BP News

Chairman's Letter

Happy New Year to you all. I sincerely hope you all had a great time and wish you everything you desire in 2007.

Huge congratulations to Jon Brown and the team involved in James and the Giant Peach. It was a virtual sell-out and from the audience reactions a show that was very much enjoyed. (I notice we even got a good review in the local press!). I personally thought the staging and costumes were outstanding. A huge amount of work obviously went in to the show and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Other than that, it's not been very long since the last newsletter so not a huge amount of news from the chair; so I thought I'd let you know about some festive theatrical disappointments for me. Every year I go to the theatre in London as a treat with either friends or family at Christmas, but I've not had much luck seeing the "star" I expected (and paid a fortune) to see! Two years ago I saw The Producers without Nathan Lane (due to a bad back!) and this year alone I've seen THREE productions without the star! I went to see Cabaret without James Dreyfus as The Emcee, I saw Spamalot without Tim Currie as King Arthur, but by far the biggest disappoint was The Sound of Music without the public-choice of Connie Fisher as Maria! It was the first performance she'd missed since her run had started in November. Even one of the Von Trapp children disappeared halfway through Act One so we only had 6 kids to doh us the proverbial deer! The shows were still very enjoyable and the understudies were excellent, but when you're shelling out in excess of £50 to see the show WITH the star it does get a tad annoying! Anyway, I was lucky enough to get tickets for Little Shop of Horrors and Lord of the Rings for later in the year from my loved ones as presents, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I see the right cast!!