West End Quotes

• The City seems so much more in earnest: its business, its rush, its roar are such serious things, sights and sounds. The City is getting its living - the West-End but enjoying its pleasure.

  Charlotte Bronte

  Sight, Cities, Sound

  Charlotte Bronte (2016). “Villette”, p.49, Xist Publishing

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• There's something about doing theatre in London - it sinks a little bit deeper into your soul as an actor. It's something about the tradition of theatre, about performing on the West End stage.

  Christian Slater

  Soul, Theatre, Littles

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• But I remember the morning after The Mask of Virtue-which is the first play I did at the West End-that some critics saw fit to be as foolish as to say that I was a great actress. And I thought, that was a foolish, wicked thing to say, because it put such an onus and such a responsibility onto me, which I simply wasn't able to carry. And it took me years to learn enough to live up to what they said-for those first notices. I find it so stupid. I remember the critic very well, and have never forgiven him.

  Vivien Leigh

  Morning, Stupid, Responsibility

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• My dad took me for an audition once, to show me, OK, you want to be a child actor, this is what its like. I sang a folk song about donkeys on this West End stage with this big director, and there was a queue of 200 girls all singing Memory. I was terrible. Terrible.

  Emilia Clarke

  Girl, Song, Children

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• The great thing about London is the little pockets of culture, like Hackney, which has its panto and its great community. Of course there's also the West End with its brilliant theatres and thriving tourism but to also have areas like Hackney which are so community based but not exclusive, that remind you that those surrounding you are the most important, is what makes London what it is.

  Clive Rowe

  Community, Important, Theatre

  Interview with Ryan Ormonde, www.londoncalling.com. November 21, 2015.

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• People apply for a job, are asked to work for three or four weeks on probation and are then told to go and are replaced by colleagues. There are shops even in the West End [of London] using large numbers of totally unpaid staff on a permanent basis.

  Jeremy Corbyn

  Jobs, Numbers, People

  "Column 856". Daily Hansard - Debate, publications.parliament.uk. March 19, 2013.

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• I signed up for the musical Tommy in the West End, where I met my husband.

  Kim Wilde

  Husband, Musical, West

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• I’ve loved the whole process. From previews to rehearsals, I’m in the best company. I’ve done one West End show before this but the excitement here…it’s incredible. It’s been a real education working on this, I don’t feel worthy. The role is over the top, bold and ridiculous.

  Rupert Grint

  Real, Roles, Done

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• The old actors in the old days, they used to go on tour, to get the play ready for the West End, and to learn their lines. The old timers used to say, "Be very careful, dear boy, what you get in to during the first weeks of a long tour."

  Tom Courtenay

  Boys, Play, Long

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• Parliament is the longest running farce in the West End.

  Cyril Smith

  Running, Farce, West

  On the House of Commons, in 'Big Cyril' (1977) ch. 8

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• Money's never an issue. I can go and work for a small studio theatre somewhere if it's a play I really care about, or do TV or a big commercial West End show.

  Conleth Hill

  Issues, Play, Theatre

  "Hill's alive with the sound of music" by Liz Hoggard, www.theguardian.com. November 14, 2004.

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• When I look around at Broadway and the West End, theatre is becoming an exclusive club.

  Kevin Spacey

  Theatre, Looks, Broadway

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• When West End Girls came out on import, I was a student at Liverpool University. I'd go to a club in Liverpool and it would come on, and I'd be really embarrassed.

  Chris Lowe

  Girl, Clubs, West

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• I think the most fun I ever had was playing King Arthur in Spamalot on the West End.

  Alan Dale

  Kings, Fun, Thinking

  "Alan Dale: The Nicest Bad Guy in The Biz". Interview with Jarett Wieselman, www.etonline.com. February 6, 2013.

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• My school music teacher, Al Bennest, introduced me to jazz by playing Louis Armstrong's record of "West End Blues" for me. I found more jazz on the radio, and began looking for records. My paper route money, and later, money I earned working after school in a print shop and a butcher shop went toward buying jazz records. I taught myself the alto saxophone and the drums in order to play in my high school dance band.

  Bill Crow

  Teacher, School, Order

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• Every movie I get involved with I get involved in as big a level as I possibly can, but this has been a very much more personal journey for me, so bringing it here tonight there's a sense of relief, there's a sense of just amazement that got here... because it's been a struggle. But this is a good way to launch it and there couldn't be a better way of celebrating this movie than bringing it to the West End.

  Daniel Craig

  Struggle, Journey, Relief

  "Flashbacks Of A Fool - Daniel Craig interview". Interview with Rob Carnevale, www.indielondon.co.uk.

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• As I look around the West End these days, it seems to me that outside every thin girl is a fat man, trying to get in.

  Katharine Whitehorn

  Girl, Men, Trying

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• I quite enjoy fame, especially when you go to conventions in America where they treat you like a god with stretch limos and the whole fame thing, but then when you come back to Britain, you end up changing in a toilet in a theatre off West End and that's really good, because that is what it's about.

  Sylvester McCoy

  America, Theatre, Limos

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• At an age when most youngsters are preparing for their GCSEs, I was suddenly a jet-setter, briefly the toast of Hollywood and London's West End. My immature wishes and naive opinions were treated with respect.

  Jack Wild

  Immature, Wish, Age

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• I first came to London as a musician, and when my group broke up, I did 'Guys and Dolls' at the Watford Palace theatre. After that, Ned Sherrin found me and brought me to the West End to do one of his shows. The work went from strength to strength, so I thought: 'This is where the world wants me; I'll stay.

  Clarke Peters

  Guy, Theatre, Musician

  "Clarke Peters: 'Lester Freamon's the guy I'd like to grow up to be'". Interview with om Lamont, www.theguardian.com. September 18, 2010.

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• Luckily, West End audiences seem to rather like very old people.

  Wendy Hiller

  People, West, Ends

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• But the most amazing, almost miraculous news is that the majority of the building is still intact. Due to one of the most astonishingly intelligent and professional pieces of strategy by the fire services, they succeeded in protecting the vast majority of the building, apparently by forming a human wall of firefighters up the west end of the main staircase and containing the fire.

  Muriel Gray

  Wall, Intelligent, Fire

  "Glasgow School of Art fire: 'iconic and unique library is lost'" by Kevin Rawlinson, www.theguardian.com. May 24, 2014.

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• I've had tonsilitis and I'm not sure if I can sing on Saturday [whilst out on the town in the West End]

  Leona Lewis

  West, Towns, Ends

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• New West End Company ensures that there is a body that can put significant investment into the West End, targeted directly to the needs of the area and particularly the customers. Great progress is being made to improve Oxford Street and make it a great destination.

  Philip Green

  Oxford, Progress, Needs

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• I used to have a list of things from my school buddies of what kind of art material they wanted. I'd go up to the West End of London and spend the whole day knocking stuff off.

  Ronald Biggs

  Art, School, London

  "Ronnie Biggs's best quotes while on the run" by the Press Association, www.theguardian.com. December 18, 2013.

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