Grumpy Old Women
07/09/2010 - 07/09/2010
Clarence Street Theatre, Hamilton
07/03/2010 - 07/03/2010
Baycourt - Addison Theatre, Tauranga
11/03/2010 - 11/03/2010
06/03/2010 - 06/03/2010
Whanganui Opera House, Whanganui
05/03/2010 - 05/03/2010
Production Details
From Cardiff to Canberra and now New Zealand, women of a certain age can finally unite behind a common fear of graying hairs and sagging rears. Around the world it is suddenly OK to celebrate the cellulite.
Following a 40-date sellout UK tour and a West End run at the Lyric Theatre, Shaftesbury Ave, Grumpy Old Women has had thousands of women filling theatres across the world and leaving hundreds of men with no idea what they were going to have for their dinner.
Finally – and just in time for that perfect Christmas gift for the Grumpy People in your life –Grumpy Old Women comes to New Zealand, with an all kiwi cast, new cities to explore and new loos to try out.
Director David McPhail urges the men of New Zealand to take the Grumpy Women in their lives out for an evening of fun, with this sensational UK comedy hit.
Heading the New Zealand cast of Grumpy Old Women is Film and TV leading lady and Dancing With The Stars diva, Geraldine Brophy“The rampaging, rumbustious show is tailor-made for women.”*****
Robert Gore-Langton, Daily Mail
GERALDINE BROPHY
Geraldine Brophy is one of New Zealand’s best known actors. She has an award-winning career that has spanned Theatre, Film and Television. She won Best Actress at the Qantas Film and TV Awards as the star of Second Hand Wedding and has appeared in NZ greats, In My Fathers Den, Outrageous Fortune, Seven Periods With Mr Gormsby and King Kong.
Geraldine first came to the attention of the New Zealand public as Moira the loveable receptionist on Shortland Street. She has also appeared throughout the country with numerous roles at The Auckland Theatre Company, Wellington’s Circa and Downstage Theatres and The Court Theatre in Christchurch. Her writing credits include the wonderful Viagra Monologues and Confessions of a Chocoholic.
When Pinky Agnew decided to take on the role of Grumpy Old Woman number two, Geraldine made her take a good long look at all her shoes, then gave her a lesson in how to make herself look less Gran and much more Glam! Pinky secretly kept her comfiest slip-ons, and wears them when Geraldine isn’t looking.
PINKY AGNEW
Pinky Agnew is a New Zealand comedienne, MC, actor, social commentator and celebrant.!!! She is joined on stage by comedienne PINKY AGNEW while the final Grumpy Old Woman is Lyndee-Jane Rutherford, a familiar face on stage and screen from her days on New Zealand sketch comedy shows Skitz, Telly Laughs and The Semisis.
Tickets go on sale at 9am Monday 9th November.
Booking details and dates below
As well as entertaining and motivating corporate clients, she writes and performs, including her one-woman show Pinky Pops In. Pinky is also heard on Justin du Fresne’s show on NewstalkZB, with her weekly Pink Report, and joins Te Radar and Kathryn Ryan for a monthly satirical look at the news on Radio New Zealand National.
In the 2004 Pinky was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) for her services to entertainment – which didn’t make her grumpy in the least!!!
LYNDEE-JANE RUTHERFORD
The final Grumpy Old Woman is a familiar face on stage and screen from her days on New Zealand sketch comedy shows Skitz, Telly Laughs and The Semisis in the 90s. But your children or grandchildren would most certainly recognise her from her days on What Now TV!
When not being a Grumpy Old Woman she also stars in the TVNZ 6 kids show Giggles, made especially for children under the age of 3 years. Her theatre credits and accolades span 15 years. She has been nominated for both Actress of the Year and Supporting Actress of the Year at the Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards. She also won Most Promising Director of the Year in 2006 and has been a prominent directing figure around New Zealand in the last three years.
DAVID McPHAIL
And who better to keep these Grumpy Old Women on the straight and narrow but the extremely brave and ever cheery David McPhail. McPhail is no stranger to New Zealand comedy as one half of the famous McPhail and Gadsby and co-writer and star of Letter To Blanchy.
GRUMPY OLD WOMEN – WORLD DOMINATION
Further confirming the shows global appeal, Grumpy Old Women is currently causing a flurry of excitement all over the world. So far the hit show has been translated into Icelandic and Finnish touring each country with a local celebrity cast. Hugely popular runs in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth proved beyond any doubt that the Grumpy Old Woman is a global phenomenon. With the movement continuing to gather steam, and Sweden and France already in the pipeline Grumpy world domination has never felt closer.
They came, they grumbled, they conquered. Look out New Zealand!!!
CHRISTMAS PRESENT PRE-SALE
On Sale 9am Monday 9th November
MARCH 2010
5th – Wanganui – Wanganui Opera House – Book at Wanganui Opera House
6th – New Plymouth – TSB Showplace – Book at Ticketek
7th – Hamilton – Clarence Street Theatre – Book at Ticketek
9th – Whangarei – Forum North – Book at Ticketek
11th – Tauranga – Baycourt – Book at Ticket Direct
12th – Hastings – Opera House – Book at Ticket Direct
13th – Palmerston North – The Globe – Book at Ticket Direct
14th – Upper Hutt – Expressions – Book at Ticket Direct
16th – Blenheim – Civic Theatre – Book at Ticket Direct
17th – Nelson – NSOM – Book at NSOM
18th – Greymouth – Regent Theatre – Book at Regent Box Office
19th – Timaru – Theatre Royal – Book at Newman’s Musicworks
20th – Ashburton – Events Centre – Book at Ticket Direct
21st – Oamaru – Opera House – Book at Ticket Direct
23rd – Gore – St James Theatre – Book at Cairns Musicworks
24th – Invercargill – Civic Theatre – Book at ICC Booking Office
25th – Arrowtown – Atheneum Hall – Book at Ticket Direct
26th – Dunedin – Mayfair Theatre – Book at Regent Box Office
27th – Christchurch – James Hay Theatre – Book at Ticketek
SEPTEMBER 2010
Special Encore Season
7th – WELLINGTON Opera House. Bookings: Ticketek
8th –
9th – GISBORNE. Memorial Theatre. Bookings: Ticket Direct
10th – TAURANGA. Baycourt. 3rd and final show after sellouts on previous tour. Bookings: Ticket Direct
11th –
Menopausal hen party cackling fun
Review by Laurie Atkinson [Reproduced with permission of Fairfax Media] 09th Sep 2010
There’s no plot, just jokes that the audience obviously couldn’t get enough of.
