A celebration of women is how singing and stage star Toyah Willcox describes Hormonal Housewives, which is proving a smash-hit in UK theatres.
The show is written by husband and wife team Julie Coombe and John McIsaac and the Spring tour sees them cover 67 theatres with the Wycombe Swan as the last stop.
The pop icon stars in the comedy alongside writer Julie, and former Hollyoaks actress Sarah Jane Buckley. Toyah said: “We play ourselves and it is a celebration of women and we talk to the audience. It is naughty comedy and Chaucerian.”
• Continue reading at the Maidenhead Advertiser.
Trevor Bolder, best known for being David Bowie’s bassist during the legendary Ziggy Stardust era, died on Tuesday.
“Trevor was a wonderful musician and a major inspiration for whichever band he was working with. But he was foremostly a tremendous guy, a great man”, Bowie wrote on his official website.
Toyah, a huge David Bowie and Ziggy fan, also paid tribute to Trevor, via Twitter, yesterday. The tribute, along with others from Bowie, Pete Wylie, Gary Kemp and more was included in a Hot Press news report yesterday.
• Visit the Hot Press website to read all the tributes to Trevor.
Exploring the joys of being a woman
Women of a certain age, with a handful of men in tow, turned out in force for Hormonal Housewives at the Palace Theatre, Newark, on Saturday and had a belly full of laughs.
The show, written by John McIsaac and Julie Coombe, saw her, Toyah Willcox and Sarah Jane Buckley, dress in pink outfits to talk about what makes them tick and what annoys them in life.
All three women, including Toyah on a pair of pink crutches, were hilarious from start to finish and did not mind poking fun at themselves as well as each other.
• Continue reading at the Newark Advertiser.
Monday’s Hormonal Housewives show at the Bristol Hippodrome has been reviewed by The Post.
REVIEW: Hormonal Housewives,
Bristol Hippodrome, 9/10
The new Hormonal Housewives show has played at the Bristol Hippodrome following on from successful tours in the past two years.
Toyah Willcox, Julie Coombe and Sarah Jane Buckley star in the show written by husband and wife team Julie Coombe and John MacIsaac.
The girls strode onto the stage to Queen’s hit, I Want To Break Free and definitely spent the next hour or two doing just that.
• Continue reading at The Post/This is Bristol.
One of the great things about punk is that it can be as individual as you are. An all incorporating look, you can do anything you want with your punk look. Need inspiration? Here are my favorite first ladies of punk:
Toyah Willcox: One of alternative fashions true style chameleons, You just didn’t know what Toyah would be wearing next! Bold and brash she did her own thing with her wardrobe. ‘Outlandish’ was the word Toyah Willcox and her style statement making costumes.
• The Guardian: Music Festivals Guide 2013
Information and lineups for the UK’s best family festivals
Upton Music Festival: When: 23-25 August, Where: Upton-upon-Severn, Worcestershire, What: Local acts and retro stars, Who: Slade, the Troggs, Toyah Willcox, the Wurzels, How much: Weekend camping £67.50, teen (13-17) £20.
• UK Festival Guides: Tatton Park Special Guests Announced
Three very special guests have just been announced for this year’s Tatton Park Picnic Concerts 2013. In what is lining up to be a truly spectacular night, 80’s superstars Howard Jones and Toyah Willcox will be joining Saturday’s headliners The Human League.
• Indie London: Tatton Park Picnic Concerts 2013: Howard Jones, Toyah Willcox and Amore to support
Howard Jones and Toyah Willcox will be joining Saturday’s headliners The Human League at the Tatton Park Picnic Concerts 2013.
A new interview with Toyah, published on Wednesday, by the St Albans & Harpenden Review.
Toyah Willcox can’t remember a time when she wasn’t going through some emotional crisis, which makes her the perfect star for Hormonal Housewives, coming to the Alban Arena
Few could ever describe Toyah Willcox as a shrinking violet. The former princess of pop punk has always been a rebel – as a teen she hung out with the local Hells Angels chapter, dyed her hair “every colour of the rainbow“ and often skipped her classes at her private school.
Could it have been the hormones? “As far as I can remember I have always been hormonal, and I can remember being hormonal in my pram,“ says Toyah, 54, who is coming to St Albans as the star of Hormonal Housewives.
• Continue reading at the St Albans & Harpenden Review.
British singer Toyah Willcox has taken aim at the Hollywood stars who donned punk-inspired outfits for this year’s (13) Costume Institute Gala in New York on Monday (06 May 13), calling their faux rocker outfits “too manufactured”.
