Brininging the magic of the music hall back to Felixstowe seafront
Entertainer Leo Shavers performs all round the world.
But the Ipswich based comic and musician is performing closer to home this month - and promoting - The Good Old Music Hall Days variety show at the Spa Pavilion, Felixstowe,
Leo has recently returned from working abroad, entertaining the passengers, on a cruise along the coast of Africa, to Cape Town.
He regularly entertains cruise passengers all over the world.
It is a tough job, but somebody has got to do it!
Now he is busy planning the Good Old Music Hall Days Show, on the afternoon of February 25 at the Spa - bringing variety back to the theatre.
He said: “If it goes well, and tickets are already selling well, I am already planning a Summer Special Music Hall Show in August.
“It is great to see the Spa Pavilion back in business.
“I am really excited about it. This is a new part of my life.
“I think I first performed at the Spa as ten-year-old in a brass band.
“I conducted the Woodbridge Excelsoir Band here too.
“It is an absolutely lovely theatre.
“It is going to be a great show. We have six acts and our musical director, David Carter, was Danny La Rue’s musical director.
“This theatre is a great venue, for Felixstowe and for Ipswich people.
“It dates from 1909 and back then, there would have been Music Hall type variety shows here.
“So we are really taking it back to its roots.”
Leo will be taking on the chairman’s role, famously played by Leonard Sachs when the Good Old Days was broadcast on BBC Television, from the Cities Varieties theatre, Leeds.
Leo has regularly performed on the bill at Leeds City Varieties, with the likes of Tom O’Connor, and Jimmy Cricket.
“I was on the bill,” he joked, “on the poster - just above the printer.
“I have got experience of the music hall format, and we have tried to be true to it.”
The Spa Pavilion had been closed and was in danger of being lost permanently, and Leo is pleased to see it back and open for business for 2016.
And with the seafront gardens now fully restored, Felixstowe is looking good again, for holidaymakers day trippers.
He said: “I am hoping to promote a Summer Special Show in August, with a different line-up, and probably have matinee and evening performances.
The Good Old Music Hall Days is at the Spa Pavilion on Thursday, February 25 at 2.15pm, makimng it ideal for coach parties, he said, from clubs and organisations.
Leo takes on the chairman’s role and the show includes musical director David Carter and the Pavilion Orchestra, singer Marilyn Hill Smith of BBC Proms fame, comedian Don Reid from The Comedians, juggler Peter Lambert from Britain’s Got Talent, a Victorian conjurer, a school choir and Stephen Bayfield, billed as Suffolk’s renowned raconteur.
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