Elton John's Glasses Closes This Week

David Farr's new football(soccer)-fuelled comedy, Elton John's Glasses, has lost out to the real thing. Timed to open at the Queen's Theatre the day of the World Cup Finals opening match in France, the play will be closing this Saturday, 11 July, one day before the international football tournament itself.

The comedy boasts a strong cast, led by comedian Brian Conley and directed by Terry Johnson, and won positive reviews when it first opened on 10 June. But there was always a worry, from the less than half-full press nights, that the play's natural football-loving audience could not be torn from their screens.

Elton John's Glasses explores one man's obsession with football and, in particular, his team, the Watford Hornets. Conley plays Bill who hasn't recovered from Watford's 1984 defeat to Everton in the FA Cup Final. It's now 1996, the fateful day of the last match of the season and relegation looms. Bill is reliving the agony of defeat when his younger brother with wayward rock band, his lover and her daughter show up to add farce to failure.

Elton John's Glasses premiered last June at Watford's Palace Theatre where it returned in April to kick off a two-month national tour before its arrival in the West End. It was awarded the Writers' Guild of Great Britain Best Regional Play of 1997.

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