Onboard Entertainment

[Ditchys]

We have never cruised before and are looking forward to the Ventura inAugust 2008, can anyony tell us how we can find out who the key entertainers will be on board, and indeed who currently perform on the P&O ships........

 

Thanks

Chris:)

[Vampire Parrot]

The "theatre company", i.e. the performers for the main shows, are typically together for about 9 months on a P&O ship. After the 9 months, they then all go their own way...

 

Before the 9 months performing on a ship, they will have been together for several months, learning and rehersing the various shows they will be performing. And before rehersals start, the cast members will have been auditioned and selected just as if they were going to work in any theatre.

 

So, working backwards : the Ventura goes into service in April, so rehersals for the shows will start in, let's say, January. Auditions and selection for that may already have started... but maybe not. So, at the moment, I would guess that no one yet knows who the theatre company are going to be.

[The Monocled Mutineer]

There are also guest "star" entertainers on or all or part of a cruise.

 

These have steadily got worse over the years

[Pontius Navigator]

The performers can be awesome.

 

Typically about 12 and a truely international cast. It was impossible to identify their nationalities although on ourlast cruise one feature was a dead give away. The Cossack dance was truely awesome and exactly as you will have seen the Red Army perform.

 

On the same show there was an American and an English singer, the lead singer was oriental but British. An acrobat pair were, I think, Australian, and so on.

 

Although there are singers and there are dancers each often crosses over to do a bit of dancing or a bit of singing. Their show Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was superb.

 

The Venturer, as a brand new ship, can be expected to had a fully mobile stage with elevation of platforms, a rotating stage, moving sets etc. The mind boggles how it is all crammed in.

[mufi]

It is some years since I sailed with P&O, but can remember a voilinist called Gary Loveni (sp.) I wonder if he is still with them.

 

David.

[jo-b]

Mufi

 

Yes he is and we are told he does a great show.

 

We're usually so late out of dinner that we rarely get to the show :(

 

.....but then you get more time in the bar!:)