"No Medals No Medals is a play by the British writer Esther McCracken first staged in 1944. Its West End run at the Vaudeville Theatre lasted for 740 performances between 4 October 1944 and 19 July 1946. It depicts the struggles of a middle-class British housewife during the war years. The original cast included Fay Compton and Frederick Leister while Thora Hird appeared in a comic relief role as servant in her first London performance. In 1948 it was turned into a film ""The Weaker Sex"" with McCracken working on the adaptation herself. Directed by Roy Ward Baker, it starred"
"(Newcastle upon Tyne) (1964), The Leatherhead Theatre (1966), Theatre Royal, Windsor (1966), Richmond Theatre (1966), O’Keefe Centre (Toronto) (1967) and Chichester Festival Theatre (1969). During the early 1970s, Sidaway worked in public relations and marketing for London theatre managements, in particular for producer John Gale, and from 1972 he was involved in ""No Sex Please, We're British"" at London’s Strand Theatre. It became the world's longest running comedy play. Sidaway subsequently moved into theatre production and produced and presented such productions as: ""Anastasia"" was written Marcelle Maurette and Guy Bolton, directed by Tony Craven and starred Nyree Dawn Porter, Peter"
"in the West End, in a production that opened at the Queen's Theatre on 30 September 1991. ""Bottom"" became very popular, but it was criticised for its often vulgar humour. The show was also turned into five UK stage tours (1993, 1995, 1997, 2001 and 2003). The violent nature of these shows saw both Edmondson and Mayall ending up in hospital. In 1993, Edmondson starred alongside Richard Briers in a black comedy called ""If You See God, Tell Him"". Edmondson played Gordon Spry, whose uncle (Briers) is paralysed and has a greatly reduced attention span. His erratic behaviour causes problems"
"Garrick Theatre The Garrick Theatre is a West End theatre, located on Charing Cross Road, in the City of Westminster, named after the stage actor David Garrick. It opened in 1889 with ""The Profligate"", a play by Arthur Wing Pinero, and another Pinero play, ""The Notorious Mrs. Ebbsmith"", was an early success at the theatre. In its early years, the Garrick appears to have specialised in the performance of melodrama. The theatre later became associated with comedies, including ""No Sex Please, We're British"", which played for four years from 1982 to 1986. There was previously another theatre that was sometimes"
"Anthony Marriott Anthony Marriott (17 January 1931, London, England – 17 April 2014) was a playwright and actor. As a playwright he was best known as the joint author, with Alistair Foot, of the farce ""No Sex Please, We're British"" which opened at the Strand Theatre, London, on 3 June 1971. It has been performed in 52 countries and which on 21 February 1979 became the longest running comedy in the history of world theatre. A film version starring Ronnie Corbett was released in 1973. Marriott also co-created the long-running British television series ""Public Eye"" with Roger Marshall. He lived"
"the treatment is serious – as in ""The Vortex"" and ""Easy Virtue"" – or comic – as in ""Hay Fever"" and ""Fallen Angels"" – the overall impact seems much the same: sex is disruptive, compelling, even overwhelming, while sex and marriage are difficult, perhaps impossible, to reconcile."" Fallen Angels (play) Fallen Angels is a comedy by the English playwright Noël Coward. It opened at the Globe Theatre, London (now called the Gielgud Theatre) on 21 April 1925 and ran until 29 August. The central theme of two wives admitting to premarital sex and contemplating adultery met hostility from the office"
"the Buses"" is a ""cheerfully vulgar comedy"" in which ""leering and innuendo dominate."" Some of the network's other ratings successes from this era are now 'politically incorrect' too. Series such as ""Love Thy Neighbour"" (1972–76) and ""Mind Your Language"" (1977–79, 1986), which attempted to find humour in racial or ethnic conflict and misunderstandings, were increasingly criticised over time. Increasing relaxation in regard to the discussion of sex meant farce became a familiar form in the 1970s used in series like ""Up Pompeii!"" (1969–70, 1975, 1991), and ""Are You Being Served?"" (1972, 1973–85). In the 1980s the emerging alternative comedians began"
"as a director was Pinero's ""The Gay Lord Quex"" (1975). Gielgud continued his long stage association with Richardson in Harold Pinter's ""No Man's Land"" (1975), directed by Hall at the National. Richardson played Hirst, a prosperous but isolated and vulnerable author, and Gielgud was Spooner, a down-at-heel sponger and opportunist. Hall found the play ""extremely funny and also extremely bleak"". The production was a critical and box-office success and, over a period of three years, played at the Old Vic, in the West End, at the Lyttelton Theatre in the new National Theatre complex, on Broadway and on television. In"
