Are you an older theatregoer?

I'm not quite there yet, but it is sometimes scary to reflect that some of the younger performers I currently admire weren't even born yet when I was indeed seeing favorite shows for the third or fourth time.

I mostly notice it with revivals, like now people going "Oh, I can finally see The King and I!" and I'm thinking, meh, I've seen it before in London not so long ago... then check back and realize it's a whole 18 years ago after all.

As a female I need the loo all the time anyway (well, before the show and at the interval, afterwards I can usually make it back to the hotel first).

I don't regret getting older or time advancing though. I now have so much more money than as a teen and can afford to travel to London 4-5 times a year comfortably on the Eurostar and a single room (albeit at a Travelodge). Back then it was once a year on an Eurolines overnight coach via Calais-Dover and a bed in a 4-bed-dorm in the youth hostel. And the internet/social media makes it so much easier to keep informed on what's happening in London, be first in the queue when new shows open, be aware of cast changes, discounts, talk to you nice folks here daily, etc. when back then all I had was a bi-monthly printed magazine and no idea how to make friends in Britain.

I just turned 81 last week (and I keep telling people about it) so I think I am probably the oldest active Theatre Board member unless anybody else would like to claim that distinction?

And, as I keep reminding people, I started my serious theatre-going back in Sydney in the late 1940s with several visits to "Annie Get Your Gun" although I remember being taken by my mother to see "The Desert Song" and "White Horse Inn" before that, as well as a number of revues at the Tivoli, which was Sydney's premier Variety theatre.

But I have to admit that most of the things on the TheatreMonkey's list apply to me, and the one that I regret most is that over the years I have seen many shows from the Gods and thoroughly enjoyed them, but these days the Gods (a loose term for the highest levels in theatres including the Balcony at the Coliseum and the Amphitheatre at the Royal Opera House) are just too far away from the stage for me to see and hear properly. I have many happy memories of seeing wonderful operas and ballets from the Balcony at the Coliseum, in fact when I first arrived in London from Sydney in 1960, my first memory of the Coliseum is standing at the back of the Balcony for the opening night of "The Most Happy Fella"! But sitting in the middle of the Balcony for "Carousel" recently was not a happy experience and more recently, "Aida" with the ENO was ghastly both for the sight and the sound.

But I hope I still have a few more years of theatre-going left, so long as I can get seats in the Stalls or Dress Circle but I'm afraid they have to be at a reasonable price, as F58 in the Dress Circle at the Coliseum was last night for "KIss Me, Kate" at £20 – a real bargain!

Very good.

Going to a revival of something you have a clear memeory of going to first time round and then not remembering anything that happens is scary.

Agree age has its compensations. We are seeing more than we ever did in the past.


I intend to ensure I stay young and beautiful by not booking my third visit to Les Mis before 2058!

I am swooning at your internet skills tonyloco ! 

I've only been active on the theatre scene for 7 years but I hope I am still attending shows in my 80s (though I suspect my knees will give out well before then)

Gosh...7/6 is about 37p!

May I go off on a tandem here and ask board members whether they recognise the building now appearing as my avatar? It no longer exists, hence my putting it in this thread about being an old theatre-goer.

^ Now tony, you have highlighted (!) another feature of these LPs and that was that they never listed the artists. Presumably because the recordings were considered rather naff, usually available only in places like Woolworths, not in ‘proper’ record shops, and because no ‘name’ as such wanted their name associated with the product.

I jest...

But come on... you are not going to rattle off all the ‘artists’ who were on those other albums and NOT tell me who was on this Superstar one, surely...?!?!



I’ll treat you to a(nother) ticket to 42nd Street if you can name the chap who sang my lines in Hosanna.

Ah yes mentioning MFP stirs memoires.

They also used to do covers of hit singles, sort of Now that's what I call Music before that series existed.   I can't remember them ever lisitng the young singers they employed

If anyone has the one with "Penny Lane" on it you can earn a pretty price on eBay. The singer was the unknown David Jones who found fame after changing his surname to Bowie. His attempt to give us a Scouse "customer" is as cringeworthy as The Laughing Gnome. 




Reg Dwight and others were roped in to. I had one based on Jimi Henrix, wander what happend to that!

If your discreet inquiries unearth any more nuggets of information then I will consider upgrading your ticket to the (side) stalls...

I’d also like to know the name of the fan who reckoned this was a ‘fine effort’: (s)he and I will have some talking to do. 

But that YouTube clip says the singer is not Bowie but a session singer called Tony Stevenson. There are obviously some interesting things to be researched in the archives of Music for Pleasure if they have survived, which I rather doubt. Watch this space...!
But that YouTube clip says the singer is not Bowie but a session singer called Tony Stevenson.

tonyloco, not only are you Theatreboard's oldest contributor (unless someone else has claimed that title and I'm not aware of it) but you are quite simply a Mine of Information!