Carry On London

The Stars

Sidney James
Barbara Windsor
Kenneth Connor
Peter Butterworth
Bernard Bresslaw
Jack Douglas
George Truzzi
Billy Tasker
Trudi Van Doorn
Les Quatre Rosetti
Lynn Rogers


The Crew

Writer

Additional Material
Music
Choreography
Costumes
Director
Comedy Director
Executive Producer
                                                             Talbot Rothwell, Dave
Freeman & Eric Merriman
Ian Grant
Richard Holmes
Tommy Shaw
R St John Roper Ltd
Alan West
Bill Robertson
Albert J Knight

Synopsis

Peter Rogers was always one to take a successful idea and created something new out of it, so after the films and the TV series why not a stage show based on the idea of the Carry Ons. Not all the regulars wanted to do it, notably Kenneth Williams and Joan Sims, who would have been very good in it due to their stage background, so Rogers opened with Sid James, Barbara Windsor, Kenneth Connor, Peter Butterworth, Bernard Bresslaw and Jack Douglas. Sid didn't want Jack Douglas to be in it due to him being considered a comedian by Sid, and this scared him. Sid was excellent comedian, but he always worked with a script, and very rarely came away from it, but with Jack's standup background - this worried him. One night when the crowd was partially playful, Jack started to adlib and bounce gags of members of the cast, Sid just stood there and had to let it all go over his head.

The show was a mixture of comedy sketches, standup routines, song and dance and speciality acts, with the spirit of the Variety days of stage. The crowd pleasers were the 6 innuendo-crusted mini Carry Ons sketches that really brought the crowds in for more. These written by the pen of Carry On script writer Talbot Rothwell starred the 6 regulars, and the chance to see Sid "Yakking" his way through these, live on the stage, must have been amazing.

The sketches were lifted from the most popular films. You have the Emergency Ward 99 sketch (Carry On Doctor), was a highlight. Having no Hattie Jacques wasn't a problem, they just stuffed Bernard Bresslaw into a Matrons outfit. The Elizabethan Madrigals sketch (Carry On Henry), lifted from the 1972 TV Christmas Special, always brought the house down, when Sid starts singing the unforgettable ballad "Balls, Balls, Banquets and Balls" (touching on Carry On Don't Lose Your Head).

Of course, the classic Carry On Cleo isn't forgotten about, with Barbara Windsor playing Cleo to Sid's Caesar - a real delight when Peter Butterworth is thrown in as Grabatiti, this show's where the shows level was.

"They're CARRYING On..." "LIVE! on Stage"
14th Sept - 29 Sept 1973 - Birmingham Hippodrome 4th Oct - 12 Oct 1973 - Victoria Palace, London

The Crew
Writer Additional Material Music Choreography Costumes Director Comedy Director Executive Producer	Talbot Rothwell, Dave Freeman & Eric Merriman Ian Grant Richard Holmes Tommy Shaw R St John Roper Ltd Alan West Bill Robertson Albert J Knight