TO the Glasgow Herald’s drama critic in October 1956, George Formby was making an “altogether welcome” return to the stage when he starred in Too Young to Marry, at the King’s Theatre, even if he was reappearing “with some of the solemnity of an elder statesman. Song and dance are past, or nearly past; Mr Formby now favours the more sedate vehicle of domestic farce.”There were, however, times when the play’s progress was so stately that one had time to admire “…the Scots accents of the players (the piece is most flatteringly presented as imitation Scottish kitchen comedy).”
Formby, pictured here with his wife, Beryl, had enjoyed a remarkable showbusiness career. To quote the George Formby Society website, between his debut in 1921 and his death in 1961, he appeared in 21 hit films, made over 230 records, made hundreds of stage performances, appeared in two Royal Command performances, and entertained some three million Allied service personnel during the war. David Bret’s book, George Formby: An Intimate Biography of the Troubled Genius, says that Too Young to Marry toured spasmodically between September 1955 and November 1956, “though for once not always to packed audiences and to generally poor reviews.” Several performances were recorded and ended up on bootleg tapes, “notably the one in Glasgow, where George was booed on account of his dreadful Scottish accent.”
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