- The Royal Variety 2012 was the historic 100 year Centenary of the show and was staged at the Royal Albert Hall for the first time and held in the presence of HM The Queen, attending for her 39th time.
- 2012 was a landmark year for the Royal Variety Performance, it being 100 years since the show's beginnings in 1912. It was also the Queen's Diamond Jubilee year and the year that London hosted the Olympic Games.
The Royal Albert Hall was booked for the first time in the show's history and Her Majesty The Queen attended her 39th Royal Variety, accompanied by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, attending for his 27th time! The increased capacity of the Albert Hall (twice that of the London Palladium) meant it would be a good year for the charity and together with the venue's grand opulence, all agreed that it would provide the perfect setting for the show's very special, Centenary Performance.
The Mansfield Cooper partnership was now in full swing, but the technical misfortunes of the previous year in Manchester were still at the back of everyone's minds and the Albert Hall was not without its challenges! Not built as a theatre and with very little backstage facilities, the show presented many obstacles for the production team to overcome. No curtains meant set changes would be difficult and where to house a cast of over 200 performers, with numerous sets, sound equipment and props, added to the challenge to make this the show's 100th year, extra special.
The venue was booked for an entire week to allow for numerous technical and artist rehearsals. The University buildings behind the Hall were hired for dressing room and storage facilities (with a security tunnel linking to the Hall's backstage area). The orchestra were placed on a platform suspended from the ceiling of the venue! Two levels of staging were built to allow presenters and comedians to provide 'links' from the upper level, whilst sets were changed in darkness on the lower level. Huge video screens were installed to enable the showing of clips from previous 'royal shows' over the previous 100 years.
The international cast was one of the most spectacular ever presented.
David Walliams was chosen as the primary host and was assisted during the night by various others including Bradley Walsh and Amanda Holden. It was also decided that another nice celebratory addition would be to allow the odd introductory segments to previous hosting legends of the Royal Variety, which included Sir Bruce Forsyth KBE, Jimmy Tarbuck OBE, Des O'Connor CBE and Ronnie Corbett CBE.
Her Majesty The Queen and HRH The Duke of Edinburgh were welcomed to the Albert Hall by Laurie Mansfield and Giles Cooper and were presented with a bouquet & show programme from Cooper's children (Rory aged 9, and Heather aged 7). Their Majesties were given a hugely warm welcome on entering the Royal Box and after the playing of the National Anthem, there followed a spectacular entrance by David Walliams - suspended by a 'zip wire' Walliams descended to the stage to the music of the James Bond theme tune - referring to the fantastically popular 'Bond intro' to the London's Olympic Games 'Opening Ceremony' - only 2 months previously.
The show began with Girls Aloud featuring Cheryl Cole, who specially reformed for the night, after which followed an incredible celebration of the TV talent show, Britain's Got Talent, which included street dance group Diversity, gymnasts Spelbound, singer Paul Potts and the ever popular Stavros Flatley and his son.
With only just over a year since winning X-Factor, the huge rise to international fame of One Direction was celebrated with their first-ever performance on the Royal Variety Performance. The boys entered by walking to the stage through the stalls, much to the delight and screams of female members of the audience!
More comedy came from the fantastic Welsh comedian Rhod Gilbert and cross-over act Alan Carr, but it was Bill Bailey and his 'orchestra of car horns' that provided a real highlight.
More pop music came from the ever-lovely Australian pop princess, Kylie Minogue and from the United States, Alicia Keys delivered a beautiful rendition at the piano of her huge hit ' New York'.
Classical music was represented too with an abundance of gold stars, in the form of Katherine Jenkins performing a duet with Placido Domingo, China's Three Tenors and the incredible Andrea Bocelli.
West-End musicals were represented by Heather Headley singing 'I Will Always Love You' from the Bodyguard, together with the lovely cast of Matilda.
Robbie Williams headlined the first half, providing fantastic performances of hits from his new album 'Take the Crown.' A nod to the career of his crooning father.
Britain's Got Talent 2012 winners Ashleigh and Pudsey, the Ballet Revolucion and Circus Space gave the show real variety in its truest form and the evening was rounded off by amazing performances from music legends Rod Stewart and Neil Diamond.
The finale was probably one of the most memorable with the entire cast joining Neil Diamond for a rendition of Sweet Caroline.
The 100th anniversary evening was celebrated in style with the majority of the cast at a further fundraising event at a lavish aftershow banquet at the Hilton Hotel in London's Park Lane. The entire evening raised an incredible £740,000 for the Royal Charity.
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