Show Biz Kids

Two shows in less than 24 hours - we’re certainly not slowing down at the end of this holiday. Last night was the musical Annie, with Craig Revel-Horwood in the role of Miss Hannigan. He was good, but was out sung, out acted and out danced by the kids playing the orphans - especially the young lady in the titular role. It was very good, but slightly spoiled by the antics of some of the audience. Whilst I’m all for making live theatre more attractive to the masses, the side effect is that it attracts people who have no idea of how to behave in a theatre. There were far too many young children, presumably brought along by their doting parents to see what is possible if they keep up their dancing classes. Fair enough, but some of those kids were only 6 or 7, and rapidly became bored and just started talking. Not helped by the industrial quantities of sugary sweets they were consuming. But worse was the couple sat next to us. No idea why they were there - possibly Strictly Come Dancing fans? - but they were drinking like there was no tomorrow and must have had incredibly small bladders as I think one or the other of them got up to go to the loo at least half a dozen times during the show. As they were sat in the middle of the row, the rest of us were up and down like a fiddlers elbow. For the theatres, it’s a balancing act between getting bums on seats or making it an elitist activity only, but maybe there should be an announcement at the beginning of shows outlining what behaviour is - or isn’t - acceptable. Or perhaps I’m just a snob.
This afternoon, by way of a complete contrast, we went to see Lucy Worsley’s show about Agatha Christie at The Lowry. Informative and interesting, she kept us entertained for a good two hours and the audience were just listening attentively throughout. Obviously, the show was to tie-in with/publicise her recently published biography of Agatha Christie but there was no hard sell and she was just as happy to answer questions about her other interests during the Q&A.
Unfortunately, the rain had set in with a vengeance when we came out of the theatre, so it was a fairly miserable drive home up the M6. And whilst Mrs C has an evening of unpacking and sorting out dirty laundry, I have gone out to play at a gig. Thankfully, an early finish is scheduled so I might just make it despite still not being 100%. Definitely looking forward to sleeping in my own bed tonight.