“And you daren’t look behind”
Following a sell-out season at London’s Donmar Warehouse, the late Kevin Elyot’s play, My Night With Reg, transferred to the Apollo Theatre for a limited run at the weekend. (Saturday January 17th – Saturday April 11th 2015)
The new poster, unveiled last week, features actor Lewis Reeves with nothing to cover his modesty aside from a vinyl copy of the Ziggy Stardust album.
The image passed Advertising Standards Authority restrictions but the London Evening Standard reported that Transport For London (TFL) won’t allow it on the Underground. Here’s a bit from the Standard piece…
Last October posters for Shakespeare’s Globe’s ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore, which featured a couple embracing, were also banned as it broke rules banning “nude or semi-nude figures in an overtly sexual context”, but Reeves is presumably merely listening to some David Bowie, not what most people would categorise as an “overtly sexual act”. So why the ban?
A press officer for TFL hadn’t seen the ad but “if it has been rejected it means that it doesn’t meet the guidance that we have set.”
However, further investigations have proved that the poster is indeed all over Zone 1 of the London Underground, albeit in the smaller framed rows of adverts on escalators.
Either way, the resultant publicity won’t have harmed ticket sales, not that they need any help. Check out the Donmar Warehouse page for booking information, and more regarding the play, including cast pictures.
FOOTNOTE: Eagle-eyed pedants (i.e. the person writing this), may note that, even though the play is set in the summer of 1985, the version of Ziggy Stardust being held by a cast member in one of the onstage shots (scroll images), is in fact the 1990 reissue which obviously didn’t exist in 1985. Yeah yeah… some people have too much time on their hands!