"Comedy Playhouse Comedy Playhouse is a long-running British anthology series of one-off unrelated sitcoms that aired for 120 episodes from 1961 to 1975. Many episodes later graduated to their own series, including ""Steptoe and Son"", ""Meet the Wife"", ""Till Death Us Do Part"", ""All Gas and Gaiters"", ""Up Pompeii!"", ""Not in Front of the Children"", ""Me Mammy"", ""That's Your Funeral"", ""The Liver Birds"", ""Are You Being Served?"" and ""Last of the Summer Wine"", which is the world's longest running sitcom, having run from January 1973 to August 2010. In March 2014, it was announced that ""Comedy Playhouse"" would make a"
"a total of 1,453 performances during its run. Cast replacements on Broadway over the years included Sandy Dennis (March 1977), Hope Lange, Betsy Palmer, Loretta Swit (February 1976) and Joyce Van Patten as Doris and Ted Bessell, Conrad Janis, Monte Markham, Charles Kimbrough, and Don Murray as George. The original London production opened in 1976, starring Michael Crawford and Frances Cuka at the Prince of Wales Theatre. ""The New York Times"" critic Clive Barnes wrote: ""Do not put off till tomorrow what you can do today. Get tickets for ""Same Time, Next Year""... It is the funniest comedy about love"
"also a top attraction in London's West End for three years between 1967 and 1970. The anarchic pair brought their own talents to play and twisted the plot and dialogue out of all recognition. No two shows were identical and it became an increasingly fluid experience, including audience participation and regular breaking of the 'fourth wall' between the stage and the audience. The role of the supporting cast quickly became one of trying to keep straight faces while steering the show on track and somewhere close to the original script, while the show’s two stars generally played the fool. The"
"West End from April 1977 to March 1981, and is regarded by many as the most successful of the British sex comedies of the seventies. Costing £120,000 to make, the film took £550,000 during its West End run, and broke box-office records in the cinemas of a number of provincial cities. By 2001, the film had taken over £4 million. In a publicity stunt for the first anniversary of the film’s opening, Suzy Mandel and Mary Millington posed in lingerie on the Moulin Cinema's marquee. Sullivan's follow-up film ""The Playbirds"" (1978) gave Millington a more sizable role. While Millington’s popularity"
"positions. The play featured Penelope Keith, who subsequently won the 1976 Olivier Award for Best Comedy Performance. The play was revived in 2006 at the Comedy Theatre Donkeys' Years Donkeys' Years is a play by English playwright Michael Frayn that premiered at the Globe Theatre, London, in 1976. The play is a West End farce, a genre that Frayn parodied five years later in his play within a play ""Nothing On"" from ""Noises Off"". In ""Donkeys' Years"" six former students spend the weekend at their old university college for their 25th year reunion. The wife of the Master of the"
"Place, Warehouse & Aldwych, London 1978) 1978: ""Savage Amusement"" (Warehouse) 1978: ""Look Out! Here Comes Trouble"" (Warehouse) 1978: ""The Adventures of Awful Knawful"" (Warehouse) 1979: ""Merry Wives of Windsor"" (Stratford & Aldwych, 1980) 1979: ""Caucasian Chalk Circle"" (Touring & Warehouse Theatre) 1980: ""The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby"" (Aldwych 1980-1) 1981: ""Naked Robots"" (Warehouse) 1981: ""The Twin Rivals"" (Other Place & The Pit Theatre, London, 1982) 1982: ""Nicholas Nickleby"" (Plymouth Theatre, Broadway) 1982: ""Song and Dance"" (Palace Theatre, London) 1982: ""Our Friends in the North"" (Other Place, The Pit Theatre, London) 1982: ""Peter Pan"" by JM Barrie (Barbican Theatre,"
"or comedy-dramas. More recent productions are listed below and include ""No Sex Please, We're British"" (1982), which played for four years at the theatre before transferring to the Duchess Theatre in 1986. In 1995, the Royal National Theatre's multi-award-winning production of J. B. Priestley's ""An Inspector Calls"" opened here, having played successful seasons at the Royal National Theatre's Lyttelton and Olivier theatres as well as the Aldwych Theatre and a season on Broadway. In 1986, the Garrick was acquired by the Stoll Moss Group, and in 2000 it became a ""Really Useful Theatre"" when Andrew Lloyd Webber's Really Useful Group"
"Sex comedy Sex comedy or more broadly sexual comedy is a genre in which comedy is motivated by sexual situations and love affairs. Although ""sex comedy"" is primarily a description of dramatic forms such as theatre and film, literary works such as those of Ovid and Chaucer may be considered sex comedies. Sex comedy was popular in 17th century English Restoration theatre. From 1953 to 1965, Hollywood released a number of ""will she or won't she?"" sex comedies, starring Doris Day, Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe. The United Kingdom released a spate of sex comedies in the 1970s notably the"
