Players' Theatre - An Evening at The Club

An Evening At The Club

The Members of the Players Theatre Club, almost as well rehearsed as the cast, would join in with the performances, answering the Chairman and singing along with some of the most famous songs in music hall. These could be supplemented by any one of the some 30,000 lesser-known songs from the vast archive.

The Players' was unique, however, in more ways than one. It was essentially a members' theatre. Relaxation of Britain's restrictive licensing laws made it possible for any casual visitor to buy a ticket for £15.00.

The evenings' entertainment continued to be billed as 'Ridgeways Late Joys': an evening of revival Victorian music hall and that is exactly what it was — a selection of professional artistes, past masters at putting over a minor musical masterpiece in costume. The simple accompaniment remained that of a grand Steinway pianoforte and the company combined at the end of the show for a rousing ensemble finale, concluding with 'Dear Old Pals' — sung at every performance for 64 years.

The whole evening was compered from the stage by a distinguished Chairman. This would often be the then Director of The Players', Dominic Le Foe, who dubbed himself "as British as the Flag" but could equally have been Alan Curtis, Barry Cryer, Michael Kilgarriff, Johnny Dennis, Jim McManus or in earlier days Robin Hunter, John Hewer, Don Gemmell, Fred Stone and many others. The sartorial elegance of the chairman was matched by the performers. The humour was strictly Victorian, but with astute observations on life, as relevant now as they ever were in Queen Victoria's day. There were two short intervals during which the audience would be invited to visit the bars and help swell the coffers of this merry throng by indulging in a few libations, toasting the health of Her Majesty awhile.

Every year the Players' presented an original Victorian pantomime, often by J. R. Planché or Henry James Byron.

In 1987 The Players Theatre was obliged to leave its home in Hungerford Arches due to the extensive redevelopment of Charing Cross Station and a new temporary home was found in the Duchess Theatre near Aldwych. What was the Players was to become the underpart of PriceWaterhouseCoopers - a modern high rise office building built over Charing Cross Station. The Theatre Club was however fortunate to return to a new and rather better home just three arches up Villiers Street preserving much of the character of their previous home and once again performances were accompanied by the familiar sounds of trains entering and leaving the station above with the well used refrain "to hell with the London, Chatham and Dover Railway - sleepers awake!".

The Players' Theatre Club was unique and had survived unfunded and unsponsored since it was founded in 1936, until meeting misfortunes in 2002. A competing group tried to take over the club. Their attempt failed, but not without doing permanent damage to the club's relation to its landlord and to its members.