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Guys and Dolls
Leicester Haymarket Theatre
December 27th 1988 to January 28th 1989
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Joe as 'Sky Masterson' on stage at Leicester Haymarket Theatre
January 1989.
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Joe played the role of Sky Masterson in this production, after taking over from Mark.
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On 19th November 1988, at Leicester’s Haymarket Theatre, Mark McGann took on the role of 'Sky Masterson' in Guys and Dolls for what was intended to be a 10 week run.
During the course of the play Joanne Campbell (playing Sarah Brown) was required to give Mark a slap round the face. One particular evening, she hit a little too hard, leaving Mark needing surgery for a perforated eardrum. He would then need a month to convalesce so would be unable to return to the role. It was decided to contact Joe, who agreed to take over the role from Mark on 2nd January.
Fate intervened again though, and Mark came down with a serious flu virus and the Boxing Day performance had to be cancelled. With less than 24 hours notice, as Mark showed no signs of improvement, Joe stepped in and took over on the 27th December.
I saw Joe's second performance, on the 28th December, and he was excellent.
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The Daily Mirror, on the 28th December, printed an article titled 'Show's fans storm the box office'. The article ran with basically the true story - their mistake was in saying Joe was Mark's understudy and couldn't be contacted. Not true. He was never an understudy and no attempt was made to contact him on that occasion.
On the 4th January the Daily Express featured an article entitled 'Good guy Joe shows his brotherly love'. It was very accurate and told the story of what had happened.
Then 'The Stage' decided to join in on the 5th January with an article 'No Joe, no show!' - it basically stated that when Mark was ill, Joe (his supposed understudy) couldn't be traced and the show had to be cancelled. They were contacted by the Haymarket Theatre and by Marina Martin Management (Joe's agent at the time) and on the 12th followed with an article entitled 'Brother Joe was no understudy to Mark'. It told the true story, but no apology was made.
Joe is a consummate professional and at this time was very upset that he was being made out to be less than that.
The Haymarket complained and Marina Martin Management threatened to sue for defamation of character. On 19th January The Stage finally apologised, in full, and ended the article with the line "We understand no attempt was made to contact him to perform on that day. We would like to apologise to Joe for our suggestions to the contrary and are pleased to take this opportunity to put the record straight."
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Joe at the Leicester Haymarket
28th December 1988
Happy with his first show under his belt!
Photography by Sam Parker
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