Saturday, November 28, 2009

 TICKLED PINK BY THE THEATRE MONKEY


I am tickled pink! A friend has had his first book published.  It’s not a novel, it is a ‘guide’.   My attention was drawn to this delightful phenomenon when I heard a non-sexy BBC radio 4 discussion on ‘You and Yours’ on Friday 27th November, 2009, about London Theatre land, (London U.K that is). It can be picked up again on the BBC ‘Play it Again’ feature, for another five days or so.

I was in my car. Actually, I had just parked and was about to hop out and get into a shop, when I heard two people whinging about poor theatre seat positioning and structural problems with some views,  plus changes to seating arrangements which were unexpected, and so on, when a most useful site to help overcome such difficulties, was mentioned.

www.theatremoneky.com  “Wow!” I know that site, its developer and mainstay. I knew it in its infancy, many years ago, when it was no more than a page of words. The baby has since grown into a great, dynamic well performing international website.


Once home, I emailed my friend.  Mine was one of a clutch of similar emails he had received. Since then, I have purchased two copies of his book, Theatremonkey, by Steve Rich, to gift as presents to people I know, who would be able to get lots of benefit from it. It’s available by mail order at The book Depository (www.bookdepository.com) or Amazon.  If you are in the area, there’s also a theatre shop in Monmouth Street London W1. where the book can be found. I think the name of the shop will be on Steve’s site www.Theatremonkey.com

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's always good to see people who've done things like this!
I know a couple of regular theatre goers who will be interested in this book. Flighty xx

ZACL said...

Hello Mr F

Your thoughts were exactly mine, too. One thing I didn't mention was that there is information on buying seats at competitive prices and some guidance on obtaining free seats.

Steve has worked assiduously on developing the site, for years, also fending off the usual plagiarism, would you believe, quite a bit of it from other countries. A type of flattery I suppose but not a helpful one.

When in London and seeking out theatre tickets, I never used Steve's expertise because of personal friendship, and not wanting to use and abuse, as so often happens. I shall have to review my ethics!! :)

I am very chuffed with this development.