To kick off the long weekend and as the weather is so glorious here's a "Beautiful Garden of Roses" as sung by Dorothy Ward. If you're doing a spot of gardening this weekend do share your photos. #SongSheetSaturday #MusicHall

Kicking off our Fifty@50 campaign with @grandtheatrebpl.bsky.social The stunning Grade II* theatre is now thriving, but it nearly didn't survive beyond the 1970s The Grand was the first theatre to receive a grant from us and we've supported it in various ways over the years

🎭 What secrets were hiding in the East End music halls? Discover London's forgotten Cockney Yiddish performers — the songs, laughs & stories from the turn of the 20th century. Talk by Vivi Lachs · Tues 26 May · 7pm 🎟️ buff.ly/PrRF2G5

2026 marks 50 years since Theatres Trust was founded 🎂 Over the past 50 years, hundreds of theatres have benefitted from our help, but to celebrate this anniversary year, we will be highlighting 50 of them - Fifty@50 Look out for posts starting later this week

What a fabulous day we had on Saturday. Thank you to everyone who joined in on Music Hall and Variety Day. Follow us for similar content - we're here all year, folks!

Celebrating @musichallsociety.bsky.social’s #musichallvarietyday with a trip to the seaside and doing the Blackpool Walk!

Thank you Caroline it was a fantastic & fascinating talk! Thank you for supporting #musichallvarietyday #mhvd2026

That's a wrap on #MusicHallVarietyDay 2026! 🎭✨ Thanks for joining #MHVD2026 — what a day! As Charles Whittle sang, we want to spend the holidays with you… and we'll be back same time, same place next year. Consider it a date! Follow us on Facebook, Insta & Bluesky, and check our website. 🎶

Fantastic! Really cool to see the theatre finally getting a new sign, some construction and cleaning etc being previewed on the Pier's social media recently! I understand the money hadn't been there to turn it back into a full working theatre, but it looks like things have progressed!

#MusicHallVarietyDay #MHVD2026 Max Miller hides in the bushes at Brighton 🎭

Roy Hudd doing a summer season at the Ocean Theatre, on the pier at Clacton. Also on the bill were Van Buren & Greta - here he is being levitated in Clacton! #MusicHallVarietyDay #MHVD2026 #seaside

Did Charles Coburn write in his memoirs @legmania.bsky.social about being carried piggy back across the high wire by Ella Zuila? Here they are at Crystal Palace 1899. Like a day out by the sea for Londoners back in the day. Couldn’t resist chance to get Ella in for #MusicHallVarietyDay #MHVD2026

#MHVD2026 #musichallvarietyday #SirHarryLauder Singer/Entertainer Jimmy McWilliams with Frank Skinner

What happened to Old John Johnson? Why, he's in the sea! 🌊 It features one of music hall's finest nonsense words: Tiddle-iddle-hi-ti-hi-ti-tee - and we think 'Come and Have a Drink With Me' is the only appropriate reply. 🍺 📁 BMHS Archive WHT/023 #MusicHallVarietyDay #MHVD2026 #Seaside

What are ‘that lanky likeable comedian’ Bruce Forsythe, ‘Show Business Personality of 1959, Harry Secombe’ & Glenn Melvyn up to here in Blackpool? In 1960 The Stage reported the Blackpool 30 Summer Shows would take £1.5m. How times have changed. Image: BMHS Archive #MusicHallVarietyDay #MHVD2026

🌊 Fancy a Day by the Sea? 🎭 Join us in Eastbourne next month for the British Music Hall Society’s 'Day by the Se'a at the iconic Royal Hippodrome Theatre 📅 Saturday 6 June 2026 🕘 ALL DAY entertainment 🎟️ Only £38 Book now 👉; buff.ly/eUP6dBn

Wilkie Bard’s (1874-1944) ‘She Sells Sea-Shells’, an enduring song from the Music Hall era, was first published in 1908 (the tongue-twister is older). Bard performed it in Drury Lane's pantomime ‘Dick Whittington’ (1908/09) turning it into a smash. #MusicHallVarietyDay #MHVD2026 #Seaside

Happy Music Hall and Variety Day 2026! Here to celebrate is Ada Campe riding her cabaret duck Dilys down some stairs at the beautiful Rivoli Ballroom 🦆😄💚 #adacampe #musichallvarietyday #mhvd2026

It’s #musichallvarietyday! A special day to honour Roy Hudd. Here’s ‘The British Music Hall Society Song’ composed by Entertainer Jimmy McWilliams. Performances have included ‘Day By The Sea’ at The Royal Hippodrome Theatre. Wonderful lyrics, catchy tune! #MHVD2026 @musichallsociety.bsky.social

Today is Music Hall & Variety Day Bluesky! Created to mark Roy Hudd’s birthday by @musichallsociety.bsky.social so to all my Music Hall friends and fellow fans, happy MHVD!

