7 April 1987 – Freddie Mercury attends a party for the new cast of the musical ‘42nd Street’ in London
He’s pictured with dancer Wayne Sleep
Freddie being a ballet enthusiast, once performed with the Royal Ballet for a special charity gala in 1979. In one episode of a video podcast series Finding Freddie, Wayne Sleep spoke about the famous event.
“It was a very varied show and on comes Freddie Mercury, almost unannounced. And he just sang this song; brought the house down – upside down he was singing! He was very daring, he’d dare to do anything. He wasn’t frightened of anything, but in a nice way. Whatever he did, he gave 150 percent. So if he was going to do ballet, he wanted the proper shoes, he wanted the tights. He added: He wanted the jockstrap, the choreographer, he wanted the dancers. If he was going to do it, he was going to do it at the top.”
“‘Freddie was amazing, he was so generous. He loved the ballet and the opera so he’d come to the opera house to see us dance and then I became friends with him”
Gallery link
FREDDIE MERCURY ATTENDS A PARTY FOR THE NEW CAST OF THE MUSICAL ‘42ND STREET’ IN LONDON
‘He died of AIDS when he was 48/49 – I can’t remember (Freddie was 45). It happened so suddenly. We were all shocked. They were dropping like flies. ‘We didn’t know what it was so you didn’t know why people were dying. They thought it was just a gay disease so they didn’t bother to act on it until heterosexuals started getting it.’
Wayne Sleep
Here’s an interesting article of Wayne stating Freddie tried to get him to come out 👉 https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-5256897/CBB-Wayne-Sleep-says-Freddie-Mercury-told-come-out.html
