Fit a fab feeling!
Just getting into the swing of going for gossipy lunches again, I punched a new hole in lockdown on Sunday with an all-female, family booking for Mamma Mia! at His Majesty’s Theatre in March, including my 10-year-old granddaughter. We’ll be beltin’ oot the songs, even though it’s not a singalong.
Canna wait to get back to the place so many Neesters love – the majestic HMT. We all have wonderful memories of what we’ve seen there over the decades
Hopefully we’ll be in that breathtaking auditorium even earlier if the pantomime Beauty and the Beast, cancelled last Christmas, goes ahead this year. After nearly two years of being cut off from many of the people and things I love, at a time of my life when every second is precious, I’ve vowed next year will be a cracker. For a start, my birthday will be 22/02/22 – the nearest possible to all the twos. Beat that.
So many memories of His Majesty’s Theatre
Canna wait to get back to the place so many Neesters love – the majestic HMT. We all have wonderful memories of what we’ve seen there over the decades. From classical theatre, opera and ballet, to those family-favourite pantos, musicals and the forever cherished Doric delights of Scotland the What?
My first memories were when we were tinies at Babs Wilson’s dancing classes, graduating up from being tail-tappin’ chicks at The Tivoli to our vast Oklahoma! performance at His Majesty’s, where we cake-walked on and off the revolving stage like baby elephants.
Scroll on to Mo as a new and nervous reporter in 1971 with the regular Monday “job” of interviewing the various stars, in the theatre’s Dress Circle Bar, at the start of their week’s run. Oh, that unforgettable morning the boss instructed me not to spend too much time on the guyo playing Hamlet – “a complete unknown”. Concentrate on actress Faith Brook, he ordered.
However, the Prince of Denmark wasn’t completely unknown to me and I set about an hour’s chat with him, ignoring the lovely Faith. What else was a quine to do with a young, stunningly handsome Ian McKellen in the seat beside her? No, the boss wasnae best pleased.
The Matthew Kelly Humiliation
Keen for my kids to experience the magic of HMT as well, we went to loadsa shows. But I doot they ever recovered from the trauma of The Matthew Kelly Humiliation. Free tickets, front row centre for this slightly off-beat comedy.
Me and my quine went to the lavvie just before curtain-up. Slunk towards our seats as lights went doon. Suddenly, oot of nowhere, Matthew Kelly towered at my side and whispered: “What’s your name?” Flummoxed, I jabbered: “Moreen.” Comes he, even quieter: “Moreen what?” I fell right into the trap. “Simpson.”
Suddenly, there was a huge blast from the orchestra and a ghastly spotlight landed on me and my peer kids. Scraiks the rotten Kelly mannie into his mic: “Look everyone! We have the honour of having Moreen Simpson here tonight!” Apparently he did the same to some unsuspecting peer soul every performance. I reckon my babes have never lived it down.