Wyndham’s theatre, London Grant brings shock-haired vigour as a vain novelist forced to welcome his boho children’s surprise guests in comedy of clipped social embarrassment Hay Fever, now one of Noël Coward’s best-known and most-performed works, hasn’t always been a smash hit. British critics who found its West End debut in 1925 amusing enough nevertheless noted its lack of plot, and the first Broadway production was a flop. A critic for Vogue called it “funny in places”, which sounds like the kind of stinging putdown you’d expect from the playwright’s own hand. A century of performances have proved the play’s lasting power, but its comic effect has always lain less in the words as written than their delivery – it is, after all, about a family that is “artificial to the point of lunacy”. At their centre is diva Judith Bliss, who has retired from the stage to take up the role of country hostess. When she, her husband and their self-consciously bohemian childre...
Format to be tested in last quarter of year after chain’s value cut by a third amid ‘intense strains’ on hospitality industry
Pret a Manger is finally caving in to competition from supermarkets by launching meal deals, after the value of the chain was slashed by a third amid “intense strains” on the hospitality industry.
The sandwich and coffee chain said it intends to test the meal deal format in the last quarter of this year, as a medium-term strategy to grow the Pret brand and return to sustainable profits. It did not say how much the meal deals will cost.
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