Paul O’Grady ‘Sacked’ from Corrie musical for telling the truth

The spin-doctors had tried to gloss-over the fact Coronation Street’s musical Street of Dreams was more Street of Dross by suggesting it was going on hold due to popularity stating none-existent standing ovations and praise had lead to its postponement. O’Grady and many Corrie fans disagreed with that take on events and now its reported the comedian has been axed for speaking out over the problems with Street of Dreams.

Allegedly not content that O’Grady supported many of the paying punter’s views of the show, they’ve also now apparently claimed the entire production failed due to Paul ‘changing the script’. The excuses go from baffling to more bizarre.

A source at Reckless Productions (yes that is the name of the company behind it) told The Daily Star, “Paul changed the script and refused to say certain lines. He was a nightmare to work with and in the end, the first ten minutes of the play turned into the Paul O’Grady show… This is a huge production it was decided that Paul should be replaced. He didn’t take the news very well and decided to make a number of wild accusations.”

This makes no sense what-so-ever. If O’Grady had changed the script then he had an assistant in the form of Julie Carp – played by Katy Cavanagh – as ‘angel of the north’ all the way through, who could have taken the lines he didn’t wish to say to provide the continuity needed.

Show bosses at the musical suggest that his script changes left audiences at the Manchester premiere ‘bemused’. It was, according to the many who posted on ATV Today, the entire show and not just the lack of script that was the problem. Attendees to the arena gig suggested that ‘scenes were ‘just thrown together’.

The paper added that O’Grady, who shot to fame as drag act Lily Savage, accused them of not having a script in place when he was chosen to narrate the musical despite the fact it’s been three years in the making. Other complaints from the audience included Bill Roach (Ken) being heavily promoted, yet only appearing on a screen and not live on stage, Julie Goodyear (Bet) appearing for all of four-minutes, poor camera shots of the stage on the big screen for arena viewers at the back, lights blocking the screen in certain parts of the arena, sound faults, archive clips not matching the performances on stage and sets blocking the view to some seating areas.

In today’s Daily Mail, Janet Street-Porter says of Paul’s outbursts, “Paul O’Grady is a national treasure, because he doesn’t mince his words. When he describes the new musical version of Corrie he graciously hosted as `bedlam’, I believe him.  According to Paul, the script hadn’t been finished so the cast had to ad lib and the set was incomplete when the show opened in Manchester on May 9.  Unwilling to leave the talented cast (including Kym Marsh and Julie Goodyear) in the lurch, Paul acted like a trouper and stuck it out.  After poor reviews, a planned tour has been postponed for a `rethink’ – what a waste of everyone’s time”

It appears if the Daily Star is to be believed that O’Grady was dismissed earlier this week, however on his BBC Radio 2 programme broadcast last night he spoke of the musical – without naming it – but only to apologise to fans who had paid out on hotels and travel expenses which is now wasted due to the postponement and stressed the show was only ‘on hold’ and would be back at some point. He didn’t state in the pre-recorded show whether he would be returning or not however.

A former ITV executive told us that in the ‘old days’ brand protection at Granada was of paramount importance. However television management has long been replaced with businessmen and bankers leading to the company  – now known as ITVplc – being branded Greedy Granada. The Corrie musical is just the latest in a long line of money-making spin-offs for the company.

While not popular with the theatre-luvvie critics Paul O’Grady was praised for his role by the audience of Street of Dreams in posts left on ATV Today which can be seen here. On the premier night there was no standing ovation and no shouting for ‘more. Cast from the TV show left, along with audience members, at the interval and some left before the end of the finale.

Maria Brabiner, from Salford, a researcher at ATV and huge Corrie fan for over 40 years reviewed the premiere night as a ‘average joe public’ for us last week. She told us tonight that ITV’s licencing department need to take note and not just look for the big money figures.

“They assumed because it was Coronation Street the viewers would just lap it up and sit down and watch whatever was thrown at them. When people are playing a lot of money however it needs to be at least good for more than just a few minutes here and there. It was a basic attempt at exploiting the Corrie franchise once more with no quality control. The Bernstein’s [Founders of Granada TV, originators of Corrie] must be spinning in their grave.”

[Written by Don Westbury with research by Maria Brabiner]