The Royal Variety Performance (1977)
-The
Silver Jubilee Royal Variety
-
in the presence of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and
The Duke Of Edinburgh
Louise
Gold featured as a Muppeteer (Puppeteering Big Mama),
at the London Palladium on Monday 21 November 1977, in aid of the Entertainment
Artistes’ Benevolent Fund
Cast and Production Team information, from the
"Royal Variety Performance programme reproduced by permission of "The
Entertainment Artistes Benevolent Fund"...)
Cast
The Host - Bob
Hope
Performing: Julie
Andrews, Paul Anka, Pam Ayres, Harry Belafonte, Brotherhood
Of Man, Tommy Cooper, Alan King, Cleo Laine with
John Dankworth and John Williams, Little
And Large, Shirley Maclaine, Jim
Henson’s Muppets, Rudolph Nureyve
Also Appearing:
Brotherhood Of Man
- Roger Greenaway, Tony Burrows (14-4-42), Johnny Goodison,
Sunny Leslie and Sue Glover
Little And Large
- Syd Little and Eddie Large
Jim Henson’s Muppets
- Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson, Richard Hunt,
Dave Goelz, and, Louise Gold
Production Team
Presented by - Lew Grade and Bernard Delfont
Producers - Carry Smith and Dwight Hemion
Musical Director - Jack Parnell
Stage Director - Robert Nesbitt
Cast and Production Team information, from the
"Royal Variety Performance programme reproduced by permission of "The
Entertainment Artistes Benevolent Fund"...)
Note, the Cast
listing is also more or less the running order.
Although
they do not appear to be credited anywhere in the programme, it appears that
the performance also included three dancers from The Royal Ballet Company.
It is likely that these may have been: Michael
Coleman, Graham Fletcher, and, Julian Hosking.
It
really has to be noted that Prince Charles, The Prince Of Wales,
was also amongst the Royal Party.
Surprising
as it may seem, Louise Gold appeared on The Royal Variety
again five years later, in her actress’s guise, at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, in The Royal Variety Performance
(1982) as a member of The
Pirates Of Penzance cast.
The
Muppet puppeteers: Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Jerry
Nelson, Richard Hunt, Dave Goelz,
and Louise Gold were all puppeteers on The Muppet Show (although five months
into her puppeteering career, Louise Gold was still very much the new
girl). All six puppeteers went on to: feature in the documentary Of Muppets And Men, perform on the film The
Great Muppet Caper, and TV special The Muppets Go To The Movies and have featured on the Muppet
albums: The Muppet Show Music Hall,
The Muppet Show 2, For What It’s Worth, The Muppet Show Music Album, The Great Muppet Caper (Soundtrack
album), John
Denver & The Muppets A Christmas Together, John Denver &
The Muppets Merry Christmas 45RPM,
Christmas For Kids, John Denver Christmas, Jim Henson Presents Silly Songs,
Favorite
Songs From Jim Henson’s Muppets, Put
Some Zing In Your Spring, Muppet Music
Sampler, Muppet Hits 1, Muppet Hits 2, Muppet
Music Mix (although Louise Gold was not credited), and, Music Mayhem And More (although Jerry Nelson and Louise Gold were not
credited). Jack Parnell was also the Musical Director for The Muppet Show (and various other Lew
Grade television comedy productions), and conducted the band on tracks on
most of the above albums.
In
addition several of the other performers taking part in this Royal Variety,
namely: Rudolph Nureyve,
Cleo Laine, Julie Andrews, Bob Hope,
and, Harry Belafonte were Guest
Stars on The Muppet Show, mostly
during the second series.
Jim
Henson, Frank Oz,
Jerry Nelson, Richard Hunt,
and, Louise Gold also sang on Elmo’s
Lowdown Hoedown.
Frank
Oz, Jerry Nelson, Richard Hunt, and, Louise
Gold also sang on Born To
Add.
Frank
Oz, Jerry Nelson, Dave Goelz,
and, Louise Gold went on to work on the television programme Sesame Street (in the early 1990s), and on
films The Muppet Christmas Carol , and, Muppet Treasure Island, and they sang on The Muppet Christmas Carol
(Soundtrack album).
As Muppeteers Louise Gold and Jerry
Nelson (with an introduction by Jim Henson) sang
on the compilation album
Jerome Kern The
First 100 Years (although they were only credited as ‘The Muppets’)
Cleo
Laine and Julie
Andrew’s recording credits also include: Jerome Kern The
First 100 Years
Jim
Henson, Jerry Nelson, Richard Hunt, and, Louise
Gold also appeared on stage in The All
Time Get Around Sometimes Play Together Every Other
Friday Night Vaudeville Show.
Jim Henson, Frank Oz,
Dave Goelz, and, Louise Gold
also puppeteered on The Dark Crystal, for which Jerry Nelson
did some voice-work.
Jim Henson, Frank Oz,
and, Dave
Goelz also puppeteered
on Labyrinth.
Dave Goelz, and, Louise Gold
went on to puppeteer on The
Animal Show, on which Frank Oz made
a guest puppeteering appearance.
Bob Hope, Julie Andrews,.Harry
Belafonte, Cleo Laine and Rudolph Nureyve have all been guest stars on The Muppet Show
at one time or another.
Louise Gold,
Jim
Henson, and, Richard Hunt all went on to
puppeteer on Tale Of The Bunny Picnic.
Jerry Nelson
and
Dave Goelz (besides puppeteering on Fraggle Rock itself) went on to do
voice-work on the UK Co-Production of Fraggle Rock, on which Louise Gold
puppeteered.
Cleo Laine and John Dankworth went on to appear in
A Time To Start Living, and, Side By Side By Sondheim 30th Anniversary Gala.
Cleo Laine went on to appear in the Side By Side By Sondheim 25th Anniversary Gala,
for which John Dankworth provided an
orchestration.
Frank Oz,
Jerry
Nelson, Richard Hunt, Dave Goelz, Louise Gold,
and, Harry
Belafonte went on to take part in Jim Henson’s Memorial Service.
This was probably the first time Louise Gold
appeared at The London Palladium, she has gone on to appear there in:
the musicals Ziegfeld and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, as well as a one
night charity gala called Kids At Heart.
Jerry Nelson,
Dave Goelz, and, Louise Gold
went on to puppeteer on The Secret Life Of Toys, their recording
credits include A Green And Red Christmas.
Louise Gold
and Richard
Hunt went on to puppeteer on The Ghost Of Faffner Hall.
Jerry Nelson,
Richard
Hunt, and, Louise Gold’s recording
credits include The Count’s Countdown, however there has
been some debate as to whether Louise Gold actually sang on
it.
Cleo Laine’s
recording credits include 100
Hits Musicals.
Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson, Dave Goelz,
and, Louise Gold, along with Julie Andrews, and, Cleo Laine went on to take part in the
television documentary I Love The Muppets.
Critics Comments
.
Links about The Royal Variety Performance
Observer Newspaper
article about British Puppeteers, Louise is one of the puppeteers featured in
it: https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2020/jun/14/whatever-happened-to-gordon-the-gopher-and-all-the-other-tv-puppets
The Royal Variety’s website: http://www.eabf.org.uk/rvp1.htm
Kermitage’s Charter Guide part B
(have a look for Big Mama on it): http://www.kermitage.com/html/characterindex/tms/characterb.html
Muppet Wiki’s
entry for the show (includes a description of what The Muppets actually
performed on it, and photographs of them performing): http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Royal_Variety_Performance#1977
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