Rations tale that goes whole hog for passion

‘Something has happened on this show that has never happened in my whole career,” said top theatre producer Cameron Mackintosh. “Some newspapers have been giving us free ads for the last few weeks because they were so sad it was coming off.”

The show in question was the musical Betty Blue Eyes, which turned out to be a most uncharacteristic flop for Mackintosh: he nursed the production along in the West End for six months in 2011 before throwing in the towel. But Betty Blue Eyes lives on: a completely new production is now touring the country, and shortly reaches Oxford.

The show is based on Alan Bennett’s 1984 film A Private Function, with music and lyrics by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe, who also wrote several numbers for the stage version of Mary Poppins. It’s set in a small northern town in 1947, and rationing is still very much a fact of everyday life. A group of local businessmen plan to hold a party to celebrate the forthcoming royal wedding of Princess Elizabeth to Prince Philip, and they decide to illegally raise a pig named Betty Blue Eyes for the occasion. But Joyce, the grasping wife of hen-pecked chiropodist Gilbert Chilvers hatches plans to abduct the porker. Meanwhile, her husband cycles around tending to his patients’ feet.

“The bike is ever so hard to get your leg over when you first get on to it,” laughs Haydn Oakley, who plays Gilbert. “That’s because I’ve got a large box on the back of it, containing my chiropodist’s equipment.”

Talking about getting a leg over, Gilbert’s wife (Amy Booth-Steel) makes it very plain that there will be nothing doing in bed if he doesn’t obey her every wish.

“If he fulfils certain duties,” Amy explains, “Then he will get a little bit of pleasure. She definitely wears the trousers. She married Gilbert because he appeared out of nowhere, and he was the dashing prince she’d always dreamed of. But unfortunately he doesn’t live up to that name, and it all goes a bit wrong for a while.”

Gilbert wears a brown suit and spectacles, and altogether bears a striking visual resemblance to Alan Bennett, author of the original story. A deliberate tribute? “Everybody wonders about that,” Haydn replies. “Sara [Perks], our designer, had a very set idea about what she wanted. Maybe she did have Alan Bennett in mind.”

“I think it happened by accident,” Amy reckons. “Everyone else in the show wears a lot of blue, red and orange — I found an orange coat when we did the photoshoot for the poster, and fell in love with it. I think Sara designed everything else around that coat.”

Forever snooping about as Betty Blue Eyes is fattened up is sour-faced, humourless Mr Wormold, a government food inspector who is determined to ensure the rationing regulations are observed to the last comma. But was the whole idea of rationing new to Amy and Haydn when they started rehearsing?

“I had a bit of an obsession with World War II when I was younger,” Amy replies. “So I knew quite a lot about it. I studied the war and its aftermath at school.”

“My parents had three sons to feed, and I remember growing up at a time when mortgage rates were far higher than they are now,” adds Haydn. “We did have cutbacks in my own family. So although Betty Blue Eyes is a fun show, it is also relevant to people who are still struggling to live on a bit less.”

Matt Harrop with Betty

This being a comedy musical, of course Betty Blue Eyes never does get eaten. As for the human characters, as Amy puts it: “The end is really quite sweet: Gilbert and Joyce do finally get it together and he gets a big hug!”‘Something has happened on this show that has never happened in my whole career,” said top theatre producer Cameron Mackintosh. “Some newspapers have been giving us free ads for the last few weeks because they were so sad it was coming off.”

The show in question was the musical Betty Blue Eyes, which turned out to be a most uncharacteristic flop for Mackintosh: he nursed the production along in the West End for six months in 2011 before throwing in the towel. But Betty Blue Eyes lives on: a completely new production is now touring the country, and shortly reaches Oxford. The show is based on Alan Bennett’s 1984 film A Private Function, with music and lyrics by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe, who also wrote several numbers for the stage version of Mary Poppins.

It’s set in a small northern town in 1947, and rationing is still very much a fact of everyday life. A group of local businessmen plan to hold a party to celebrate the forthcoming royal wedding of Princess Elizabeth to Prince Philip, and they decide to illegally raise a pig named Betty Blue Eyes for the occasion. But Joyce, the grasping wife of hen-pecked chiropodist Gilbert Chilvers hatches plans to abduct the porker. Meanwhile, her husband cycles around tending to his patients’ feet.

“The bike is ever so hard to get your leg over when you first get on to it,” laughs Haydn Oakley, who plays Gilbert. “That’s because I’ve got a large box on the back of it, containing my chiropodist’s equipment.”

Talking about getting a leg over, Gilbert’s wife (Amy Booth-Steel) makes it very plain that there will be nothing doing in bed if he doesn’t obey her every wish.

“If he fulfils certain duties,” Amy explains, “Then he will get a little bit of pleasure. She definitely wears the trousers. She married Gilbert because he appeared out of nowhere, and he was the dashing prince she’d always dreamed of. But unfortunately he doesn’t live up to that name, and it all goes a bit wrong for a while.”

Gilbert wears a brown suit and spectacles, and altogether bears a striking visual resemblance to Alan Bennett, author of the original story. A deliberate tribute? “Everybody wonders about that,” Haydn replies. “Sara [Perks], our designer, had a very set idea about what she wanted. Maybe she did have Alan Bennett in mind.”

“I think it happened by accident,” Amy reckons. “Everyone else in the show wears a lot of blue, red and orange — I found an orange coat when we did the photoshoot for the poster, and fell in love with it. I think Sara designed everything else around that coat.”

Forever snooping about as Betty Blue Eyes is fattened up is sour-faced, humourless Mr Wormold, a government food inspector who is determined to ensure the rationing regulations are observed to the last comma. But was the whole idea of rationing new to Amy and Haydn when they started rehearsing?

“I had a bit of an obsession with World War II when I was younger,” Amy replies. “So I knew quite a lot about it. I studied the war and its aftermath at school.”

“My parents had three sons to feed, and I remember growing up at a time when mortgage rates were far higher than they are now,” adds Haydn. “We did have cutbacks in my own family. So although Betty Blue Eyes is a fun show, it is also relevant to people who are still struggling to live on a bit less.”

This being a comedy musical, of course Betty Blue Eyes never does get eaten. As for the human characters, as Amy puts it: “The end is really quite sweet: Gilbert and Joyce do finally get it together and he gets a big hug!”

Betty Blue Eyes
Oxford Playhouse
June 3-7
Tickets: 01865 305305 or visit oxfordplayhouse.com