rec.arts.theatre.musicals

Ray S wrote:
> The recent Wicked thread of love it/hate it, made me think back to shows
> that I had found so bad as to have actually walked out on.


The first show I walked out of, I think, was Alan Bleasdale's farce
"Having a Ball", which is set in a vasectomy clinic (geddit?).

Bleasdale, at his best, is a brilliant writer. His "GBH" is one of the
most stunning dramas ever produced on British television, and quite
possibly the best piece of British political drama of any stripe (stage,
TV, film) of its era (late 80s/early 90s). "Having a Ball" is *awful*,
and the touring production I went to, whose cast featured an ex-Doctor
Who (Sylvester McCoy) and an ex-Page Three Stunna (Linda Lusardi), was
simply painful. I'd never walked out of anything before; two-thirds of
the way through Act One, I determined that life was too short, and when
the interval began I ran for it. If I'd been sitting on an aisle I'd
have left sooner.

These days, I'll only leave if I paid for the ticket myself, I don't
know anybody involved in the show, and I don't have to write a review.
It's bad form to leave at the interval if you've been comped, it's
insulting to leave early if you've a friend in the show, and I hate the
sort of reviews where the reviewer confesses to having left early. But
if I paid for the ticket myself, I don't know anybody involved in the
show, and I don't have to write about it later, I'm free to vote with my
feet, and sometimes I do.

--

Stephen

I admit I went over to the dark side, but just to pick up a few things.