Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/The Midnight Gang


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was keep. (non-admin closure) Endrabcwizart (talk) 18:07, 2 March 2023 (UTC)

The Midnight Gang

 * – ( View AfD View log | edits since nomination)

No citation remove : no meet GNG Endrabcwizart (talk) 18:30, 27 February 2023 (UTC)
 * Note: This discussion has been included in the deletion sorting lists for the following topics: Literature and United Kingdom.  Spiderone (Talk to Spider) 18:33, 27 February 2023 (UTC)

Keep per the significant coverage in multiple independent reliable sources. Notability (books) says: "A book is presumed notable if it verifiably meets, through reliable sources, at least one of the following criteria:The book has been the subject of two or more non-trivial published works appearing in sources that are independent of the book itself. This can include published works in all forms, such as newspaper articles, other books, television documentaries, bestseller lists, and reviews. This excludes media re-prints of press releases, flap copy, or other publications where the author, its publisher, agent, or other self-interested parties advertise or speak about the book." Reviews about the book:  The review notes: "Walliams has been compared to Roald Dahl, but despite using the same illustrators – Quentin Blake and Tony Ross – the similarities are largely superficial. Where Dahl stretched the outlandish and the grotesque to their limits, Walliams is more restrained. And although this book has plenty of imaginative twists, there are no dazzling, Dahl-like inventions. Rather, it is a simple and touching story of children overcoming adversity with make-believe."  The review notes: "British author David Walliams is in top form with this imaginative, poignant, often crude, and frequently hilarious tale of kids stuck in a London hospital. Some of the antics -- drugging oppressive adults and having secret expeditions to walk-in freezers -- are definitely not suited to real life. But it's a heartstring-tugging, thought-provoking tale with unforgettable characters, relatable issues, and a determination to do better than the bad people in your life."  The review notes: "The Midnight Gang's final dream is tragic and boisterously youthful. Ross's numerous black-and-white illustrations mirror Walliams's lawless, uncontained revelry. The author creates a surreal world in which adults are remote and children set the stage with their wildest imaginings. ... Irreverent as Roald Dahl, Walliams is a unique author who's created a memorable world and cast of characters."  The review notes: "Plucky, sometimes-mean children come together to defeat diabolical hospital administrators and evil headmasters. ... An eventual lesson about bigotry against ugly people is undercut by prose that delights in describing the porter as “pongy” and having “rotten and misshapen teeth.” An entertaining tale that will definitely find an audience, but fans of icky, vicious comedy deserve better."</li> </ol></li> <li>Reviews about the stage adaptations of the book:<ol> <li> The review notes: "The standout number is a rollicking breakfast anthem performed by Lucy Vandi and there are Mission: Impossible-esque instrumentals full of intrigue. But a great musical should leave you singing or at least humming one song, and none of these melodies linger. ... Funny, touching and spirited, The Midnight Gang is particularly suited to lockdown viewing with kids."</li> <li> The review notes: "Walliams has clearly had a riot writing Matron’s pernicious dialogue. ... It is cruel, heartless, and deliciously funny. ... It is a beautiful yet devastating scene – a fitting climax to a drama with a big heart."</li> <li> The article notes: "On Thursday The Midnight Gang rides into town for two performances. The play, based on the best-selling novel by famed British children's author David Walliams, is on a regional tour throughout Victoria. It tells the story of Tom, 12, who finds himself lonely and lost in the children's ward of St Crook's Hospital, away from his family and at the mercy of an evil matron. Each night at midnight, Tom and his fellow patients The Midnight Gang go on a series of amazing journeys as they use their imaginations to turn the hospital into the places they've always wanted to go and make dreams come true."</li> <li> The review notes: "The latest in a string of stage adaptations of David Walliams' children's books, The Midnight Gang is a pleasant, if somewhat shallow, family adventure. The simple plot follows the patients on a children's ward in an austere hospital, who escape the stringent rules and bed-bound boredom of their days with imaginative night-time escapades. Director Lou Stein takes a big, brash, and earnest approach to the material, which gives the production a tripping, cartoonish tone, but sacrifices some opportunities for deeper resonance."</li> <li> The review notes: "It's hard not to compare villainous characters in children's theatre to Matilda's Miss Trunchbull. The marvellously mean and deliciously disgusting Matron in The Midnight Gang could give her a run for her money. Jennie Dale, known to children from CBeebies' Swashbuckle, and to Chichester audiences as the solicitor in Me and My Girl, relishes playing the scourge of the children's ward in this new David Walliams adaptation as much as her character enjoys licking the topping from a patient's iced bun."</li> <li> The review notes: "If Matilda the Musical has set the bar impossibly high for this kind of jaunty but plangent childhood tale, then the half-terming under-tens should nonetheless find plenty to enjoy in this game theatrical adaptation of David Walliams’s book. The adaptor, Bryony Lavery, and the composer and songwriter, Joe Stilgoe, have to cleave to a storyline that, in all honesty, is one of Walliams’s thinner conceits."</li> </ol></li> </ol>There is sufficient coverage in reliable sources to allow The Midnight Gang to pass Notability, which requires "significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject". Cunard (talk) 10:05, 28 February 2023 (UTC) </li></ul>
 * Keep per Cunard above. Clearly meets WP:GNG. No idea what "No citation remove" means. -- Necrothesp (talk) 11:16, 1 March 2023 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. <b style="color:red">Please do not modify it.</b> Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.