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Post by partytentdown on Jan 30, 2019 12:14:40 GMT
A post about the stage machinery being removed from Drury Lane made me remember going to the Theatre Museum in Covent Garden many years ago on a university trip.
Anyone remember much about it?
Why did it close?
Am I right in thinking it's where that James Bond exhibition now is?
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Jan 30, 2019 14:20:41 GMT
Vividly.
There's a Paula Danziger book where the main characters visit. Brings back wonderful memories!
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2019 17:34:32 GMT
Never even knew this once existed. Sad it didn't last. I'd love to be knowledgable enough to curate one.
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Post by learfan on Jan 30, 2019 17:50:28 GMT
V sad that a world cultural capital not only doesnt have theatre museum but let the superb Museum of the Image at the NFT disappear without so much of a whimper. The skeleton is still there under Waterloo Bridge where the new entrance to the shop. Sorry rant over!
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Post by ncbears on Jan 30, 2019 18:32:14 GMT
My oldest got her face painted at a "make-up" exhibit at the Museum as "Frog" from "Frog & Toad" - I'm thinking around 2002 or 2003. We have the photographic proof. The Museum was pretty empty then, but I enjoyed it a lot. The V&A exhibit is pretty good - but just not as extensive.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2019 19:04:29 GMT
Vividly. There's a Paula Danziger book where the main characters visit. Brings back wonderful memories! Is there? which one? Weirdly 'Remember me to Harold Square' started my New York obsession as a kid. Also yes I remember the museum. Handy public loos. But in all seriousness it's a great shame that a) more wasn't able to be made of it when it was open b) that it had to close. |
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Jan 30, 2019 19:07:11 GMT
Vividly. There's a Paula Danziger book where the main characters visit. Brings back wonderful memories! Is there? which one? Weirdly 'Remember me to Harold Square' started my New York obsession as a kid. Also yes I remember the museum. Handy public loos. But in all seriousness it's a great shame that a) more wasn't able to be made of it when it was open b) that it had to close. It's the sequel to Harold Square! "Thames Doesn't Rhyme with James." |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2019 19:12:38 GMT
Is there? which one? Weirdly 'Remember me to Harold Square' started my New York obsession as a kid. Also yes I remember the museum. Handy public loos. But in all seriousness it's a great shame that a) more wasn't able to be made of it when it was open b) that it had to close. It's the sequel to Harold Square! "Thames Doesn't Rhyme with James." OH MY GOD I have gone all this time not knowing there was a sequel. I am going over to Amazon right now and buying it. You've made my week!! |
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Post by lynette on Jan 30, 2019 19:19:28 GMT
I noticed today that the V&A theatre exhibit is being refurbed so not open til later in Feb.
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Post by duncan on Jan 30, 2019 19:29:11 GMT
Wasn't it round the corner from where the Bond cars are?
Well the entrance was, is it the same space?
I remember it being my introduction to Miss Saigon and laughing rather loudly and long at the utterly dreadful rhyme in the first couple of lines, well that and opening the small doors with the different WE theatre names on and seeing a list of capacity and opening dates.
I think there may have been costumes.
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Post by partytentdown on Jan 30, 2019 20:03:11 GMT
Sorry this photo doesn't seem to be working anymore
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Post by bimse on Jan 31, 2019 13:43:30 GMT
The theatre museum in Covent Garden was a brave try , but not very extensive, and from memory it didn’t change much over several years. I went a few times.
The V&A have an extensive theatre collection, I believe . Does anyone know if much is usually on display there?
I have a large collection of theatre posters which Im looking to dispose of. I’ve been advised not to donate it to the V&A as it will never see the light of day , also they regularly auction such items off. How tryevthus is, I just don’t know .
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Post by Deal J on Jan 31, 2019 14:25:17 GMT
Gosh, I remember going to the Theatre Museum when I was a wee lad, but I only vaguely remember the content. If I recall correctly the 'Wind in the Willows' set was their largest exhibit, and they had costumes and set designs, some of which transferred over to the V&A.
I have a vague recollection of an animated display using some of the 'Spitting Image' puppets, but I must be remembering that wrong as it doesn't really fit with the theatre theme.
I may even have some photographs hidden away somewhere... I'll have to have a rummage and see if I can find them.
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Post by joem on Jan 31, 2019 14:34:41 GMT
I remember there being quite a few exhibits about the Redgrave family, possibly donated by them? It is remarkable that given the interest in theatre, from both residents and tourists, there isn't a theatre museum. I guess the problem lies with who owns what and who can make money from it.
Perhaps the subsidised theatres could take the lead by loaning objects of interest and this could be padded out, in research terms, by moving the collection of recordings currently held at an out of the way location by the V&A to make it more accessible?
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Post by profquatermass on Feb 1, 2019 20:37:14 GMT
They used to do performances occasionally. I think it was where the Lost Musicals series started - pretty sure I saw a concert-style performance of Do I hear a Waltz? there once
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Post by Cardinal Pirelli on Feb 2, 2019 11:17:18 GMT
They used to do performances occasionally. I think it was where the Lost Musicals series started - pretty sure I saw a concert-style performance of Do I hear a Waltz? there once The series of lost West End musicals (unconnected to the Broadway one) performed concert versions in a room there for a number of years. Plenty of older performers turned up on stage or in the audience or at Q and As and they were all fascinating, The last one was done in a more theatre type space there but that’s about fifteen years ago (wow, time really has flown). |
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Post by tonyloco on Feb 2, 2019 15:35:41 GMT
They used to do performances occasionally. I think it was where the Lost Musicals series started - pretty sure I saw a concert-style performance of Do I hear a Waltz? there once The series of lost West End musicals (unconnected to the Broadway one) performed concert versions in a room there for a number of years. Plenty of older performers turned up on stage or in the audience or at Q and As and they were all fascinating, The last one was done in a more theatre type space there but that’s about fifteen years ago (wow, time really has flown). Yes, I believe that is where the Lost Musicals first started, in an oddly shaped room that didn't feel very 'theatrical', but both the Lost Musicals entry on Wikipedia and Ian Marshall Fisher's own Lost Musicals website are very coy about the location of the initial performances. There is a rather vague mention of them starting 'at the V&A' but that's not the same thing! |
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Post by fiyero on Feb 3, 2019 20:58:08 GMT
I went to The Theatre Museum with school and at least one other time and am upset it has gone, The exhibit at the V&A is great but it isn't the same. It was lovely having a museum dedicated to theatre, my main memory is it being an odd layout and there was a National Lottery machine representing their arts funding. I'm sure with school we had a dressing up opportunity too.
I really loved the Museum of the Moving Image at Southbank too and remember it being huge to me, with a proper old fashioned cinema as part of it. Later on we had Movium at County Hall which I never visited. The Bond exhibition was an offshoot of Movium too wasn't it? Is the layout still the same as when it was the Theatre Museum or unrecognisable?
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