Showcoach

Exclusive to our members, our 'Showcoach' programme offers monthly group excursions to exhibitions, concerts and musicals, heritage sites, theatres and museums, plus once a year we organise short residential trips. Recent visits include Chichester Theatre , the Royal Albert Hall and Tate Britain, and our most recent residential trip took all Showcoachers to Northumberland for three nights.

We know how important safe transport and like-minded companionship is for our members, and we make every effort to ensure ease of access for all. Coach pick-up points are available across the borough.

 ‘Top Hat’ Music and Lyrics by Irving Berlin Based on RKO’s Motion Picture

Adapted for the stage by Matthew White & Howard Jacques

Wednesday 6th August 2025 Cost £88.00 includes coach

There may be trouble ahead,

But while there’s moonlight, and music,

And love, and romance…

Let’s face the music and dance

You’re invited to the musical equivalent of a finest vintage champagne. Effervescent, elegant and exhilarating, Top Hat is a heady romantic cocktail laced with sparklingly witty dialogue, stunning choreography, lavish sets and gorgeous costumes. Irving Berlin’s irresistible score includes some of Hollywood’s greatest songs, the immortal Cheek to Cheek, Let’s Face the Music and Dance, Top Hat White Tie and Tails and Puttin’ on the Ritz.

When Broadway star Jerry Travers arrives in London to open a new show, he crosses paths with model Dale Tremont, whose beauty sleep is rudely interrupted by Jerry tap dancing in the hotel suite above hers. Instantly smitten, Jerry vows to abandon his bachelor life to win her – but the path of true love never does run smooth. Especially since Dale has mistaken Jerry for his hapless producer Horace, who’s trying to avoid the wrath of his formidable wife Madge, and Dale’s own fiery Italian admirer is planning a trip to Venice for her to showcase his couture gowns…

Based on the classic 1935 film which starred Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, the stage adaptation’s West End premiere won the 2013 Olivier Award for Best New Musical and the Evening Standard Award for Best Night Out. Acclaimed American director and choreographer Kathleen Marshall, whose Tony and Olivier Award-winning production of Anything Goes recently wowed audiences and critics in London and on television, comes to Chichester to stage this brand-new production.

Join us on an afternoon visit to the Musical Museum, a hidden gem in Brentford on Tuesday 21st October at 2pm

The Musical Museum tells the changing story of how people have captured and listened to music over the last four centuries. From tiny music boxes to the Mighty Wurlitzer theatre organ, the collection includes an impressive array of instruments and inventions, including reproducing pianos, orchestrations, self-playing violins, pipe organs, gramophones, and synthesizers.

On our guided tour of the collection we will discover how music was recorded and produced and see and hear the instruments in action!

After our tour there will be free time and tea and cake to enjoy.

Cost £21, includes tea and cake. Own transport -  the 267 bus stops outside the museum.