"an annoyed spiritualist, presumably."" ""The Times"" considered the piece the equal not only of Coward's earlier success ""Hay Fever"" but of Wilde's classic comedy ""The Importance of Being Earnest"". There were dissenting views. James Agate thought the play ""common"", and Graham Greene called it ""a wearisome exhibition of bad taste"". When the piece had its first West End revival in 1970 the play was warmly though not rapturously praised by the critics, but by the time of the next major production, in 1976, Irving Wardle of ""The Times"" considered, ""Stylistically, it is Coward's masterpiece: his most complete success in imposing"
"smiles and says she’s leaving for Australia. She takes Gregg's hand, knowing that he has loved her all along. The comedy-drama premiered April 26, 1926, at Daly's 63rd Street Theatre in New York City. ""Sex"" received many scathing reviews from a variety of critics because of the play’s moral implications. ""The New York Times"" considered it be a ""crude and inept play, cheaply produced and poorly acted"" while ""Billboard"" condemned it as ""the cheapest most vulgar low show to have dared to open in New York this year"". However, despite negative press, ""Sex"" was a Broadway fan favorite, playing to"
"female nudity, sex, violence and homosexuality. Ken Russell's ""Women in Love"" (1969) was especially controversial for showing frontal male nudity in a wrestling scene between Oliver Reed and Alan Bates. Glenda Jackson won the Academy Award for Best Actress in that film, the first performer to win for a role that included nude scenes. There was also a long line of sex comedies, beginning with ""Mary Had a Little..."" (1961), which were more intended to display nudity than sexuality. Other British sex comedies included ""What's Good for the Goose"" (1969). There apparently are two versions of the film, one being"
"world première of her ballet ""Circe"". Next was a string of Broadway musicals, including ""Funny Girl"" in 1966 with Barbra Streisand, ""Sweet Charity"" (1967), and ""Promises, Promises"" (1969). ""The Threepenny Opera"" was revived in 1972. In 1976, Bernard Slade's ""Same Time, Next Year"" was a hit, as was ""I Love My Wife"" (1977), and ""Bedroom Farce"" (1978). In 1982, ""Underneath the Arches"" was a long-running hit. Andrew Lloyd Webber's ""Aspects of Love"" (1989) smashed all previous box-office records at the theatre, running for 1,325 performances. More recent productions are listed below. Refurbishment was carried out in 2004 to increase the"
"with the nearby Adelphi, Garrick, Lyceum and Duchess theatres. An active campaign by Equity, the Musicians' Union and theatre owners under the auspices of the ""Save London Theatres Campaign"" led to the abandonment of the scheme. Cicely Courtneidge played at the theatre in ""The Bride Comes Back"" (1960) and Ray Cooney's ""Move Over Mrs. Markham"" (1971). Bill Treacher made his West End debut in 1963 in the comedy ""Shout for Life"" at the Vaudeville. In 1966, the theatre hosted ""Arsenic and Old Lace"", starring Sybil Thorndike and her husband Lewis Casson. Brigid Brophy's ""The Burglar"" premiered at the theatre in"
"front stalls and private boxes with toy machine guns filled with table tennis balls. The audience in the expensive private boxes were usually the recipients of most of the more outrageous ribbing and leg-pulling during the show. When the London show closed in 1970, Eric Sykes returned to the role as Bloome and it was taken on a repeat national tour of almost every theatre in the UK with the remainder of the original West End cast. For the next three years the show also toured extensively across the Middle East and Australia. ""Big Bad Mouse"" had a short run"
"the period. In 1970, Eyen had his biggest commercial success to date with ""The Dirtiest Show in Town"", a satirical response to, and example of, the period's plays depicting nudity and sexual situations. ""The Dirtiest Show in Town"" initially ran at the Astor Place Theatre for two seasons, with later runs both off-Broadway in New York and in London's West End. He also wrote the song ""Ode to a Screw"" with Peter Cornell for the 1971 Miloš Forman film ""Taking Off."" Eyen's other shows in the early 1970s included: According to ""The New York Times"", ""Eyen was called the Neil"
"commonplace entertainment throughout the West End. In 1942, ""The Whitehall Follies"", featuring Phyllis Dixey, the first stripper to perform in the theatre district, opened with great fanfare and became an immediate success. Dixey leased the theatre and remained in it for the next five years. A series of five long-running farces, presented under the umbrella title ""Whitehall farce"" by the actor-manager Brian Rix, were staged at the theatre from 1950 to 1966: ""Reluctant Heroes"", by Colin Morris (1950–54); ""Dry Rot"", by John Chapman (1954–58); ""Simple Spymen"" (1958–61); ""One For the Pot"", by Ray Cooney and Tony Hilton (1961–64); and ""Chase"
"London's West End and ran for three years. It reached Broadway in 1971. His agent told him after this success that: “You’ve got a choice: you can write the same play over and over for the next 30 years"" or alternatively ""you can decide to do something completely different every time"". He told her that he was writing a play about the ""extermination of the Brazilian Indians in the 1960s"". ""Savages"", set during the period of the military government, was first performed in 1973. A sojourn in Hollywood led to an unproduced film adaptation of Marlowe's play ""Edward II"" and"
