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- Duration: 4:38
- Published: 16 Dec 2009
- Uploaded: 29 Aug 2011
- Author: DiversityStreetDance
Show name | Royal Variety Performance |
---|---|
Show name 2 | Royal Command Performance |
Genre | Variety show |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Num episodes | 81 |
Channel | BBC, ITV |
First aired | (Radio) (Television) |
Website | http://www.eabf.org.uk/royal-variety-performance/ |
The Royal Variety Performance is a gala evening held annually in the United Kingdom, which is attended by senior members of the British Royal Family, usually the reigning monarch. In more recent years Queen Elizabeth II and The Prince of Wales have alternately attended the performance. The evenings performances showcases a variety of family entertainment, including comedy, singing, dance, magic and other speciality acts, with many of the performers and hosts being popular celebrities—a variety show. The event is organised on behalf of the Entertainment Artistes' Benevolent Fund of which Queen Elizabeth is patron. All proceeds are donated to the fund.
The performance is televised to the public and is considered by many to be a tradition of the Christmas season, being held late in November, or early in December. The responsibility of producing and broadcasting the performance is shared alternately between the BBC and ITV and it is now traditional for the BBC to stage the performance in London's West End, with ITV using other regional theatres outside of London.
The performance is a New Year's tradition in Norway, where it is broadcast at 00:00 on 1 January. Several other European countries also broadcast the show.
The organisers did not invite Marie Lloyd, one of the most famous music hall artists of the time, because of a professional dispute. Her act was considered too risque and her three public, unsuccessful marriages deemed her unfit to perform in front of royalty. She held a rival performance in a nearby theatre, which she advertised was "by command of the British public". The name of the event was changed to prevent possible royal embarrassment. The Royal Variety became an annual event at the suggestion of King George V from 1921.
The show was frequently staged in the London Palladium theatre, and in the 1950s and 1960s a television show based on the same idea, called Sunday Night at the London Palladium and hosted by many entertainers, including Bruce Forsyth, ran for over 20 years. Production and broadcast of the show traditionally alternates each year between the BBC and ITV, with the BBC staging the show in a West End theatre, and ITV staging the show in regional theatres outside London.
Almost every conceivable sort of act has at one time or another been presented to the monarch at the Royal Command Performance, including The Beatles in 1963, The Supremes in 1968 and The Blue Man Group in 2005. At the Beatles' show on 4 November 1963, John Lennon delivered a line to the well-heeled audience which has passed into legend: "For our last number I'd like to ask your help: Will the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands? And the rest of you, if you'll just rattle your jewellery ..."
The money raised by the Royal Variety Performance provides most of the funding for Entertainment Artistes' Benevolent Fund and its home, Brinsworth House, a home for retired members of the entertainment profession and their dependants.
After the first Royal Variety Performance on 1 July 1912 presented by Sir Alfred Butt, it was seven years before the next show, on 28 July 1919 held at the Coliseum Theatre presented by Sir Oswald Stoll. The orchestra was conducted by Edward Elgar. In 1921 it moved to The Hippodrome, and was held in November. It was the first time that the Royal Variety Performance became an annual event. In 1923 it moved to the Coliseum Theatre. Then after a gap in 1924, moved to the Alhambra Theatre in February 1925, where it remained in 1926, held on 27 May. It was the first Royal Variety Performance to broadcast, with the BBC providing live radio coverage.
In 1927 there was another move, this time to the Victoria Palace Theatre, with J. A. Webb the compère. Then 1928 show, on 13 December, was held at the Coliseum Theatre. The next show, on 22 May 1930, moved to the London Palladium with George Black and Val Parnell compèring. It was a start of seven successive years at the venue.
In 1935 the Royal Variety Performance was held in the Silver Jubilee year of King George V and Queen Mary. This was the last time King George V attended – he died three months later in January 1936.
There have been two Royal Scottish Variety Performances, both attended by Queen Elizabeth, and presented by Howard & Wyndham Ltd in Glasgow`s Alhambra Theatre in 1958 and 1963.
A public telephone vote decides the most popular act in each semi-final, which then progresses to the final, along with a second act chosen by the judges. The grand final is then broadcast live and all the acts perform again for the public vote.
Where no town or city is noted in the theatre column in the following table, the venue is situated in London.
{|class="sortable wikitable" border="1" |- !Theatre !No. !Years !Notes |- | Palladium | 36 | 1930–1937, 1946–1948, 1950, 1952, 1954, 1957, 1962, 1964–1978, 1980, 1987–1990, 2008, 2010 | |- | Coliseum Theatre | 10 | 1919, 1923, 1928, 1938, 1945, 1949, 1953, 1958, 2004, 2006 | |- | Dominion Theatre | 7 | 1992–1996, 2000–2001 | |- | Theatre Royal, Drury Lane | 7 | 1979, 1981–1983, 1985–1986, 1991 | |- | Victoria Palace Theatre | 6 | 1927, 1951, 1955, 1960, 1984, 1997 | |- | Alhambra Theatre | 2 | 1925–1926 | |- | Hippodrome | 2 | 1921–1922 | |- | Opera House Theatre, Blackpool | 2 | 1955, 2009 | |- | Prince of Wales Theatre | 2 | 1961, 1963 | |- | Apollo Theatre | 1 | 2002 | |- | Birmingham Hippodrome | 1 | 1999 | |- | Edinburgh Festival Theatre | 1 | 2003 | |- | Liverpool Empire Theatre | 1 | 2007 | |- | Lyceum Theatre | 1 | 1998 | |- | Palace Theatre | 1 | 1912 | |- | Palace Theatre, Manchester | 1 | 1959 | |- | Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff | 1 | 2005 | |}
{|class="sortable wikitable" border="1" |- !Name !No. !Years !Notes |- | Queen Elizabeth II | 34 | 1949, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955 (Blackpool), 1955 (London), 1957, 1958, 1960, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1967, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1979, 1981, 1983, 1985, 1987, 1989, 1990, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011 |Attended in 1949 as Princess Elizabeth |- | Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother | 26 | 1937, 1938, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1959, 1961, 1963, 1966, 1968, 1972, 1974, 1976, 1978, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1991, | Attended as Queen Elizabeth between 1937 and 1951 and as The Queen Mother from 1959 onward |- | The Duke of Edinburgh | 25 | 1953, 1954, 1955 (Blackpool), 1955 (London), 1957, 1958, 1960, 1962, 1965, 1967, 1969, 1970, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1979, 1985, 1987, 1989, 1990, 1993, 1997, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009 | |- | King George V | 15 | 1912, 1919, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1925, 1926, 1927, 1928, 1930, 1931, 1932, 1933, 1934, 1935 | |- | Queen Mary | 15 | 1912, 1919, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1925, 1926, 1927, 1928, 1930, 1931, 1932, 1933, 1934, 1935 | |- | Charles, Prince of Wales | 10 | 1968, 1977 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010 | |- | King George VI | 8 | 1937, 1938, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950 | |- | Princess Margaret | 4 | 1949, 1951, 1968, 1990, | |- | Duchess of Cornwall | 3 | 2006, 2008, 2010 | |- | Anne, Princess Royal | 1 | 1968 | |- | Diana, Princess of Wales | 1 | 1992 | |- | Earl of Snowdon | 1 | 1968 | |- | Queen of Norway | 1 | 1922 | |- |}
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