Just For One Day

I had a good afternoon at a matinee of this musical on the last day of the run.  The play is framed through a contemporary lense via a grumpy Bob Geldof dealing with questions from a sceptical Gen-Z-er about this event that she learnt about in her history lessons.  The production obviously knows its audience because it gave us a moment to be horrified that our youth was someone else’s history lesson.  It was true though that the vast majority of heads bobbing along to the music were grey.   

A juke box musical in many ways I really enjoyed the reworking of hits so that we never got impersonations, instead reimagining of the music.  That’s obviously for the best when you are dealing with Bohemian Rhapsody - it’s a brave singer that takes that on (we had a really powerful version actually from the company) but possibly my favourites were Message in a Bottle and Blowin’ in the Wind, both reimagined for maximum emotional punch.   The cast and live band were all really impressive, pretty much all of them taking a moment in the spotlight and absolutely delivering.  A special mention to Julie Atherton as Margaret Thatcher,  a mini comic masterpiece - I’m not sure I’m Still Standing will ever be the same! 

I am assuming Geldof was on board with the production as it treated him pretty kindly,  but it did try to address some of the things that are problematic when looking back.  That awful line ‘And tonight thank god it’s them instead of you’ for example, and then the white saviour/stereotypical views of the whole African continent.   We never see any famine footage or scenes, instead just the testimony of one aid worker and Geldof’s visit to a camp keeps the misery off stage but does manage to convey some of the horror of it nevertheless.  The difficulties of actually getting the aid to the people who need it was covered too.   

Of course with what is currently going on with Gaza and Sudan, the parallels are too obvious to ignore which makes me ashamed again that so little is being done.  It highlights the need to keep stepping up with each generation, and handing on the baton.  And the time to do it is always now. 

What really struck me though was how one stubborn and difficult person can change everything.  Just a couple of weeks ago I was talking about Nye Bevan’s awkward and dogged persistence to get the NHS started, and again we had a man in Geldof who just wasn’t prepared to let it go.  Of course there are many, many people who actually make the change but it needs to start somewhere.  Feels like time for another bloody-minded catalyst to step up. 

So a fun afternoon in a theatre mainly with other oldies reliving some glory days, but there’s nothing wrong in that in small doses.  As long as we remember to be clear eyed for now and the future too.