Purity signalling - musical authors withdraw from Graham Norton's show to promote their musical, because JK Rowling was also being interviewed about her new children's book

How could they have brought themselves to appear at the Olivier awards?

Don’t they know that Olivier blacked up to play Othello? And then refused to either apologise or stop doing it, even when people pointed out how unacceptable it was?

Sad. Maybe they should be cancelled. Or apologise profusely and donate to BLM in reparation?

Six as a musical is about how badly the wives were treated, the Howard song is about abuse. They have an all female band, and cast. You can disagree with their stance re GN - but saying that the musical is flawed because Henry VIII was a misogynist is not right, that's the whole point. It's about female empowerment.

Six has been a massive success. It was a student production just 3 years ago and has been on the West End, international and national tours and was opening on Broadway the night it went dark because of COVID.

Really interested in SIX now.

I just can't interact with anything JK has done at the moment, its affected me and my partner too much. It will be a long time before I can even watch the movies and finally finish them.

I might just watch A Very Potter Musical again though.

Shame they decided not to go on - Graham could have given them the opportunity to explain how Anne Boleyn could have avoided execution by identifying as a man.

Also bought a couple of Ickabogs for Xmas pressies. Thanks for the reminder Marlow and Moss!

What did they think she was going to do, do a thought crime next to them? Say terrible words they disagree with?
Exactly. It's like the Amanda Craig debacle all over again. None of these people seem to think they could actually just turn up and put forward their own point of view. It's just empty virtue signalling. And probably they don't want to admit that they haven't read what JKR actually says.

Ooh... talking of sitcoms based in the Tudor period...

I’ve recently started watching Ben Elton’s Upstart Crow (4 years late to that party) and it is absolutely riddled with terven/anti woke jokes.

Not sure how I missed it completely (3 seasons, 2 Xmas specials) it even began a stage run, cut short by Covid.

I loved Upstart Crow! Missed the last episode, but I've heard it'll make me cry so I'm putting it off.

Susannah is brilliant, she reminds me of myself as a teenager!

It has only been going for a year in the West End, no wonder I haven't heard of it. Hardly up there with Lloyd Webber productions is it?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_(musical)

"If you’ve ever thought about going to the West End to see a Musical, you will have heard of Six."

Nope, never heard of it, live in the South East and have seen dozens of musicals in the West End.
Perhaps the musicals I have seen are not well known - Cats, Les Miserables, Miss Saigon, Chicago, Wicked, Buddy etc.

Ooh... talking of sitcoms based in the Tudor period...

I’ve recently started watching Ben Elton’s Upstart Crow (4 years late to that party) and it is absolutely riddled with terven/anti woke jokes.

Not sure how I missed it completely (3 seasons, 2 Xmas specials) it even began a stage run, cut short by Covid.

www.theguardian.com/stage/2020/feb/23/upstart-crow-review-david-mitchell-ben-elton

It’s all on iplayer and the first 2 seasons are on Netflix.

And I don’t want to labour a point but just because I haven’t heard of the sodding thing doesn’t mean that I haven’t watched musicals at the west end or indeed dislike musicals

And i know the song taylor the latte boy! Which is the most random musical number i can think of at this point in time

i get what you mean Rufus and Codename, but I’m not sure dismissing them just because they’re nonentities small beans compared to JKR or Radio 2 or a massive publishing house is the way to go

I know you dont mean me in particular but I would like to make it very clear that in no way have I ‘dismissed’ them

That was my thought too @HecatesCats. Surely not everything has to be about trans ALL THE TIME. Would people really have called them out for being scheduled guests to promote their work on a light entertainment show because of who else is featured at a completely different time? Don’t answer that...

They're making themselves look as stupid as they are. Which is handy for anyone thinking of wasting money on their musical. As we used to say in the 90s: fine. Be like that.

If I name changed, my next name would be BoyWithoutAWinkle

The other 2020 version of course would be a boy with a winkle.

this type of publicity will do a great job of keeping its profile high

I'm almost certain that appearing on the GN show would be far more beneficial from a positive marketing perspective than gaining some woke points on Twitter and a pat on the back from Pink News.

Anyone else looking forward to the Father Ted Musical and hoping it's not rubbish? Everytime I think about it I do a mental double take, like maybe I've just imagined such a thing because it just seems so unlikely.

@KiposWonderbeasts thanks, that's decided it for me, I'll get it. I haven't shopped with amazon for years. Not just the tax, also the shitty way staff were treated in the "wish fulfillment centres".

A musical of the ickabog with it's nice moral tale would work nicely.

The Ickabog is £10 at Waterstones too, for anyone wanting to avoid the tax-avoiding monolith

If you’ve ever thought about going to the West End to see a Musical, you will have heard of Six. It’s been very successful so I don’t think saying ‘well I‘ve never heard of it’ means anything other than musicals are obviously not your bag. OK it will be better known to those living in the South of England because y’know, London’s West End and all that. Its success will have taken a pounding because of Corona’s impact and this type of publicity will do a great job of keeping its profile high. It’s a show of ‘High Camp does Horrible Histories’ so is also incredibly middle class. Do not expect any compassion for the lives of women suffering domestic violence and seeking women only spaces, or engagement on the safety of puberty blockers - they’re showbiz darling. A child actor who went to private school and then Cambridge - he really knows about life!

I’m glad I didn’t have to listen to their witterings on the radio because it would have been as predictable as hell.

I've bought three copies of the ickabog and one of the strike books for Christmas presents this year, as well as the beautiful illustrated mina lima philosopher's stone. I also might buy the illustrated prisoner of Azkaban to go with the other illustrated copies just for my collection.