Any Noel Streatfeild fans here?

[JFDIYOLO]

I love her books about children on stage, at Madame Fidolia's Academy - have done since I was very young and Mum first handed me Ballet Shoes and The Painted Garden.

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Recently discovered a first edition of Wintle's Wonders in a charity shop. I'd never encountered it before, so it was a real find.

Oooh, what's it about?

Is that the one about the dancers? I think it got renamed Dancing Shoes as one of the stupid name changes.

Wintle's Wonders did get re-named Dancing Shoes.

Was always my fav as a child.
It's the one with Rachel and Hillary and spoiled Dulcie Pulcie.

Mrs Wintle's Little Wonders, Pursey, Uncle Tom etc.

*Spolier-plain un-promising Rachel takes a part form Dulcie to star in a film!

Don't think I've read that one, I'll keep an eye out. Thank you.

I loved the Gemma books. I read them so many times.

Oh I love The Painted Garden! One of my crumbling childhood paperbacks, I now have a 1940s hardback copy. Have you read The Secret Garden? If not, recommended to read first as it's the book the film in TPG is based on and it helps to get the comparisons between the main characters.

www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/productions/ballet-shoes/

@JFDIYOLO Ballwt Shoes is on stage at the National Theatre in London. (It was my top favourite on).

Yes, we’ve been discussing it upthread. The one with the bloke as (no longer Madame) Fidolia.

Yes, I loved them. I might reread now as a treat 😊

The renaming even ruined that lovely moment in You've Got Mail where Kathleen's recommending Ballet Shoes through her tears - I just get so cross when she starts wanging on about Skating Shoes and Theatre Shoes!

Oh don't get me started. Party Frock becomes Party Shoes, although there are satin slippers to go with the Frock. Apple Bough becomes Travelling Shoes! The only shoes in that one are the ones that people wear on their feet.

SPOILERS - National theatre ballet shoes production

Ok I saw Ballet Shoes at the National. I know the reviews are good and I wanted to love it, but I just didn’t.

There was no need at all to change Madam to a man in drag other than maybe because they were trying to copy Hairspray or something - must have man in drag.

They made Sylvia/Garnie a modern working woman in dungarees good with a screwdriver. But to me her ineptitude as the lady of the house is key to the story as is their grand poverty - eg buy material in Harrods to make dresses they can’t afford to buy ready to wear

I loved the old Mr and Mrs Simpson who they changed entirely and got rid of Mrs Simpson and make him a love interest for Sylvia

Nana just becomes a lazy fat old stereotype. Winifred becomes pretty. There’s none of the lovely details of the girls needing to be old enough to work or all the lovely details about the dresses they need.

And in the book I loved the Drs and their quiet but obvious gayness but in the play they make one dead and one alive and make a massive fuss of the gayness and it just doesn’t work for me.

And Theo is American in the play and a failed showgirl type. Why? Absolutely no need.

And Pauline - they make her naughty and unlikeable and the sisters don’t really like each other.

I hate to scream about how they made it politically correct, but fuck me they made it politically correct.

I love the book though and know it intimately. Maybe if you don’t then it works as a standalone production. Most of the theatre loved it. The reviewers love it.

@WWGD

Thanks for that-confirmed to me that I'm out.

Some of the changes are similar to the film-the one with Emma Watson as Pauline:

Such as no Mrs Simpson and Garnie marries Mr Simpson in the end

Theo was a showgirl in America in the film but don't think she is American (but actually not sure) -they do that to give her a love interest (in the film)

I just despise the modernising/politically correct bias that is put on re-makes.

The reason I love these books is because they transport me back in time to another world. I don't want it completely changed.

Particularly cross about Madame Fidolia being played by a man in drag.
I don't think Noel Streatfeild be happy about that!!
She loved strong women in her books and this is just one step too far.

That’s annoying! I am seeing it but agree about when they mess around with characters in adaptations.

Would love to know what you think @Drivingoverlemons as I was definitely the outlier in the theatre not loving it.

And @MrsMitford3 I am worried you are missing something you would love because I am a grump! And because actually I liked the Emma Watson film but had not remembered any of the changes.

@WWGD

dont worry- was already put off by what I read. I suspect the people who love it haven’t read the book 1000s of times.

I remember reading Q&A and was so annoyed by Slumdog Millionaire adaptation I wanted to storm out but ppl who haven’t read the book loved it.

And DD and I watch the Emma Watson one every Boxing Day!

i am usually relaxed about changes in adaptations and have tickets to see the play with friends who have never read the book, so am mainly looking for entertainment, we’ll see!

Thanks for the review @WWGD

Sounds horrid.

I always found the quotidian details about affording the uniforms & dresses to be so charming. And as you say, Sylvia's haplessness was a key part of the storyline.

Sounds like they've bulldozed over the real points of the story for fashionable nonsense.

It's about genteel poverty where a servant and a London house can be kept but lodgers must be welcomed.

Crucially it's about women making their own way in a world of useless men, which is so often a theme in Streatfeild's books. Her biography explores some intense relationships with a man and woman, so she was complex.

So often weak, ineffectual, selfish or just absent men make life difficult for an often fragile or stressed woman, helped and supported by strong and often cross-class female friendships. This plays out time and again in her books.

She's great on the trials of adolescence; unhappiness re appearance and clothes, hard to manage emotions, jealousies etc.

And the reality of the world she knew - being an actress then she understood stage, screen, theatre school life etc for often very young girls.

All that was what I've always loved about her books.

Bolting on the fashionable nonsense and taking away one of her most powerful and fascinating female charactors in Madame feels infuriating.

I loved the clever Drs. in Ballet Shoes - and the sound of the ginger drink, the vast Shakespeare knowledge, book-lined study and the exotic biscuits. I had the story on cassette, read by Moira Shearer.

Samira Ahmed wasn’t keen either (click to read her review)

I saw the national theatre production last week and I loved it - and the original book is one of my all time favourites!

It was beautifully and cleverly staged, and while there were changes to the storyline I think these worked alright to keep it to a reasonable performance length and also for people who haven't read the book. I'm no playwright but suspect some of the nuance from the book would be lost on an audience who hadn't read it.

Was also slightly dubious about Madame being played by a man - she is such a strong female part of the story - but I bought the script afterwards and am inclined to think GUM and Madame being the same actor is for cost and practicality reasons as they're never on stage at the same time, and having separate actors would mean two people being paid to be offstage for much of the running time. The script says "ideally" the same person plays both so it is open to interpretation for the director I guess.

I've found you always have to adapt to adaptations - they never quite get the books right - and I didn't love Pauline being angry and causing trouble, but on the whole I really enjoyed it!

I have recollections of a book about flats in London. An illegitimate child waa being raised by another woman with her unrecognised birth mother visiting. I thoght it was Noel Streatfield but may be wrong. Anyone help? My favourite as a child was The Circus is Coming, learned an object lesson about the perils of boasting which I remembered all my life.

I loved all those books when I was a child. Did anybody else read the swish of the curtain?

Swish of the Curtain was one of those that ds loved when I read my old childhood favourites. The rest in the series by Pamela Brown weren't as good, but mostly still great fun, except for Maddie Alone, where she needed telling to stop being a spoilt brat and I suspect was entirely wish fulfilment for PM!

@CynthiaF23 I'm not saying definitively, but I don't recognise that as a Noel Streatfield book, although I don't know her adult ones much, so it could be one of those. It sounds more like Jacqueline Wilson maybe?