Anne Hathaway, Miley Cyrus and Sienna Miller were among the glamorous A-listers who tackled the evening’s punk theme in studded garments and dramatic make-up at fashion’s biggest night, also known as the Met Ball.
But Willcox, who found fame just as the punk movement took off in the 1970s, is adamant their designer gowns missed the mark since punk style was all about do-it-yourself creations made with little to no money.
In a column for Britain’s The Sun, she writes, “As the Met Ball celebrated and adorned itself with super-rich guests dressed in mandatory punk theme, A-listers arrived in their saccharin designer versions of punk chic. The A-listers at the ball… were all too manufactured. But here in the U.K. the punk movement has a far more working class power – a power for me that could never be mimicked by designer labels…”
• Continue reading at The Express. Also at Contact Music, New!, Orange News and OK!, among others!
• Jubilee: A rare-ish photo of Jordan and Toyah was recently listed on Ebay.
• Stamford Advocate: The Original Punks: Circa 1980: British actress and pop singer Toyah Willcox, lead singer of the punk band Toyah.
• Chester Chronicle: Toyah Willcox stars in Hormonal Housewives at Crewe’s Lyceum Theatre: There was the feisty, whip-cracking heroine of Calamity Jane, then a femme fatale devil in high-heeled boots in Vampire’s Rock. Now Toyah Willcox is one of a trio of ‘hormonal housewives’ in the show of the same name which visits Crewe’s Lyceum Theatre next week.
• The Mirror: Trending Today: Toyah Willcox · Robert Fripp · Richard Hammond · Harry Potter · Rod Stewart.
• Twitter: Toyah tweeted earlier today that the Autumn tour dates will be announced very, very soon – London, Manchester, Bristol, Newcastle, Wolverhampton, Brighton and more.
• This is Lincolnshire: Housewives get personal about all things female: The Hormonal Housewives are back on stage and in discussion, getting up close and humorously personal about all things female, with their spring national tour.
• Daily Track: Toyah was the “daily track” for four days running this week … ‘It’s A Mystery’, ‘Thunder In The Mountains’, ‘Danced’, and ending with ‘I Want To Be Free’ on Tuesday.
• Worcester News: Win a pair of tickets to see Hormonal Housewives at Chelmsford Civic Theatre!
6. Toyah Willcox
Famed for her ever-changing hair colour, dramatic make-up and outlandish outfits, singer, songwriter and actress Toyah Willcox scored several chart hits in the 70s and 80s, and starred in Jubilee, one of the most influential punk-inspired movies.
• Visit MSN to view the feature.
A new interview with Toyah, published by the Hereford Times on Friday.
A great night out in prospect at The Courtyard as Toyah Willcox stars in Hormonal Housewives
Think of Toyah Willcox and “housewife” isn’t a word that immediately springs to mind – punk princess, yes, award-winning actress, certainly – but she’s currently relishing the role as she plays one of the eponymous Hormonal Housewives of Julie Coombe and John McIsaac’s hugely successful show, which arrives at The Courtyard in Hereford on Wednesday, May 15.
“I took the part because it’s a very funny script and I adore doing comedy,” she says. “Before this the only comedy I’d done was Shakespeare and Arthur Smith, which is very different.
It’s a genre I really love, and this show delivers a laugh at least every five lines. It’s one of the most outrageous pieces of theatre, very very naughty, but with a big smile on its face.”
• Continue reading at the Hereford Times.
A review of Hormonal Housewives, published by the Manchester Evening News on Friday.
Hormonal Housewives at Palace Theatre: Girl power as strong as ever
Denise Evans laughs along with everyone as she enjoys Hormonal Housewives at Palace Theatre
The Spice Girls’ hit Wannabe blasts out to warm up the audience before the show. Who better than the girlband that reinvigorated the girl power movement to start off a play which firmly puts men in their place.
For the handful of men braving a spot in the audience the constant put-downs and snide remarks made it a squirm- a-second experience they had no choice but to laugh along with.
• Continue reading at the Manchester Evening News.
A rather prickly new Toyah interview, published yesterday by the Oxford Mail.
Katherine MaCalister talks to punk priestess Toyah Willcox about her latest incarnation as an hormonal housewife
Toyah Willcox has made a career out of being prickly, so I was prepared for the punk priestess and her lashing tongue, ready even, willing. But on the morning in question, she was particularly abrasive.
So where to start? “Let’s just talk about the play,” she says. Right, the play, I think rifling through my legions of notes on her legendary career…
• Continue reading at the Oxford Mail.
… when she comes to Swindon
Punk princess of the 1980s Toyah Willcox is now trying her hand at stand-up comedy. This spring she is on the road with Hormonal Housewives, a sketch show covering all things woman.
