) 

9 comments:

  1. i bet that's a good show and what a nice venue!

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  2. And I'll bet that audience numbers declined in 1940 as well ;o)

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  3. Nothing beats good live entertaintainment, and you're lucky to have it. People like me that live in small - very small! - cities have to go some way to see it.

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  4. We have so many here, how on earth did they choose just one?
    V

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  5. Great post Chrissy! Love Virginia's comment.

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  6. Lovely to see it's still thriving today, a 'grand old lady' indeed! (Loved that album and its spot-on comment on US affairs at the time.)

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  7. Fabulous how the turn of the camera can create such a super photograph.

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  8. Got pretty good reviews in the States.

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  9. I hope the theater succeeds. When I go to the theater, the audiences are consistently senior citizens. We need to reach younger people, but the younger people se to have other interests.

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