The Spa, Scarborough July 2007
This was a belated birthday present for my brother, a rather unsatisfactory deputy for a day at the cricket festival, or so I thought. Entitled Summer Spectacular, it was one of those shows where everybody did everything, except sell tickets and ice-cream (which they still do at The Blackpool Tower Circus). So the magic act also sang and danced, and the compere also told jokes and sang and danced. Come to think of it they all sang and danced at some stage – all seven of them, occasionally at the same time.
I booked ahead on-line and got a reservation in the middle of the front row. Too ahead of myself, and despite the decline in our senses, too close. And we might have got picked on. Better half way back.
The Theatre. Up the stairs and turn right. Seats around 600 and a good two thirds full. All ages, slightly heavy on pensioners and only a few with long faces. Cosy venue and would have been better for us.
It wasn’t cringingly naff, though you could argue the personnel were there because they couldn’t find work elsewhere. Keeping a tradition going in the face of foreign holidays. TV, multiplex cinema, home movies, the internet and all the other easy ways of being entertained. Like the cruise ship cabaret. A sea-side romp
