Chit chat - A real show-stopper

Published Tuesday 15 July 2008 at 09:55 by Tabard

Tabard thinks that audiences should be able to gauge something about a show from its title.

For example, punters attending Titanic - the Musical might reasonably wish to be presented with a sinking ship and some light music accompaniment.

Somebody attending Cats might hope to see characters on stage of a feline variety. While those on a night out at Les Miserables are probably not in store for a jolly romp.

But what might one expect from a production called The Show Must Go On?

Well, not a lot, Tabard would suggest.

However, there is one thing that the ticket-buying public should really be guaranteed when a producer decides to call his show by this name.

You can give them something musical, you can give something serious, something comic, something of a high quality, something so inestimably bad that one wonders how it got to the stage in the first place. However, what you cannot give them is nothing.

Yes, I have a feeling you spotted my punchline.

The Show Must Go On, which had been due to star Zoe Tyler and play on a mini UK tour, taking in venues such as the City Hall in Sheffield and the Liverpool Empire, is not going on. It has been cancelled.

Tut, tut, tut. You couldn’t make it up.