Theatre and Dance Previews

Short and Curly is the ultimate one-woman show – with two of them - and it's coming to Herts and Bucks this summer!

The seemingly unusual pairing of Sandi Toksvig and Bonnie Langford are currently on a 31 date UK summer tour with their two woman show.

Short & Curly features anecdotes, a sprinkling of song and dance and a load of laughs as Sandi and Bonnie create an onstage cocktail of entertainment that promises never to be the same one night to the next – partly because Sandi refuses to stick to the point and Bonnie keeps breaking into song!

And while it may seem strange on the face of it to put these two together, the pair have a friendship that spans more than 20 years. And with half a century of showbusiness experience between them, they treat audiences to a unique evening that both draws on and reflects this friendship, and also offers glimpses into the world of their respective professional lives.

These two multi-talented entertainers are both known for sparkling careers spanning stage, screen and the written word.

Sandi Toksvig is a columnist, novelist and TV and radio regular and is best known for being the current host of Radio 4’s The News Quiz, presenting Excess Baggage and regular appearances on I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, Have I Got News for You and Call My Bluff.

Meanwhile, Bonnie Langford has played numerous leading roles in West End musicals including Sweet Charity, Chicago, Guys & Dolls, Cats and Gypsy. In 2006 she completed the first series of ITV’s Dancing on Ice and has recently been skating her way round the UK in the Dancing on Ice tour.

I spoke to her about this new show, plus ice skating, musical theatre and, following her very early start in showbusiness, how she has remained so normal!

Presumably you’re curly? You are known for so many things in entertainment but this on the face of it seems an unusual pairing but you’ve been friends for a long time and worked together before haven’t you?

Bonnie: We have, we’ve been friends for about 26 years we’ve worked out. It’s very different - when you’ve been on the road all the time on your own, it’s just nice to have a bit of a giggle about stuff. And together you find so many things funny and it’s just an easier situation to be with friends than to be on your own.

How did you first meet?

Bonnie: We think we actually met a long time ago at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre on a gala but neither of us are really sure! But what we do know is that we did meet when I was on a Saturday morning television programme called the Saturday Starship which I used to co-present. We used to do the winter season and Sandi was in a wonderful show called number 73 and she would do the spring / summer season. The week before her show was about to start she came to our show and promoted the fact that she would be on the following week and we just laughed a lot and giggled and stayed friends on and off.

We then became proper friends when we realised that we lived down the road from each other and my step-daughter and Sandi’s daughter were in the same class at the same school and things happened from there. We ended up doing lots of stuff together. Sandi wrote a musical and I was in it too and she used to do a radio programme on LBC
Radio every day and once a week I would go in and sit and chat with her. But it’s really been the last ten years that we’ve been close friends both in proximity and in friendship.

So what happens in this show then?

Bonnie: You could say it’s just a bit of banter and fun. It’s like “An Audience with ..” in a way and at the end we do have a question and answer session with the audience and you’d be amazed the sort of questions that they come up with.

It’s just a bit of fun. We talk about our likes and dislikes. Sandi is a great lover of musicals, she absolutely adores musical theatre and is quite an aficionado on it and I’m just completely fascinated by the fact that she’s written 14 books! I said to her I couldn’t write 14 emails!

We just have the same sense of humour and generally the show’s never quite the same twice so it does mean that it’s very spontaneous and fresh. A lot of people who have seen it say that it’s a very cosy chat – it’s like you’re part of two people just having a laugh and having a chat and enjoying it. It’s not indulgent in any way it’s just a very comfortable friendship.

And they can see your friendship coming through? What sort of things are you asked then?

Bonnie: Sandi’s asked things about Radio 4 and the programmes that she does and generally she’s asked when they’re going to do Call My Bluff again – people seem to
miss that - and quite often she’s asked the rules of Mornington Crescent.

Funnily enough, one of the questions I’m often asked is what musical would I like to
be in that I haven’t been in and then about the ice skating – it’s interesting. Last night I was asked if I was to do Celebrity Stars in their Eyes, who would I be? It’s great that people will come up with things that really pose questions in your head.

There’s an awful lot of stuff that we’ve both done and often a question will take us off on another anecdote another backstage story. What’s great is that people might have seen something that either one of us had been in, but always our perspective of a job is very different from the people who have watched or listened to it. And if anyone asks something like what was it like to be in Cats, my brain goes instantly to the dressing room and backstage and what it actually was like to be on that stage which of course only I have that perspective on.

You been in so many shows it’s difficult to know which one to ask about – you could be in the theatre for hours!

Bonnie: Sorry!

Don’t apologise for a successful career! Now, this is a 31 date tour and you’ve just come out of the Dancing on Ice tour as well?

Bonnie: I know – I never get home to do my washing! It’s all a bit barmy isn’t it, but it’s nice because the Dancing on Ice tour was so completely different to this, I can't even begin to tell you where the similarities are!

There’s nothing like it at all! The Dancing on Ice tour was extraordinary – it was not only amazing to play to 10,000 people but also in an environment that you never dreamed you’d be in – on an ice rink with Torvill and Dean! It was a little bit surreal at times and incredibly hard work physically and emotionally quite demanding.

With Sandi and I it couldn’t be more different – there’s no ice for a start – not even in the drinks! And we just have a lot of laughter really and of course it’s quite cerebral in comparison to ice skating!

What would you say to people to get them to see Short and Curly?

Bonnie: I would say that it’s an unusual pairing that basically comes together in a fantastic, spontaneous, fun evening of friends having a laugh, and sharing that friendship with an audience!