[Haz23]

Does anyone mind explaining to me what they are? They sound good fun whatever they may be!

[DanielWhit]

Does anyone mind explaining to me what they are? They sound good fun whatever they may be!

Essentially - the last matinee before a Cast Change they cast "muck-up" a bit, by appearing in scenes they don't normally, switching costumes, pulling a strange accent or a daft walk.. you get the idea. Most are in-jokes from the cast, and are usually in keeping with the theme of the show.

[Allie]

Italian Dillamond is one of my personal favourites

[monkeycarter89]

I always loved the "I'm just finishing myself off" in Avenue Q

[VelmaMaureen]

What's always amusing is when there are people near you in the theatre who had no idea that it was a muck up matinee when they booked their tickets, then don't really notice anything funny about the show. I was telling someone about muck up matinees the other day, and they were saying how annoyed they would be if they went to the theatre without knowing about it. To be honest, I personally wouldn't go and see a show for the first time if I knew it was going to be a muck up matinee, I save them for repeat visits.

[Matthew Winn]

What's always amusing is when there are people near you in the theatre who had no idea that it was a muck up matinee when they booked their tickets, then don't really notice anything funny about the show.

What's not amusing is when they do notice.

I've seen some wonderful end-of-season jokes where talented and imaginative people have inserted finely-crafted changes into a show, resulting in great fun for those familiar with the production and an unimpaired experience for those seeing it for the first and only time. Unfortunately I've also seen a great many actors who combine an I'm-too-important-to-care-about-the-audience arrogance with a dumb-as-a-box-of-rocks stupidity, a distressingly common combination that merely spoils the show for the majority of the audience.

I thought I'd witnessed the nadir of final matinee wit when an outgoing member of Cats replaced the line "Are you cock of the walk..." with a single shouted "cock". I was wrong.

[cat123]

Italian Dillamond is one of my personal favourites

Andy Mace is a legend for that!! However, I have great faith that Stoller will not dissapoint this time round!

[rio2]

One of my favourites was the final matinee of Barrowman's La Cage, when during one of the numerous costume changes as Zaza, instead of the usual purple wig he wore a long white frizzy wig and exclaimed "Merry Christmas! I'm Mrs Claus. Just like Santa, but I go up the chimney not down!".