20 Years of Centre Stage
Back in the eighties, before the Yumbo was born and the Nilo was the only gay centre in Gran Canaria, Tony Macari and Suhail Ansari (Su) used to spend their holidays here. Their ancestry was far more exotic than the South Wales they hailed from, one being of Italian stock and the other of Persian. And like all hot-blooded boys they found the British winters increasingly uncomfortable so in 1986 they decided to move to the island and start a business.
Miss Su and Tony
As the secretary of the Grand Theatre, Swansea, Tony had experience of the professional theatre and Su had studied drama in college so they thought they might try their luck with a theatre bar.
The following March saw huge excitement on the first floor of the newly-built Yumbo as ‘Centre-Stage’ enjoyed its ‘first night’, accompanied by Danny LaRue, Maisie Trollette, Tom Springfield, the London cast of ‘La Cage aux Folles’ and many others.
‘Centre-Stage’ was born to loud applause and enjoyed its first successful years as a ‘sing-along’ bar. Then tragedy struck. Tony, who had always led the shows, fell fatally ill at around the time that Su was toying with the idea of putting in a screen. With Tony gone, Su dropped out of society for a while and the screen had to take over. When he came out of seclusion he discovered that ‘Centre-Stage’ had become more popular than ever and today the emphasis is as much on Hollywood as it is on the theatre.
Around five years ago, a professional film maker, Steve Collins, who had retired to the island a couple of years earlier, was asked to join the team and together with Su, gave the bar’s entertainment an entire ‘make-over’. They collaborated on a film covering the very first Playa del Ingles Gay Pride Day in 2002 and the earliest fully edited and mixed version was playing on its screens at midnight while the actual show on the big stage was still going!
Down the years one has seen many early successes expand and then burst – one of the secrets of ‘Centre- Stage’s longevity is that it has preserved the same atmosphere and intimacy as it had on its opening night twenty years ago and with many of its original features. And the mike is still being handed round and the bar with its wall-to-wall history of original signed photos and posters is still one of the most successful in the Yumbo, thanks to its many friends around the world.
And with its ‘state of the art’ equipment and its shiny new website, this now unique and famous venue is soaring into the future as one of the longest and best-loved traditions of the international gay scene.