Grumpy Old Women, like the recent Auntie and Me and The Gruffalo, is a here-today-gone-on-tour-tomorrow show. It’s already toured a lot of the country earlier this year and it was here for one performance at The Opera House on Tuesday before hurrying off to one-night stands in the north.
It is, as Geraldine Brophy says at one point in the show, a menopausal hen party. This was pretty obvious when one looked at the audience that filled the Opera House (even the gods were open): mainly women of a certain age with a sprinkling of Keiths in tow. Keith, it appears, is the name of the hopeless males that GOW are married to.
Inspired by the English TV show Jenny Eclair and Judith Holder, who are not acknowledged in the programme, created a stage version that has been Kiwified for the hen party so that some of the best jokes (Men are from Mars; Women are from Pack ‘n Save) get a round of applause.
The show is the complete register of grumpy jokes and situations on all the usual subjects: sex, food, weight, sagging boobs, incontinence, the awfulness of the young and so on. They are told in a never-ending stream until the interval and then it starts all over again exactly the same except Geraldine Brophy is wearing a gold evening dress, Pinky Agnew a rose pink one, and Lyndee-Jane Rutherford an orange one.
It’s a trio stand-up comedy show flexible enough to contain the most bizarre interruption to show I have ever experienced: a very public proposal of marriage from a young man to his girl friend. (Why there? Why then?)
There’s no plot, just jokes that the audience obviously couldn’t get enough of.
The useful objects that one can buy from Innovations came in for a good and deserved drubbing and in the GOW Manifesto the declaration that women should refuse to make costumes for their grandchildren in the school play brought the house down.
The three work hard and cheerfully despite the unnecessary microphones malfunctioning, though I have to say that Lyndee-Jane Rutherford looks far too young to be a GOW.
All three were very funny when drunk and then with hangovers. The audience left the theatre bubbling. So I presume did the engaged couple.
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A good talking to for a laugh
Review by Ngaire Riley 10th Mar 2010
Sandwiched between Cliff Richard last weekend and WOMAD next weekend, I wonder how full the New Plymouth TSB Show Place will be for Grumpy Old Women. We’re proud of supporting things in the provinces so I don’t want this to be a poor show from the audience. I have to trudge my weary muscles up the stairs to row ‘Y’, one row from the back. Having walked half of the Mountain to Surf Marathon today, I’m never-the less-pleased, as this means the place is nearly full.
The voluptuous cream-draped curtains frame the filigree chairs and chandelier. Here is a world for women: the lounge or the boudoir. And when Geraldine, Pinky and Lyndee-Jane arrive in floor length cream Balmoral gabardine coats, scarves tied tightly to the chin and clutching Warehouse red, New World turquoise and Countdown green bags, we are treated to a slick, witty comic romp.
The bags carry the women’s experiences and some handy gadgets. The show may have originated in England, but the references and memories are cellulite close to New Zealand experiences.
This is a comedy show. It is formulaic – name the topic: health, making lists, hot flushes – and the three women build the gags until the theatre is screeching with laughter. Since Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls in the feminist ’80’s, women’s matters are now aired in public, even shared on the stage. We see a women’s world through an oestrogen lens.
In the second half their chat slides to the personal world of families, sex and Keith. He’s a blow up husband who is shared around. He’s fun. So is the pampering. But there is no change to this pattern. There are lots of lists that build to some clever one liners but the structure of the show is repetitive.
Geraldine Brophy is lusciously entertaining. Her velvet voice and perfect timing make her a fascinating comedienne. I can’t take my eyes off her. She gets the most exotic clothing to wear too.
Pinky Agnew blurs the lines between feeling like the neighbour next door who is having a sincere chat and a slick entertainer. Her two pieces of clothing, once the gabardine comes off, seems strangely out of time with the other women.
Lyndee-Jane Rutherford feels forced and shouty as the repartee continues. I find I am sitting next to people I know from Tauranga who have come the New Plymouth for the consecration of St Mary’s cathedral. At half time they concur and say they feel shouted at.
The audience clearly love it though and readily join in the warm up after half time with some tut-tutting. From grandmotherly perspective one moment to fraught mother of preschoolers at another, the roles of the women seem to slide with uncomfortable elasticity at times. The penultimate ‘Manifesto’ is very clever however and we leave having had a good laugh.
As I go I meet fellow am-drams from Hawera and we agree that it’s been a giggle. I have been talked to, rather than moved, challenged or provoked. I prefer the bite of Te Radar’s satire or the uncomfortable, funny and familiar women in Roger Hall’s Taking Off, or the physical comedy around fertility in Oh Baby Baby, or wonderfully moving theatre like He Reo Aroha.
But for people in New Plymouth, today has been a physical smorgasbord for the body, spirit and soul. And a good laugh never hurts anyone.
Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer
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