Two plays, two characters and two views of “Life Upon the Wicked Victorian Stage”;

At the Savoy Theatre just before awards night Adam, the longest serving member of the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company is rehearsing a few G&S songs and an acceptance speech. Meanwhile, over at the Oxford Music Hall Nelly Power, male impersonator and darling of the tabloids is planning her revenge on Marie Lloyd, the new kid on the Music Hall block.

Adam and Nelly both have lives more dramatic offstage than on. In the 19th century they’d be called melodramas. In 2023 – they are classic soap operas involving betrayal, discrimination, domestic violence and press intrusion. This double bill is an irreverent, sideways look at some of the most enduring names of the Victorian theatre. It’s not quite the “Good old Days”, though – more “Eastenders” or “Ripper Street”. With songs.