Susan sings for Glasgow

Susan Boyle sang for the audience at the King’s Theatre, Glasgow on Wednesday 3 October. She appeared at the end of the stage show of her life story with a superb Elaine C Smith playing and singing the role of Susan.

Throughout the UK tour of ‘I Dreamed a Dream,’  Susan has put in a surprise appearance on a few occasions. The Glasgow audience had decided she wouldn’t be turning up and had started to rise from their seats and put on their coats after giving several curtain calls to Elaine and the wonderfully ‘in voice’ cast.

Then the lights dimmed and rose again – and there was Susan in an elegant crimson dress and she sang and sang to the full house which was on its feet applauding her all the way.  Having won a talent competition with her beautiful voice and unexpectedly, unsophisticated appearance. the 40 something woman became an overnight international phenomenom.

While Elaine has a great voice and played the role with elan, Susan’s voice has even finer timbre and range and captured an already well-satisfied, 95% female, crowd.

Thank you Elaine and cast and THANK YOU Susan for sharing your very human story that resonates with the lives of all too many people.

 

 

concert

CONCERT

Tuesday 12 April

7.30 pm

Renfield St Stephen’s Church

260 Bath Street, Glasgow

(opposite King’s Theatre)

Sandie Bishop: violin

Flora Tzanetaki: piano

Emily Walker: cello

Beethoven Violin sonata No 8 in G major – Champagne

Brahms Cello Sonata No 2 in F major Op.99

Brahms Piano Trio in C minor Op. 101

Tickets £7 at the door- includes refreshments

Under 16s free

Final Curtain Call for Kelly

by Lynsay Keough, photo by Stuart Maxwell

Gerard Kelly was laid to rest today, Friday 12 November, following a requiem mass attended by family and friends at St. Aloysius Church in Garnethill.
He took his final drive past the doors of the King’s Theatre in Bath Street this morning, instead of appearing as the Narrator in the Rocky Horror Show, as he had been billed to do this afternoon.
We know him as Gerard, but it was as Paul Kelly that he was born and brought up in the city’s Cranhill, 51 years ago, where his family ran a fish and chip shop. Kelly, as he was known to his friends, had spent 20 years in panto, most of it at the King’s. Indeed it was the theatre’s former manager Billy Differ, who had met him in that family chippy, who gave the eulogy at his funeral service at the church in Rose Street.
Billy paid tribute to his friend’s passion for life and generousity of spirit and reflected on his loss to the theatrical community in Glasgow. ‘We know how much panto meant to Kelly, we sadly wait to see how much Kelly meant to panto’.
Father O’Brien, who took the service, asked for prayers for those in the entertainment community, especially for those in panto, ‘in the hope that the joy will wipe away the tears’.
Crowds gathered outside the King’s following the service, with the flag above the theatre flying at half-mast and bill posters showing shows from the past featuring Kelly.  A heartfelt final round of applause greeted the cortege as it slowed down outside the doors and Kelly took his final curtain call.

Win tickets for Dreamboats and Petticoats at the King’s Theatre

Thanks to its phenomenal success, DREAMBOATS AND PETTICOATS, the smash hit musical which has had a sold-out second tour, is to be extended. It will be in Glasgow from March 29 to April 3 at the King’s Theatre. Phone: 0844 871 7648 for ticket details.
Written by Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran, the team behind Goodnight Sweetheart, Birds of a Feather, The New Statesmen and Shine On Harvey Moon, this spectacular feel-good production featuring songs from Roy Orbison, The Shadows, Eddie Cochran, Billy Fury, Chuck Berry and many more.

LOCAL NEWS has two pairs of tickets to give away for the opening Glasgow night of DREAMBOATS AND PETTICOATS 2010 run.
For your pass to a great evening of nostalgia, just write and tell us which of the bands whose music is featured in the show is most associated with Sir Cliff Richard but also enjoyed huge success of their own.

Send your answers by email to competitions@localnewsglasgow.co.uk. Please put ‘DREAMBOATS AND PETTICOATS COMPETITION’ in the header field and remember your name, address and a daytime telephone number. You can also enter by snail mail, please write with your answer to Dreamboats and Petticoats Competition, Local News Glasgow, YAM Publications, 73 Robertson Street, Glasgow, G2 8QD. Don’t forget all your contact details.

This competition closes at 9am on Monday, March 22.

Slumdog gets Aladdin to cook up spot of lunch

 

 

 

There was a touch of spice for panto season recently, as the cast of Aladdin paid a visit to Slumdog Bar & Kitchen in Sauchiehall Street.

 

 

The pantomime cast – Keith Jack (Aladdin), Gerard Kelly (Wishee Washee), Karen Dunbar (Widow Twankey) and Gavin Mitchell (Abanazar) – took a break from rehearsals at the King’s Theatre to meet staff and enjoy a hot spot of lunch.

The panto, which runs from 4 December until 17 January, sees Gerard strengthen his long ties with the theatre, while Edinburgh-born Keith, runner-up on BBC talent show Any Dream Will Do, adds Aladdin to an impressive and varied repertoire that includes Only The Brave and Peter Pan.