Mrs Henderson Presents - Noel Coward Theatre

Saw on Twitter people saying water started pouring from the stage ceiling at the interval

Apparently (and I quote): "Some hapless stage hand pulled the lever for the water drencher in case of fire over the stage instead of the safety curtain at the start of the interval so the stage got flooded! So after along delay they had to cancel the second half."

Whilst I appreciate the show is ending its run soon, I'm wondering whether that hapless stage hand is currently scanning the employment section of The Guardian or The Stage?

They pulled the drencher?! That's serious - any number of technical elements could have been severely damaged!!

Haha! Pulling the drencher happens more often than you might think. The handle is always next to the iron (safety curtain) and in the dark, in a rush, it can happen. A friend of mine did it on his first week working at a new theatre. After the laughter died down, the tech manager told him not to worry as he had done the exact same thing in his first week!

I wonder when the last time the drencher was pulled at the Noel Coward. I was told many moons that in the event of fire as the theatre I was working in, it was very unlikely the fire would get me but the water in the drencher and sprinkler system had been in there for years and was probably full of a million nasty diseases.

Likewise at the end of Act I in Funny Girl.

"Don't rain on my parade......"

*Splash*

That wasn't even working when I went!!

Finally saw this tonight, and scandalously, didn't get upgraded! :-o My £10 ticket in the Upper Circle remained a £10 ticket in the Upper Circle, in what seemed to be a pretty well-sold theatre (balcony still closed).

I'm glad I did finally decide to see it. It's a good show with a lot of heart. It's not great... it's too slow to get going, and it had a habit of puncturing its big moments with overly silly following numbers. Its highlights are very high (If Mountains Were Easy To Climb, but also Living In A Dream World), but it's far from perfect, with far too many inconsequential music-hall revue numbers for my liking.

But the performances are excellent, and as a show its generally very likeable - and I certainly did like it. Definitely worth £10 of anyone's money!

By the way, something that occurred to me having read back in the rest of the thread - have they revised some of the comedian's lines/jokes? He certainly felt a bit tired and lame in places, but it was nowhere near as unfunny or awkward as it sounds like it was from early comments. Or was it because we had an understudy on for the role last night?

I know it's pretty difficult to predict but how busy do you think it will be on Saturday? I'm tempted to get some cheap balcony tickets and hope for a cheeky upgrade. Having seen it I don't want to fork out a load on a ticket again but would quite like to be there for closing night.

I didn't get upgraded last night, so I suspect not - I noticed the whole Upper Circle was reduced to £15 on the day, so it makes sense they're managing to sell a few tickets up there. There were certainly quite a lot of people around me who'd taken a chance on something cheap, not really knowing anything about it. And it makes sense a last week will be fuller (as I learned to my cost leaving Gypsy to the last minute), though it could also be because they're re-accommodating people who were there on Friday when it got cancelled.

Edit: Having said that, I just looked at the ticket booking site, and Wednesday is far less sold than Monday was when I booked my ticket - there's loads of empty seats in the stalls and dress circle, so I take that back, you probably will get upgraded.

Interesting to know! I guess it might be the last night of someone's weekend break in London.