Toyah and her stage cohorts, Julie Coombes and Sarah-Jane Buckley, stop off in Swindon as part of the UK tour next Tuesday.
The singer says she is having a good giggle every night, not just with her mates on stage, but with a whole room full of women on a girls’ night out. “It is like nothing I have done before,” she said. “It is an observational piece, little scenes where women recognise themselves when they are moaning about their men or boasting about their kids. We cover book groups, erotic literature and a gym scene, which is all girlie bad, and the audience love it.”
• Continue reading at the Swindon Advertiser.
Another new interview, this one from the Derby Telegraph.
Learning how to be a housewife proves ‘big eye-opener’ for Toyah Willcox
After years of living the touring life as a musician, actress or TV presenter, all-round performer Toyah Willcox has now been forced to learn about the type of life she didn’t choose – that of picking the children up from school and doing the housework.
“It has been quite an eye-opener to take on this role,” says Toyah, who stars in the sketch show Hormonal Housewives alongside Julie Coombe, who also wrote the script. “It was interesting to find out more about the things which are just commonplace to most women and mums such as chatting at the school gates, competitive parents and going to book groups.”
• Continue reading at the Derby Telegraph.
IN2 talks to rock legend TOYAH WILLCOX about her starring role in Hormonal Housewives, which comes to Chelmsford in May…
“In rehearsals I thought it was going to be really scary, because this is something I’ve never done before,” says Toyah of working on a comedy. “But the laughter really lifts you and as soon as I stepped out on stage for the first time I knew I was going to enjoy it. When you’re touring with a band and you’re the lead singer, there’s a lot of weight on your shoulders, but being a three hander, it’s like an equal ride.”
Indeed, joined on stage by writer Julie Coombe and former Hollyoaks actress Sarah Jane Buckley, the show features sketches covering everything that makes today’s women tick.
• Continue reading at The Enquirer.
A new Toyah interview from South London Press, published yesterday.
When Toyah Willcox burst on to the pop scene in the 1980s with her multicoloured punky hair and her songs I Want to To Be Free and It’s A Mystery, she embodied fun, excitement and energy.
In the 30 plus years since then, the pop icon has notched up 13 Top 40 hit singles, released more than 20 albums, written two books, appeared in more than 40 stage plays and 10 films, been on ITV’s I’m A Celebrity and presented TV programmes as diverse as The Good Sex Guide Late, Watchdog and Songs Of Praise.
Charismatic and often outspoken, she has become a household name with an energy which is still like a force of nature and that shows no signs of diminishing.
• Continue reading at South London Press.
Following 2012’s celebrated reception as they caused mayhem and mania in theatres across the land, the irrepressible Hormonal Housewives are back and return to The Sands Centre, Carlisle on Friday 3rd May, 2013 and they have three pairs of tickets to give away.
• Enter at the Worcester News website (Registration required).
Another new interview with Toyah, this one from the North East’s Chronicle Live, published on Friday.
Interview: Toyah Willcox who is in Hormonal Housewives at the Tyne Theatre
Singer-actress Toyah Willcox is gearing up for two performances in Newcastle. On Sunday it will be in her acting capacity as she stars in Hormonal Housewives at the Mill Volvo Tyne Theatre. Then, on July 20, she is back in Newcastle to headline Northern Pride at Leazes Park.
• Continue reading at Chronicle Live.
… Long-Distance Relationships
4. Toyah Willcox and Robert Fripp
She once famously said: “I see my husband 12 weeks a year.” After marrying in 1986, the 80s punk pop star and the guitarist decided to live separately. At one point they even went 11 months without clapping eyes on each other. Toyah said of their set-up: “We’re never bored of each other, just always thrilled at the thought of meeting up again and leaping into each other’s arms.” Awww, and they say romance is dead!
A new print interview with Toyah, from Thursday’s Wimbledon Guardian.
Prepare yourself for an evening of insightful observational comedy – looking into what makes women tick – and the opportunity to witness a star in action.
The irrepressible Hormonal Housewives is back and at the New Wimbledon Theatre on April 19, featuring the fantastic Toyah Willcox, who describes the show as ‘like Al Murray in drag’.
Toyah, 55, famous for 80s singles ‘It’s A Mystery’ and ‘I Want To Be Free’, describes the stage show as: “Very light-hearted, and incredibly funny. “It seems to have just caught the audience’s imagination in the right way.
• Read the full interview here. The article has also been made available online at the ‘Wimbledon Guardian’ website today. (Thanks to Larwi for the scan)
