Judi Dench cost me £124 and I’m still not going to the first night of Hay Fever. No, I’m not referring to the high ticket prices (at £50 top price, it sets a new top for a play) or suggesting that, in my desperation to be there, I’ve been fleeced by black market forgeries, but rather, by a scheduling conflict that was first of all my own stupidity and then a change by the producer.
Let me explain. A couple of months ago I booked a flight to go to New York yesterday. And the very next day, I noticed that the opening night for Hay Fever had been set for last night, Wednesday April 19. I didn’t want to miss it; so I rang Expedia, whom I had booked the flight with, but it was too late. The ticket was non-changeable. All I could do was cancel the ticket, and though I would forfeit the fare, I would at least get the tax back. I took the hit, lost £124, and re-booked to fly to New York today.
But then a few weeks ago Hay Fever noticed that it had booked a clash on press nights last night with the RSC’s Antony and Cleopatra, opening at Stratford-upon-Avon to kick off the Complete Works season in the Swan. And since the producers Thelma Holt and Bill Kenwright, as well as Dench – who will be appearing in the Complete Works herself later this year, when she stars in a musical version of Merry Wives – all have close links with the RSC, they decided to do the decent thing and move their opening to tonight!
Having postponed my trip to New York once at a cost of £124, I wasn’t going to do so again. Hay Fever would have to open without me. But the producers agreed to put me into what had now become the final preview instead. And curiously, I was not alone amongst first night critics who were doing the same thing: The Guardian’s Michael Billington, the Mail’s Quentin Letts and the Independent on Sunday’s Kate Bassett, plus the New Statesman’s Michael Portillo, were all in attendance last night, too. So the RSC has opened without us anyway.
Of course, it is one of the by-products of a very busy theatre schedule that we’re all pulled in various directions simultaneously. I reported here last week about the ridiculous situation where there were five clashing first nights the Monday before last, including for two West End musicals that had necessitated some of us going on the Saturday night before in order to see both. But sometimes even the best-laid plans go awry….