"The production was directed by John Gielgud. It ran for 101 performances, closing on July 10, 1961. The production did not make money at the box office, but despite only mixed to warm reviews, it won two Tony awards, for Best Director and Best Featured Actor, and was nominated for two more. A London production the following year was a failure, closing within two weeks. The piece has rarely been revived, but it was adapted for television in 1971. ""Big Fish, Little Fish"" was one of the first Broadway plays to explore frankly the issue of homosexuality, and Gielgud ignored"
"London led to a late Victorian and Edwardian theatre building boom in the West End. At the end of the century, Edwardian musical comedy came to dominate the musical stage. Irish playwrights George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) and J. M. Synge (1871–1909) were influential in British drama. Shaw's career as a playwright began in the last decade of the nineteenth century, while Synge's plays belong to the first decade of the twentieth century. Synge's most famous play, ""The Playboy of the Western World"", ""caused outrage and riots when it was first performed"" in Dublin in 1907. George Bernard Shaw turned the"
"its ""wonderful combination of panic and innocence"". In 2005, Charles Spencer wrote in ""The Daily Telegraph"", ""Beneath the laughter, ""Rookery Nook"" is blessed with a robust tolerance, celebrating sexual desire and human frailty, even as it deplores those gossips addicted to 'vile scandals, venomous libels, and dirty little tattling tea parties'. In this respect, at least, Travers still has something to say to the England of today."" The piece was revived in 1942, with Lynn in his original part (""as masterly as ever"", according to ""The Times""). A musical version, titled ""Popkiss"", was staged at the Globe Theatre in 1972,"
"translates from Latin as ""you shall have the body"". Having made his reputation as a co-writer of and performer in ""Beyond the Fringe"", Bennett turned to writing full-length plays. ""Habeas Corpus"" was his third to be staged in the West End. It followed ""Forty Years On"" (1968) and ""Getting On"" (1971), which were described by the critic Michael Billington as ""two elegiac comedies about the decline of England"". In the new play Bennett's comedy became farcical: Billington called it ""a gorgeously vulgar but densely plotted farce"". Directed by Ronald Eyre, designed by Derek Cousins; music by Carl Davis. In February"
"in the David Niven horror comedy ""Vampira"" (1974), the film version of the TV series ""Man About the House"" (1974), the sex comedy ""Keep It Up Downstairs"" (1976), and the James Bond spoof ""No. 1 of the Secret Service"" (1977). Stage roles in London included Susie in George and Ira Gershwin's ""Lady Be Good"" with Lionel Blair in 1968 and Honey Tooks in Robin Hawdon's farce, ""The Mating Game"" (1972). She also recorded a single, ""Thoroughly Modern Millie"" produced by Radio London Programme Director Ben Toney, which was released on Polydor in 1967 but it was not a hit. In"
"the ""New York Times"" in 2010 called it ""potty-mouthed"". It carried the warning: ""It may not be for those who could find a frank discussion of sexual and religious matters not to their taste."" It was a West End hit and was made into a film in 1972 as ""It's a Two-Foot-Six-Inch-Above-the-Ground World"", later retitled ""The Love Ban"". His 1994 play ""The Missionary and Other Positions"" is about sex. Other later plays include ""Never So Good"" (1976), in which a bomb-wielding terrorist visits a group of black squatters, and ""Adam Redundant"" (1989), which reverses the roles in the Garden of"
"Emmy award for being voted the funniest man of the year, which he immediately turned over to host Jackie Gleason (who never won an Emmy award during his lifetime), citing him as ""the funniest man ever."" The unexpected gesture shocked Gleason. Lynde was a fixture on the Kenley Players summer stock theatre circuit, appearing in ""Don't Drink the Water"" (1970, 1979), ""The Impossible Years"" (1969, 1978), ""Mother is Engaged"" (1974), ""My Daughter is Rated X"" (1973), ""Plaza Suite"" (1971), and ""Stop, Thief, Stop!"" (1975). In all he appeared in nine Kenley Players productions, more than any other headliner. Lynde's continuing"
"Habeas Corpus (play) Habeas Corpus is a stage comedy in two acts by the English author Alan Bennett. It was first performed at the Lyric Theatre in London on 10 May 1973, with Alec Guinness in the central role. It ran, with cast changes, until 10 August 1974. The Broadway production that followed was less successful, running for less than three months. The play has been revived several times since then, in London and elsewhere. The action revolves around the (generally) thwarted libidos of the principal characters. The title of the play is an old legal term ""habeas corpus"", which"