Broadway Bound Congress Theatre Eastbourne second viewing

The Rattonians

Broadway Bound

Congress Theatre

Eastbourne

21-31 July 2010

(2nd show seen 29 July)

Cast: The Rattonians (Seniors and Youth Group)

With a 32 mile round trip for us to see a show at the Congress Theatre it has to be something REALLY worth seeing again for us to go a second time.

My original review is here http://bit.ly/broadway-bound

In 2010 Broadway Bound is the only show that has met that standard so far and it will be very hard to beat, even by the 'professional' shows scheduled such as Oklahoma and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

The one aspect I hate about reviewing The Rattonians shows is the use of the words 'amateur' and 'professional' in the text. As anybody who has ever seen a Rattonian performance there is nothing amateur whatsoever about the end product.

Anybody who has ever put off seeing a Rattonians production because it's 'done by amateurs' is making a huge error of judgement.

Look you still have a couple of days to enjoy this two and a quarter hour spectacle. For between a mere £10 and £14.50 you will get to see a fantastic musical production, enjoy fabulous costumes, raise money for cancer research, encourage the continuation of Rattonians and, above all, have a bloody good night out.

We were not the only people watching this show a second time and our friend, who lives in Eastbourne, is seeing it a third time.

Who can blame him? Tickets for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (which I daresay will be excellent) range between £15.50 and £38.50. If we lived in Eastbourne we would go again too.

It doesn't require a degree in maths to work out you could have 3 top price tickets for Broadway Bound for less than 1 top price Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Ticket.

Granted times are hard for 'professional' productions at the moment. Times are even harder for groups like these who haven't got the budget for mass advertising but need to get the word out. Even Eastbourne Theatres and Eastbourne Borough Council do not put anywhere as much effort into promoting this fantastic company as they do so called professional productions.

Calendar Girls was advertised everywhere, even driving into Eastbourne Hannah Waterman's bottom greeted you on lamp posts. The Rattonians have the odd poster placed here and there in venues.

EBTheatres official tweets on Twitter have promoted all the 'major' productions this year but on no occasion have The Rattonians, Eastbourne Stagers or Eastbourne Operatic and Dramatic (EODS) society been mentioned once. So much for 'social networking'! Whilst I understand that the professional shows are the ones that would generate the income for the venues these three theatre companies accommodate many of the stars of tomorrow.

You could hardly blame any of them if they went on to tour the UK professionally to then turn their back on Eastbourne as a venue as the publicity is so biased away from 'amateur shows'

The biggest misconception that I heard quoted at a recent event by an official source is 'everybody knows The Rattonians audience is mainly made up of the friends and families of the cast members'. I don't think that is the case at all because over the past 25+ years the Rattonians have managed to raise awareness by word of mouth - something we do too, taking friends along to many shows. Our elderly friend now eagerly anticipates the next production. But if the person who made the comment seriously believes that their comment was true the blame partly lies with them because the position they hold enables them to do something about it, if they wanted to.

Well folks 1900 unique visitors have read these reviews in July 2010 and there are now nearly 5000 links on the web to this blog and I will continue my stance of promoting The Rattonians and Eastbourne's other groups at every opportunity both here and on fdpt.org.uk

Meanwhile I wish a generous commercial sponsor or benefactor would come along to ensure The Rattonians can continue to produce the brilliant productions they have staged in Eastbourne for the last quarter of a century. If these wonderful shows stopped it would be a tragedy for all, not least the worthwhile charities for whom The Rattonians have raised thousands of pounds.

Rant over. But please see Broadway Bound before it ends - you may just surprise yourself and enjoy it!

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