Life is a Cabaret …

… not if you buy ticket in advance on line.

A couple of months ago I bought in advance a ticket for Cabaret at the Playhouse Theatre for the princely sum of £200.

It starred Eddie Redmayme and the theatre was done up as the Kit Kat Club.

My connection to Cabaret goes back to my childhood.

The film was based on the Berlin novels of Christopher Isherwood (Mr Norris Changes Trains and Goodbye to Berlin). Novels I devoured in my adolescence

Isherwood, in his autobiography, admitted he only went to Berlin in the early 30s to satisfy his homosexual desires but he observed the late Weimar republic well.

He also created the character of night club singer Sally Bowles.

The film Cabaret did not have great reviews but was a commercial and popular success.

Liza Minnelli have her best career performance as Sally Bowles and Joel Gray, as the MC, won both an Oscar and a Tony award – the only actor so to do.

I received no less than three messages from the Ambassadors Theatre Group, who own the theatre, in strident terms informing me of their Covid protocols, which went way further than the present position which is based upon personal choice.

Not feeling 100% – and like everyone disturbed by the images of Ukraine main  cities’ destruction – I decided to cancel.

The messages did say that if you felt unwell you could, but gave no explanation as to how.

I hoped there might be someone to speak to and thus might have rebooked and also bought further tickets at my local theatre owned by the same group, the Theatre Royal, Brighton.

But no – it all had to be done via the website.

I duly completed their form with some some difficulty as it rejected my mobile phone number as invalid.

I  put in an alternative date but was given a credit voucher.

All in all a most unsatisfactory experience.

When I hear a theatre big wig complain of how the theatre is suffering and that they need an urgent taxpayers’ bail-out I can only quote:

“Physician, heal thyself …“