Laura Jones Interview - Virus & the Theatre Royal Smell!
Title
Laura Jones Interview - Virus & the Theatre Royal Smell!
Date
11 January 2018
Description
Interview with Laura Jones, a young dancer in the ill-fated 1999 musical Virus. She describes how she got involved and the Theatre Royal's unique smell.
What's the story?
Virus was a new cyber musical produced at the Theatre Royal in 1999. Set in the world of computers the production starred Jack Wild and Sam Fox. However, Sam Fox left the show early on and that was when the problems started.
With financial difficulties and low audience numbers the show was pulled early in its run and has since become the stuff of Theatre Royal legend.
Whilst the Theatre Royal prides itself on some incredible productions over the years that have starred world-famous names, it is also always important to remember those shows that didn't quite make it!
In this clip, Laura remembers how she got involved with the show:
So I was 13 and had been dancing at the Annette Bartlett School of Dance for about six years and we got asked to part of Virus the Cyber Musical, which was being put on at the Theatre Royal in March 1999 and we were going to be the dancers in the background for some of the performances.
We’d done lots of shows, so six years down the same route. We’d done at least 6 shows at Mansfield Palace Theatre and some other Christmas ones as well, so we’d had quite a lot of show experience but it was quite different going to such a prestigious local theatre to do a proper musical rather than just a dance show. I think we were excited. I think we were looking forward to it. It was something different and we got to have a few days out of school, so we were going to almost work for a few days and there were 18 of us that got to go along and be part of it.
It was exciting. I think going through the stage door at the theatre’s got a certain smell about it. Knowing all the different productions that had been on at the theatre in the past. Plays, pantomimes, all sorts of things. It was exciting to be there and to know that we were going to be on the stage in the musical, so it was a good experience. Theatres always have a smell don’t they? It’s not exactly musty, it’s just different. You know that lots of people have been there before. It’s all the costumes and the make-up. All that combined and the history. Going in the stage door, it just has a certain smell about it and the atmosphere was quite exciting.
So we had one dressing room, from what I remember, for all of us, but it was really big. So 18 girls, roughly around my age, a bit older, a bit younger and two chaperones were in there and we spent quite a lot of time in there. We put our costumes on in there, when we weren’t dancing we were in there. So we spent quite a lot of time backstage over the five days or so that we were there.
With financial difficulties and low audience numbers the show was pulled early in its run and has since become the stuff of Theatre Royal legend.
Whilst the Theatre Royal prides itself on some incredible productions over the years that have starred world-famous names, it is also always important to remember those shows that didn't quite make it!
In this clip, Laura remembers how she got involved with the show:
So I was 13 and had been dancing at the Annette Bartlett School of Dance for about six years and we got asked to part of Virus the Cyber Musical, which was being put on at the Theatre Royal in March 1999 and we were going to be the dancers in the background for some of the performances.
We’d done lots of shows, so six years down the same route. We’d done at least 6 shows at Mansfield Palace Theatre and some other Christmas ones as well, so we’d had quite a lot of show experience but it was quite different going to such a prestigious local theatre to do a proper musical rather than just a dance show. I think we were excited. I think we were looking forward to it. It was something different and we got to have a few days out of school, so we were going to almost work for a few days and there were 18 of us that got to go along and be part of it.
It was exciting. I think going through the stage door at the theatre’s got a certain smell about it. Knowing all the different productions that had been on at the theatre in the past. Plays, pantomimes, all sorts of things. It was exciting to be there and to know that we were going to be on the stage in the musical, so it was a good experience. Theatres always have a smell don’t they? It’s not exactly musty, it’s just different. You know that lots of people have been there before. It’s all the costumes and the make-up. All that combined and the history. Going in the stage door, it just has a certain smell about it and the atmosphere was quite exciting.
So we had one dressing room, from what I remember, for all of us, but it was really big. So 18 girls, roughly around my age, a bit older, a bit younger and two chaperones were in there and we spent quite a lot of time in there. We put our costumes on in there, when we weren’t dancing we were in there. So we spent quite a lot of time backstage over the five days or so that we were there.
Type
Oral Interview
Location of item
Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall
Rights
Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall
Contributor
Interviewer: Diane Jones
Researcher: David Longford
Transcriber: David Chilton
Researcher: David Longford
Transcriber: David Chilton
