Betty Blue Eyes will take us back
Betty Blue Eyes will take us back to austerity Britain as Horsham Amateur Operatic & Dramatic Society take to the stage at the Capitol for their latest production (Tuesdaysaturday, May 9-13).
Haodschairmantesskennedy said: “The committee put three shows to the members to choose from and the top one goes through. It was Anything Goesthatwonbutthentheyannouncedaprofessionalshow,in the West End I think, and that meant that we couldn't get the licence so Betty Blue Eyes was the runner-up and that's what wearedoing,butactuallyitwas quite close. I've never seen the West End production but lots of people have told me it was a fantastic show and a massive crowd success.”
Betty Blue Eyes is a musical adaptation of the 1984 film A Private Function and features music by George Stiles with lyrics by Anthony Drewe. The book was written for the stage by Ron Cowen and Daniel Lipman, adapted from Alan Bennett's original screenplay.
It is 1947, belts are being tightened and the country’s long-suffering citizens are beingtoldbythegovernmentthat there will be fair shares for all in return for surviving austerity Britain. Meanwhile local officials feather their own nests by taking far more than their own fair share… Tess is playing the lead, Joyce: “Joyce is a bit like Keeping Up Appearances in that she wants to live a champagne life on brown ale money. She wants high status and everything is about status to her. She is really, really horribletoherhusbandallthetime because he had promised her that her future would live up to her past. She had quite a middle-class upbringing and now she's very much in a working class situation. She is extremely unpleasant. She fawns on everybody else. She wants to be part of their society, all the middle-class women that she meets and she really tries to ingratiate herself.
“It is set in austerity Britain. It is set in 1947 and there is still rationing and the country is in a slump and really struggling. Everybody is having a difficult time. It's all about opposing the government and you can't even get a rasher of bacon. There are parallels with now with the costoflivingcrisis.it'sthesame thing but in this there are multiple women whose husbands hadn't come back from the war and everybody is simply trying to survive.”
Tickets from venue.