Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be
Tuesday 21st June to Saturday 25th June 2011
Green Room
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A very funny award winning musical play set in late 1950's Soho and packed with gangsters, tarts, old Bill, pimps, toffs, teddy boys and teddy girls and at a time when the laws regarding prostitution and homosexuality were changing the face of London’s streets forever.
Fred Cochran is a down-at-heel gangster, trying to make a comeback. He used to own all the best dodgy gaffs in the smoke but now just has one (and that's dying on its feet). Lil Smith is his loyal moll, a tart with a heart of gold (sort of), who longs for respectability and keeps a marriage licence ready for her lucky day.
Fred's shpieler (gambling den) provides a refuge for the failures of the underworld: Paddy the gambler, Tosher the pimp with his girls Betty and Rosey. Redhot is a sad little burglar who never manages to get warm having spent most of his life in the nick.
They all look to Fred for a living and when he wins on the horses it seems the gang may be back in business. Fred redecorates his place, all "contempery" and at the opening the Horrible Percey Fortesque and his young lady (Myrtle) comes to gamble and a rival leader, Meatface, is beaten in a razor fight. The play ends with a wedding - Lil and Fred are giving up crime to go straight; handing over the shpieler to Sergeant Collins who has always wanted to go crooked!
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Director
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Simon Openshaw
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Producer
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Stuart Yeatman
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Musical Director
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Martin Sargeson
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Choreographer
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Sasha Silver
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Fred Cochran
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Bobby Hamilton
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Lily Smith
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Sasha Silver
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Paddy
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Glyn Jones
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Sergeant Collins
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James Turnbull
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Betty
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Louise Blewett
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Rosey
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Jennie Moorhouse
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Tosher
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David Young
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Redhot
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Chris Goldhawk
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Horace Seaton
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Olly Reeves
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Percy Fortesque
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Murray Stephen
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Myrtle
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Sammy O'Brien
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Norman
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James Baird
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Policewoman
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Joanne Stopher
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Police Constable
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Murray Stephen
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Gamblers/Layabouts
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Sammy O'Brien, Olly Reeves, Murray Stephen, James Baird, Joanne Stopher
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Busker
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Olly Reeves
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Teddy Girls
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Sophie Johnson, Joanne Stopher, Charlotte Illing
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Teddy Boys
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Jeff Rose-Michael
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A "Mystery"
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Sophie Johnson
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Priest
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TBC
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