No holds barred it seems for my contemporaneous verdict on this one:
Interminable – I can’t imagine how we ever got round to returning for the second half – but we did.
To add to the interminable nature of the evening, it seems we had Pauline, The Dowager Duchess of Castlebar (Janie’s mum) with us that evening. We went to Don Fernando’s (25 years on, now late lamented) for a meal after the show.
Julie Christie will have been the draw for this show, but clearly she and the cast were not enough to rescue the thing. Here is the Theatricalia entry for it. Super cast, actually, when you see the names Robert Hickson, Aden Gillett and Julie Legrand alongside that of Christie.
Here’s what the Leatherhead Advertiser said of it when it transferred on to Guildford:
04 Sep 1997, Thu Leatherhead Advertiser (Leatherhead, Surrey, England) Newspapers.com
Nicholas de Jongh had said similar stuff when it was at The Minerva:
Andler de Jongh Standard 23 Jul 1997, Wed Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
John Voss in The Sunday Telegraph had also described it in similar terms:
Andler Voss Sunday Telegraph 27 Jul 1997, Sun Sunday Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Not the most successful evening we’ve ever had at the theatre…or at Don Fernando’s…or even with Pauline.