A big “hello” to all of you who turned out to Monday’s performance of the Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy Radio Show Live in Southend. To everyone else… the secret is to bang the rocks together, guys!
Monday the 23rd of September saw the show come to Southend for the second time, and it was a truly great experience. The show was at the Cliffs Pavilion, and featured most of the series original cast, including Simon Jones (Arthur Dent), Geoffrey McGivern (Ford Prefect) and Susan Sheridan (Trillian). A key cast change was the part of Zaphod Beeblebrox – sadly Mark Wing Davey was unavailable for this year’s tour, and a top replacement was drafted in, in the form of Mitch Benn (a lifelong Hitchhikers fan, as heard on BBC’s The Now Show)
The show brought in some subtle story changes to amuse those who were able to make last year’s performance… great to see the “B Ark” bit brought to live, and as ever, the (cough cough) Vogons always get a smile… those loveable cuddly green bug-eyed monsters!
The show was a great piece of theatre (and radio for that matter), and it combined much from the original radio series, together with material from books and the subsequent radio series. Sound effects were pretty much live, and the tour’s band (with the excellent Philip Pope) did a cracking job of making the show “feel” like a radio piece.
Of course, the cast got a good solid cheer when the quote “I hardly like to say this, but it looks like the seafront at Southend” came up, catching Ford Prefect slightly off-guard (It’s been a long tour”. The part of “The Book” last year was taken by John “Boicey” Challis. This year, the Southend book was read by Miriam Margolyes, who many will remember from Blackadder. She did a great job, although we’re still not sure if her pronunciation of the giant super-computer “Deep Thought” was deliberate or accidental!
One of the Sarfend team works for the technology podcast FrequencyCast, and has put together this short feature on the show in Southend. Take a look and hear how the audience reacted to the show, and listen to a few words from the frood himself, Zaphod (a.k.a. Mitch Benn)
Here are a few more photos from the evening.
For more on the tour, go to www.hitchhikerslive.com
Share and enjoy, Southenders!