Where did theatrical families send their children? Often to coastal boarding schools. Here's my grandmother Norah & friends on the beach at Margate in their school gym slips - spot the boaters in the sand behind them. #MusicHallVarietyDay #MHVD2026 #Seaside Read more here: buff.ly/2TnbKmI

In 1877 Papa Cragg, using the name de Castro, bought a wooden waxworks building on South Beach, Blackpool, & opened a variety show starring his family. The season proved a gigantic failure so he took down the structure and rebuilt it inland in Leigh, Lancs! #Seaside saga. #MusicHallVarietyDay

For Roy Hudd's 90th and seaside themed #MusicHallVarietyDay #MHVD2026 a programme for 'Hudd's Here' in Scarborough (a seaside town) and an original photo for the cover! And my fav pic of me with the great man at a Dora Bryan plaque do in Brighton, also a seaside town! @musichallsociety.bsky.social

Bill Pertwee (Dad’s Army) began in concert parties and loved seaside entertainment & pierrots. That passion led him to write books celebrating Britain’s variety heritage, including 'Pertwee’s Promenades & Pierrots' (1979). 🎭 #MusicHallVarietyDay #MHVD2026 #Seaside #Pierrots

Enjoying #MusicHallVarietyDay? Why not join the British Music Hall Society? We’ve been preserving and celebrating this tradition for over 60 years - and with your help, we’ll be here for 60 more. JOIN US - britishmusichallsociety.com/join-us #MHVD2026

Did you know that comedy actor, writer & broadcaster Ronnie Barker was a collector of ‘bathing beauty items’ which included both ceramics & ephemera? A selection from that collection featured in this book - 'Pebbles on the Beach. A Pictorial Tribute to the Seaside Girl,’ pub. 1977 #MHVD2026 #Seaside

Here's a treat from Dundee Libraries to mark @musichallsociety.bsky.social #MusicHallVarietyDay #MHVD2026 Theme this year is #Seaside, so here's Olga and the Diving Norins, at Dundee's King's Theatre in March 1913. Personally I’m going to see Mascot - the "Best Educated Horse in the World"!

Today is Music Hall & Variety Day created by The British Music Hall Society in memory of Roy Hudd born #OTD This year's given theme Seaside! Here's a clip from my #TPTV series of that famous seaside song with last verse. #RoyHudd #MHVD @musichallsociety.bsky.social @talkingpicturestv.bsky.social

A message from our esteemed President #MusicHallVarietyDay #MHVD2026

“Beside the Seaside” indeed! 🌊 In 1958, George Formby was “Beside the Seaside” in A Holiday Romp at the Brighton Hippodrome, alongside Nancy Roberts, “Television’s Grandma Grove.” Image: BMHS Archive EPH/16/X/140] #MusicHallVarietyDay #MHVD2026 #Seaside

In 1934, Lawrence Wright was presenting 'On with the Show' at the North Pier Pavilion, Blackpool - with 2 performances every day. Afternoon tickets started at just 6d, while the best evening seats cost 3 shillings - around £10 in today's money. #MusicHallVarietyDay #MHVD2026 #Seaside #Blackpool

#MusicHallVarietyDay is a special day founded in 2020 to honour the legendary Roy Hudd, who served as President of the BMHS for 28 years. This day marks his birthday - 16th May 1935. Here he is onstage as Brighton's very own Max Miller at the BMHS Day by the #Seaside in 2015 #MHVD2026

Oh Johnny Don’t You Go To See.. #musichallvarietyday #MHVD2026

Today is Music Hall & Variety Day Bluesky! A lovely traditional created on Roy Hudd’s birthday by @musichallsociety.bsky.social Today’s given theme Seaside. Here’s ’You Can Do A lot of Things At The Seaside’ #MHVD #MusicSky #RoyHudd

In celebration of Music Hall & Variety Day we have recreated our feature on The Finsbury Park Empire from our Music Hall display last year. We are running another event in the Autumn, watch this space to find out more! #MusicHallVarietyDay #MHVD2026 www.thelondonarchives.org/the-finsbury...

