Happy Days are here again or rather will be here in May when the tour based on the hit TV series of the 70s featuring the unforgettable King of Cool Arthur ‘The Fonz’ Fonzerelli, the Cunninghams and the rest of the gang including Pinky Tuscadero, Potsie, Ralph Malph, Joanie and Chachi battle to save their beloved Arnold’s Diner from demolition at the King’s Theatre.
Written by Garry Marshall, the show includes 21 original songs by Oscar, Grammy and Golden Globe award winning Hall of Fame songwriter Paul Williams plus of course the much loved Happy Days theme song.
Yesterday the Edinburgh Reporter joined a specially invited audience at the refurbished King’s to view the launch of the show.
Several of the cast took part in a question and answer session compered by Chief Executive of the Festival City Theatres Trust Duncan Hendry including producer Amy Anzel who explained to the audience how the tour was organised and how she ambushed Henry Winkler live in Chanel 4 and ‘persuaded’ him to lend his support.
Former Emmerdale star Ben Freeman who plays the Fonz then performed ‘Snap’, the opening song before former Sugarbabe and Atomic Kitten Heidi Range who plays Pinky Tuscadero sang ‘Legend in Leather.’
The group were then joined on stage by the legendry Cheryl Baker of Buck’s Fizz fame and Emma Harold and the three ladies performed ‘What I dreamed last night,’ culminating with Cheryl ripping her skirt off just as she did in ‘Making your mind up’ all those years ago to the delight of the audience who roared their approval.
Ben and the girls then insisted that Edinburgh will be the highlight of the tour with Heidi in particular looking forward to checking out the sights with her Pug Betty, whilst Cheryl will be bringing her family up for the week.
Afterwards Ben Freeman aka Arthur ‘The Fonz’ Fonzerelli spoke to the Edinburgh Reporter about the show. He said: “I was very much aware of Happy Days; I used to watch the reruns when I was growing up on Fridays and Saturday nights. It was a great escape from my life at the time.
“It’s a really wonderful show that has stood the test of time and people still talk about it now and that’s the beauty of it is and specifically the part of the Fonz.
“People who have never seen Happy Days know about the Fonz who is synonymous with the word ‘cool’ and even now kids to the thumbs up and say ‘Heyyyyy’ and they probably don’t know where that has come from but it has filtered through four or five generations.
“It’s so iconic and what he stood for which is being comfortable within yourself and being confident with a high moral standing and having values.
“What I really liked about the Fonz was, Yes the women loved him and used to swoon around him and with a click of his fingers they would come running and I suppose that could be seen as slightly chauvinistic in this day and age but the fact is that he was always incredibly respectful around people. He always called Mrs Cunningham Mrs Cunningham and he was very very polite to her. She was like a mother to him and he had a lot of time for her and listened to her advice, and he is a really good role model actually and the more I looked into him, the more I realised that and I just love the character and feel honoured to play him on stage.”
Although Ben wasn’t around when the show was at it’s peak in the seventies, he has had some expert advice from the great man himself. He continued: “I had lots of advice from Henry (Winkler). He’s a really lovely man and I have his phone number and feel very honoured to have had lots of one to one acting sessions with him and who better to have a workshop with than the guy that created the Fonz?
“He actually created the character from scratch, it was his idea. Every little thing that he used to do such as the jacket, the thumbs up, never actually brushing his hair. He never combed it once, he would go to comb it and then go ‘as if? it’s already perfect.’ It’s so clever what he did and that’s why it has stood the test of time. There was a lot of thought went into that character and it went against a lot of standards at that time.
“The main advice he gave me was to play the truth and play the drama. Don’t just assume that the character is based on gimmicky things because it’s not. There is a reason behind all of those things and he told me they didn’t give him many words to say as he was dyslexic and couldn’t read the scripts.
“He was never a character that played for laughs. He was naturally funny because he was quite geeky but he was confident in himself and to him he was deadly serious when he was doing it. There was an episode when he sung and he played it with such honest and integrity that it was funny because of that and I think that is important.”
The show is currently playing in Glasgow but returns back north of the Border between Monday 12th and Saturday 17th May at Edinburgh’s King’s Theatre, something that Ben and the cast are all looking forward to.
He said: “I’ve done a couple of shows up on Scotland and I’ve always looked forward to coming here because the audiences are so receptive and lovely and they really love shows and love musicals and really support them. I’ve done Dreamboats and Petticoats at the Playhouse during the Festival. This tour does Glasgow Edinburgh and Aberdeen which is great.
“This show contains all new songs which are written by Paul Williams who wrote a lot of the songs back in the sixties. The Happy Days song does feature as well but cleverly at the end and also in the score as well.
“They are brilliant well crafted pop sons and once the show has been running a bit longer they will get better known and stick in your head.
“The show is based around Arnold’s Diner which we all love and it comes under threat but there are many other side plots.
“The audiences are mainly 40s and upwards although we do see a lot of wide eyed teenagers in the front row and they absolutely love it.”
Anyone looking to go to this hilarious feel-good musical which is guaranteed to have you ‘rocking and rolling all week long’ should book early to avoid disappointment.
Premier seats from £34.50 – £31.50. General tickets £32.50 – £18
Friends 2 for 1 Opening Night or 20% off other performances.
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
