Royal Variety Performance

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For the record label, see Command Performance Records

The Royal Variety Performance is a gala evening held in the United Kingdom once each year, often in a theatre in London's West End although it is increasingly being held outside of London. Comics and other entertainers perform before royalty and a television audience. The show raises money for the Entertainment Artistes' Benevolent Fund. It is a new year's tradition in Norway, where it broadcast at 00:00 January 1.

[edit] First show

The first performance, on July 1, 1912, was called the Royal Command Performance, and this name has persisted informally for the event. This was held in the Palace Theatre, Shaftsbury Avenue, London, in the presence of King George V and Queen Mary. The king said he would attend a once-yearly variety show, provided the profits went to the Variety Artistes' Benevolent Fund, as the EABF was then known. This first staging was a lavish occasion, and the theatre was decorated with 3 million roses draped around the auditorium and over the boxes.

The organisers did not invite Marie Lloyd, one of the most famous music hall artists of the time, because of a professional dispute. 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.

[edit] Further performances

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. Television coverage of the royal show itself traditionally alternates each year between the BBC and ITV.

Almost every sort of act conceivable 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. John Lennon delivered an ad-lib 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 Brinsworth House, a home for retired members of the entertainment profession and their dependents.

On 3rd July 1958, the Alhambra Theatre Glasgow had the distinction of staging Scotland's first Royal Variety Performance.

In November 1979, Bill Haley & His Comets performed their classic "Rock Around the Clock" at the performance, which would ultimately be the final time Haley performed the song on television (his last performances woud be a few months later and he died in 1981).

The 2005 performance, held in the Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff, was the 77th Royal Variety Performance and had a strong Welsh flavour which saw Shirley Bassey topping the bill, with other Welsh artists also attending including Charlotte Church, Katherine Jenkins, Bryn Terfel, and the Regimental Band of the Royal Welsh. A highlight of the event was Catherine Tate's character Lauren asking the Queen: "Is one bovvered?"

The 2006 Show was hosted in the London Coliseum. Fronted by Jonathan Ross, produced and broadcast by the BBC and attended by HRH The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall. Acts included performances by the cast of Spamalot, The Sound of Music, Jump, Wicked and Avenue Q, music by the Sugababes, Barry Manilow, James Morrison, Take That and Rod Stewart.