Harry Gold (1866–1946) ran a troupe of entertainers in Margate from as early as 1903, remaining a seaside favourite until 1939. This image is from our Billy Wells Collection - Billy Wells (1910–1990), once part of Gold’s troupe, became one of Britain’s best-loved female impersonators & panto dames.

Today we’re celebrating Music Hall & Variety Day with @musichallsociety.bsky.social These uniquely British forms of entertainment began in the 1850s, and flourished until the 1960s. Let’s take a look at their history… 1/🧵

"I Wouldn't Leave My Little Wooden Hut For You" was a hit for my great-aunt Daisy Dormer way back in 1905 - and it was still doing the rounds as a postcard catchphrase in 1931! Here's a little about the song & the seaside humour it inspired... #MusicHallVarietyDay #MHVD2026 #Seaside buff.ly/VuAZF4b

In keeping with this year's #seaside theme, we're celebrating #MusicHallVarietyDay with some postcards from our archives 🏖️ Do you recognise any of these historic coastal variety theatres? 📸 : Alan Richardson Collection #MHVD2026 #HistoricTheatre

#MusicHallVarietyDay seaside theme. Telling the story of acrobats Emile and Nellie Pillout. To start the Max Cawellys at the Casino de la Rue Bossu Cannes 1906. Postcard of troupe from same era. Little Emile holding sister Nellie’s hand. Cannes maybe not traditional seaside, but hey. #MHVD2026

Here's my drawing of music hall comedian Mark Sheridan. I'll be singing his most famous song at next week's Funny Rabbit Comedy Club But can you name it? Posting this in advance of tomorrow's Music Hall & Variety Day 2026. Tiddly-om-pom-pom!

In 1899, Vesta Tilley, a woman performing as a "Johnnie about town", sang Harry B Norris's "Seaside Girls": "There's Maud and Clara, Gwendoline and Sarah - where do they come from? Those girls, dear girls, those lovely #seaside girls." James Joyce referenced it in Ulysses as a motif of temptation.

We have an ONLINE talk today at 3pm by Caroline Hall about the introduction of RAGTIME to the UK and the role of Bert Feldman. It’s not too late to book - booking closes at 2pm #MusicHallVarietyDay #MHVD2026 BOOK YOUR PLACE HERE: www.ticketsource.com/britishmusic...

It's our 7th #MusicHallVarietyDay! 🎭 Celebrate all things Music Hall & Variety — share your photos, posters, postcards and stories. This year's theme is #Seaside 🌊 but feel free to post anything Music Hall related. Join in and help keep this history alive! #MHVD2026

Looking forward to the annual Music Hall and Variety Day tomorrow from our good friends at British Music Hall Society: Home of Music Hall & Variety This year's theme is seaside - just what we need to cheer us up on a drab rainy weekend. #MHVD2026 #MusicHallVarietyDay

Music Hall and Variety Day is just one day away! We can't wait to join you all at the seaside. Don't forget to share your own Music Hall and Variety themed seaside memories and memorabilia. #MHVD2026 #musichallvarietyday

🎭 What secrets were hiding in the East End music halls? Discover London's forgotten Cockney Yiddish performers — the songs, laughs & stories from the turn of the 20th century. Talk by Vivi Lachs · Tues 26 May · 7pm 🎟️ buff.ly/PrRF2G5

How did RAGTIME conquer Britain? Join us online for our next talk as we explore Bert Feldman's role in bringing this electrifying American sound to UK shores. Saturday 16 May, 3pm | £3 | All welcome 🎟️ www.ticketsource.com/britishmusic... #MusicHallVarietyDay #MHVD2026

In case you missed it, wonderful Archives Hub feature by the @musichallsociety.bsky.social Archive! Mimicry, music and magic: an introduction to the British Music Hall Society archive: blog.archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/2026/03/26/m... #britishmusichallsociety #Archives #BMHS

The theme for Music Hall & Variety Day 2026 is #Seaside. Please share your stories and pictures, and tag us in. 16th May is our day to show off to a much wider audience. Don't forget to use the magic hashtags: #MHVD2026 & #MusicHallVarietyDay See you on the beach!! #musichallmonday #musichall