A truly magical show celebrating the golden age of musical theatre, based on the popular 50s BBC television show The Good Old Days, is coming to the area and recreates an authentic atmosphere of the Victorian-Edwardian music hall.
The Good Old Days was a popular BBC television light entertainment programme which was first broadcast on 20 July 1953 and ran right the way through to 1983. It was performed at the Leeds City Varieties and recreated the music hall atmosphere with songs and sketches of the era performed by present-day performers in the style of the original artistes.
The audience dressed in period costume and joined in the singing, especially “Down at the Old Bull and Bush” which closed the show, and acts rangeD from superb singing to ribald comedy, magic, monologues, juggling, duets and dancing, with audience participation in popular choruses, all under the jovial eye of a witty, gavel-wielding Chairman. The chairman, with his polysyllabic, hyperbolic introductions, became the pivot around which the show revolved, and his duties were briefly carried out by Don Gemmell, until Leonard Sachs replaced him from the third show.
In the course of its run it featured about 2,000 performers including Morecambe and Wise, Eartha Kitt, Rod Hull, John Inman, Arthur Askey and Bruce Forsythe. A typical show would open midway through a popular chorus with the audience singing, after which the chairman would take his seat at his desk, with his gavel, and introduce a series of acts, usually in period costume. Many of the acts were singers, and most bills included relatively unknown performers, often speciality acts from abroad.
For the live show the top of the bill act is either TV Favourite Lionel Blair, or Strictly Come Dancing’s Anton Du Beke, supported by Lee Thompson, and will feature all your old favourite songs, including classics such as “Oh, What a Beauty”, “You Made Me Love You”, “Ma, He’s Making Eyes at Me”, “Down at the Old Bull and Bush” and many, many more.
In keeping with the original show, fancy dress is wholeheartedly encouraged, so come suitably dressed in the period of late 18th century to the 1930s – with prizes for the best costume!
The Good Old Days appears at the Royal Hippodrome Theatre, Eastbourne (with Anton) on Bank Holiday Monday, August 25th, The White Rock Theatre, Hastings (with Lionel) on Friday August 29th and at the Assembly Hall Theatre, Tunbridge Wells (with Anton) on Saturday August 30th with tickets already on sale at the venue box offices or online at their websites.