West End Jus’ Like That & Glee Club Hit the RoadDate: 13 August 2004
Two recent West End plays - Tommy Cooper tribute show Jus' Like That and Richard Cameron's play The Glee Club - are launching UK-wide tours over the coming weeks.
Jus' Like That opens on 17 August 2004 at Northampton’s Theatre Royal before continuing, until 4 December to Woking, Stoke, Richmond, Mold, Norwich, Sheffield, Truro, Cardiff, Eastbourne, Windsor, Peterborough, Cheltenham, Nottingham, Southend and Jersey, with further dates to be confirmed for 2005.
Cooper died on stage at Her Majesty's Theatre in 1984 of a heart attack. His act combined hammy comedy with a classic sense of timing. This enabled him to rehash old jokes, and to make a humorous mess of magic tricks whilst wearing his trademark fez hat.
Jerome Flynn (of Soldier Soldier fame) was nominated for a Whatsonstage.com Theatregoers’ Choice Award for Best Solo Performance for playing Cooper in Jus' Like That during its spring 2003 run at the West End’s Garrick Theatre.
The nostalgic comedy is written by Cooper's former television producer John Fisher, directed by actor-author-director Simon Callow, choreographed by Craig Revel Horwood and designed by Christopher Woods. It’s presented on tour by Lee Menzies.
The Glee Club premiered at west London’s Bush Theatre in February 2002 before transferring to the West End’s Duchess Theatre in April 2002. Set in 1962, the play follows an amateur singing group - made up of five hard-working, hard-drinking miners and a church organist - who are preparing for a gala while also coming to terms with the implications of local gossip and their lives' disappointments.
The touring cast features Stefan Bednarczyk, Mike Burns, Steve Garti, Oliver Jackson and Colin Tarrant. The production is directed once again by Mike Bradwell, artistic director of the Bush, which is co-producing with the Octagon Theatre, Bolton.
The Glee Club opens on 6 September 2004 at Leeds’ West Yorkshire Playhouse before visiting Oxford, Warwick, Ipswich, Sevenoaks, Sheffield and Southport, where the tour concludes on 6 November.
- by Terri Paddock
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