This “opus” was not Mike Ward’s finest hour as a comedy impresario.
For several years prior to this one…and indeed for many years after…the Actor’s Workshop would traditionally stage “New Year Revels”. Indeed, I met Mike early to mid 1990s, when his son, Adam, briefly wrote for NewsRevue and twigged that his dad’s annual show might benefit from material produced by NewsRevue writers. I contributed to the show for several years and visited it for the first time in 1997:
I have no idea why Mike decided to try something different in 2000. Perhaps it was because several of the NewsRevue “class of ’92” had all-but stopped writing sketches and songs by 1999. Possibly it was Mike’s irritation that so many of the sketches and songs that were written by young Actor’s Workshop folk for him to perform mocked his rhotacism. Septimus Gusset was, if I recall correctly, one of Mike’s “answers to that”. (Performing On The Waterfront some years later was another, no doubt, whereas Mike’s wonderful Casablanca The Musical, which literally brought the house down the following year, embraced that rhotacism).
In truth, Janie and I were not wild about the Septimus Gussett show and I don’t think it did anything like as well as “New Year Revels” in the matter of bringing the Actor’s Workshop community together for a celebratory show.
Still, Janie and I had a most enjoyable short trip up to Halifax. We stayed at the Crown, again and I am pretty sure that Lottie Ward treated us to one of her magnificent beef fillet feasts at Mike & Lottie’s place after the show.