Only Fools and Horses - TRH / U.K Tour

https://www.instagram.com/p/C37Vy9BoOZs

Paul Whitehouse has been announced to return as Grandad for some of the venues.

Yeah, it's a really fun show this one! I'll be catching it in Canterbury next year.

If they've any sense and are free they will jump at the chance to do this job - this show is going to make a fortune on tour.  A good period of solid work and enthusiastic crowds.

Such a weird casting - can he sing? 

I have no real frame of reference for Vinnie Jones’ ability but for added context, the character he’s playing is Danny Driscoll who is one half of the Driscoll Brothers (who are the main villains of the musical).

They have only one song ‘Being a Villain’ which is a duet with Danny as the baritone (?). Other than that the character mainly has to be threatening with a deep voice so it shouldn’t be too difficult for someone with minimal experience - actually for awhile they had Danny’s role be Oscar CM’s track alongside the dating agent and barista (definitely for the best they changed it because the audience ended up laughing at Danny’s threats because they were used to the actor being funny the rest of the show). The Driscolls also typically fill out the background ensemble in other scenes, but idk if Vinnie would be required to do that or not.

Tbh looking at his previous roles, this part is actually perfect for him (aside from the singing). For a brief and terrible moment I thought they were stunt casting Del Boy

Watch his appearance on Celeb X Factor and judge his singing for yourself...

And Nicole Scherzinger is sat there lapping it up. How could you Nicole?

She’d have been too busy pulling Thom Evans to give a crap about the rest of the show.

What, none of you purchased Vinnie Jones’ album?

Respect!

All I can remember is Bad, bad (Leroy Brown).

More interestingly, Tom Major is Rodney. He was Roger in Rent at ArtsEd earlier in the year and this is such a different role, but he’s enough to convince me to see this again. The wonderful Georgina Hagen is in this too.

I did! I’m half asleep but general thoughts are it’s still the show I love, although it needs time to get back into the groove. The new Del Boy is excellent, although he is WAY faster than Tom Bennett (imo he needs to slow down to let the more emotional moments sit, but that’s not a major issue). I really like the new cast, especially Georgina as Raquel (The Girl is such a great song and it suits her really well) and can’t wait for them to be more comfortable in their roles later in the tour (as with all tours)

The revolve from the west end isn’t there, but the set spins manually to keep some of that feel - and they’ve worked some fun bits in around when a character ends up in the flat after helping rotate the set (“I’ve told you before, you don’t live here!”)
Typical issue for touring is that the stage is far wider than the Haymarket so it’s lost some of that intimate feel - also a strange choice from either the theatre or production to not sell any of the front row - so you had an empty row of seats between them and the audience which made it feel even more disconnected (the audience interaction between can't front row and Del Boyisn’t really there anymore either)

The audience were really flat tonight, you could see Paul Whitehouse trying to gee them up a bit. They loved Trigger but it’s the only time I’ve ever seen Uncle Albert not get any real laughs, so it was a very strange energy.

I cant wait to see how it grows when I see it again later in the run. For now it was a solid first night.

Had been showing as "Sold out " in Bromley but now the front row is onsale for anyone interested.