Marie Lloyd Queen of The Halls by Steve Trafford

Saturday-Night Theatre: Marie Lloyd, Queen of the Halls
Sat 25th Aug 1990, 19:45 on BBC Radio 4 FM

After collapsing on stage one day in 1922 Marie Lloyd lies dying, battered by life, drink and hard work. Raunchy to the end, the great music hall star recalls her songs, her audiences, her triumphs and disasters.

Steve Trafford's adaptation of his stage play features Elizabeth Mansfield, who played Marie in the original one-woman show.
Director Janet Whitaker

Alec Hurley: Robert Lister
Ben Dillon: Kilian McKenna
Percy Courtenay: Christopher Good
Mrs Ormiston Chant: Jo Kendall
Bella: Jenny Howe
Alice: Susan Sheridan
Grace: Sarah Mansfield
Doctor: James Greene
Manager: Danny Schiller
Blythe Pratt: Timothy Bateson
Marconi: Ben Onwukwe
Agent: Stephen Garlick
With Mary Allen, Nigel Carrington, Brian Miller and Michael Kilgarriff.

Music Director Jack Glover

Musicians: Maurice Cambridge, Noel Langley, Steve Wilks, Roy Babington and Stephen Rose.

Steve Trafford's play won a 1990 Sony Award nomination for Elizabeth Mansfield's performance as Marie Lloyd.

When Marie Lloyd died in 1922, aged 52, it was estimated 100,000 people watched the funeral procession. Raunchy to the end, she knew how to give an audience a good time.

Marie Lloyd was a woman of many parts, 'most of them no longer manufactured' as she says with a wink at her adoring audience. Known as the Queen of the Music Halls, Lloyd performed her 'saucy' songs to huge crowds in the Late Victorian and Edwardian eras, touring her acts worldwide to great success. With a fantastically independent and candid attitude to life, she was born to perform, starting out aged 12 singing in temperance halls and her life ending after she finally collapsed on stage aged 52 and died three days later.

Performed by Oliver Award nominee Elizabeth Mansfield, accompanied by Stephen Rose on the piano, this is both an enchantingly intimate show giving us the personal life of Marie yet managing to create a fascinating glimpse into the raucous atmosphere of the real music halls. . . .

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