Birds Of A Feather...On Stage!

Picture courtesy of birdsontour.

I'm 25 and my sister is 22 and we both have a memory from when we were younger of us watching 'Birds Of A Feather'. We loved the show and it was on throughout the 90's, so we kind of grew up with it. It isn't on these days, not that I know of anyway, unless we just don't have the channel it's repeated on, but I do have series 1 on DVD and I'm yet to get the others.

So, when I heard that the programme was going to be touring, with the three main actresses playing their original three main parts, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't excited! As soon as I told my sister, she was also equally excited ha!

If you're not familiar with the show, it ran on BBC1 for nearly ten years throughout the 1990's. It's a classic comedy and a female-centred long running series. The three main characters are Sharon (Pauline Quirke) and Tracey (Linda Robson) who are Essex sisters and their man-eating neighbour Dorien (Lesley Joseph). For those that want more in-depth information on the programme, you can find more info on Wikipedia.

The tour came to my home town recently, so me and my sister really wanted to go (of course!). We managed to get a really good deal to be honest. The theatre is called 'The Grand Theatre' and the one near us has a special deal on for those that are 16-25 years old, where if you go 15 mins before the show starts, if they have 'stand-by' tickets, you can purchase them for £5. The seats are the best available, but all the dates for the show in my city were pretty much fully booked, so we ended up right at the top in the grand circle, about 3 rows from the back! It was better than nothing though and to be honest we had a pretty good view for £5, so we were really pleased. Our mum came with us, but as she is over 25, she had to pay normal price, which ended up being £19.50.

The show was fantastic! It started by showing the original titles from the show with the different pictures of Sharon and Tracey when they were kids to when they were growing up and the nostalgic theme tune of 'What'll I do'.

''What'll I do

When you are far away

And I am blue

What'll I do?''

Ah...memories!

In the stage show Sharon is unemployed, Tracey is a cold caller (or she is at the beginning of the show anyway) and Dorien is the owner of a residential home. I don't want to give too much away in case you are reading this and have booked tickets to see it. You won't be disappointed though and it will take you back for sure. Just look out for the karaoke scene with Sharon and Tracey in the residential home, definitely a laugh out loud moment for me :-).

It lasts for about a couple of hours, but it flies by. We got drawn in by the characters as they are now and then little things triggered the memory to how they were all those years ago. If you like the show and watched it when it was on, I would definitely recommend going to see the stage show. If you have never heard of 'Birds Of A Feather', then it might not have the same effect if you aren't familiar with the characters, so anything they do now won't really mean anything to you. It is still a comedy all the same and the story in the stage show is a new one, so you will still be able to follow it, but little things they mention you might not be sure why they are mentioning it, if you get my drift.

I'm so glad it came to the stage and over the moon that I got to see it :-).

They are touring until July 2012, so you can still purchase tickets.

If you have seen the stage show, what did you think?

If you are yet to see it, but have bought or are going to buy tickets, let me know what you think of it :-).

Much Love,

Gem XxOo