Tuesday 8th of September 2009
A Broadway bingo bonanza?
Could bingo be starring on Broadway in the coming months?
It may sound far-fetched, but the game has already established itself as one of the hottest tickets in the British drama scene thanks to a couple of innovative productions.
Later this month, Strictly Bingo will give a taste of the thrills and spills of live bingo games to theatregoers at Hackney Empire, London.
The comedy drama scheduled to take place on Friday, September 25th 2009 and Saturday, September 26th recreates a night at the bingo in a venue that ironically used to be a bingo hall.
Despite starting out as a theatre, Hackney Empire was converted into a bingo hall in 1963 when the new owners installed tables at the back of the stalls and hired a bingo caller to read out numbers onstage.
The bingo era lasted two full decades before Hackney Empire was turned back into a theatre and now it is staging a celebration of bingo and the indefatigable spirit of bingo players.
As one character says during proceedings, "If you come, you come to play. If you play, you play to win. 'Cos winning is everything."
Free bingo 'gets theatregoers in the mood'
It comes hot on the heels of Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre's recent bingo-themed production, entitled Everybody Loves a Winner.
The theatre actually organised a real free bingo game for audience members as part of proceedings and the lucky winner got to take home substantial cash prizes.
Neil Bartlett, writer of Everybody Loves a Winner, researched his latest play by taking part in online bingo and bingo club nights for a full year before picking up his pen.
"We don't just want you to know how it works we want you to know how it feels," he explained at the time.
"So you're not watching a bingo hall from the outside, you're in the bingo hall with its regulars."
Bingo is one of the nation's most popular pastimes so perhaps it's little wonder that playwrights are finally taking notice.
But after conquering London and Manchester, surely the next logical step is for bingo to star on Broadway.
