Girls just wanna have fun...and some lunch!
WHAT do you do if you love performing and so many of the country’s theatres have been shut down for months courtesy of the pandemic?
If you’re singer, reality judge and international coach Zoe Tyler, you get together with your mates and tour some of Britain’s top hotels. At lunchtime.
Zoe’s brainchild – Lunch And Laughs Live! – will be visiting a dozen top hotels every weekend in September with an afternoon of stories, celeb secrets, gossip, music and laughter while diners are entertained by Carol Mcgiffin, Claire Sweeney, Kate Thornton and Rustie Lee. Lisa Maxwell may join them at some venues.
Lunch And Laughs Live! gives people the chance to get out and enjoy a slap-up meal and a few drinks at hotels across the UK – in Aberdeen, Glasgow, Dunblane, Kilmarnock, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Stoke, Lincoln, Birmingham, Belfast, Brighton and Cardiff – from September 3 to 26.
Included in the price is a glass of bubbly on arrival and a goody bag when people leave. There will be arts and crafts stalls and the audience will get the chance to put the stars on the spot in a Q&A session.
The tour will raise funds for Make 2nds Count, a charity helping people living with secondary breast cancer.
Zoe says: “You never stop missing being a performer which is why I came up with
‘An afternoon of songs, chat, laughs’
the idea. There’s been a long tradition of cabaret and a meal in the evening, but what about the middle of the day?
“I can think of nothing nicer than meeting up with a group of friends and going for lunch while being entertained by a group of favourite performers.
“I’ve made lots of friends in many years in showbusiness. Rustie Lee and I have been mates from my 20s when we toured together in the musical, Smoky Joe’s Café.
“Claire Sweeney and I have known each other since we were 17 when we started in cabaret. And I met Kate Thornton and Carol Mcgiffin when I joined Loose Women.we all go back a long way.”
Originally the two-hour show was to tour theatres, but the pandemic put paid to that. And so the idea was born of using large conference areas or ballrooms in smart hotels – all of them with a stage in situ – and entertaining up to 300 people as they ate their lunch.
The show is sponsored by online baking business Britain Loves Baking.
Zoe will open proceedings with a selection of songs – typically something made famous by Dolly Parton or Aretha Franklin, as well as numbers from famous musicals.
Show compere Kate Thornton said: “This opportunity came at a point when we’d all been locked up for so many months. Going out on the road with friends as part of a tour like this was a dream come true. Pure music to my ears.”
Kate will also be talking about her life in journalism and as one of the Loosewomen panellists. “It’s going to be a ton of fun, an afternoon of songs, chat and laughs.”
Rustie Lee will be on hand to magic up some Caribbean cocktails.
Beginning her career on Tv-am in the 80s, she has appeared on stage with roles in musicals including South Pacific and Ain’t Misbehavin’ and 15 pantomimes.
She has also published cookery books and children’s titles.
Rustie says: “I’m so glad to get out of the house! It’s been terrible for everybody but bring on September and a great time with the girls and our audiences.”
The lunch tour could not have come at a better time for singer, presenter and ex-brookside regular Claire Sweeney. “It was the height of lockdown when Zoe got in touch. The thought of going on tour with your mates and having a good laugh was so appealing. For the audience, it’s going to be like a girls’ afternoon out – and you’ll be back home and in bed by nine o’clock. What’s not to like?” She is still
sorting out what songs she’ll be singing but fancies a medley from the musical Chicago – “I played Roxy Hart in one production” – as well as a number with Zoe and Rustie.
And then there is Carol Mcgiffin. What can people expect from her?
“Carol will be Carol,” says Zoe. “She’s a one-off but I can make you one promise: she won’t be singing!”
Carol says: “I’ve got lots of mates who work in music and I was always rather jealous when they’d tell me they were off on tour. I thought that could never happen for the simple reason I’ve got no talent!”
But never one to shy away from saying something provocative, Carol will be an active member of the Q&A session.
She says: “I’m really going to encourage audience participation. It’s a lunch – my favourite meal – with bells and whistles, a great escape for people who’ve had some pretty dark times.”
Tickets £50 (plus booking fee) or £60 for VIP tickets (plus fee) from lunchandlaughslive.com