London musicals - Over The Footlights

1962
15
HMS PINAFORE (Revival)
London run: Her Majesty's, February 9th
PIRATES OF PENZANCE (Revival)
Photo by Angus McBean
London run: Her Majesty's, February 15th
Playing alternate weeks (147 Performances)
Music: Arthur Sullivan
Lyrics: W.S. Gilbert
Director: Tyrone Guthrie
Choreographer: Douglas Campbell
Musical Director: Kenneth Alwyn
Producer: H. M. Tennent Ltd
Pinafore Cast: Eric House (Sir Joseph Porter), Irene Byatt (Buttercup),
Andrew Downie (Ralph Rackstraw),
Marion Studholme (Josephine),
Harry Mossfield (Captain Corcoran)
Andrew Downie and Marion Studholme
Pirates Cast: Andrew Downie (Frederick), Harry Mossfield (Pirate King),
Marion Studholme (Mabel), Eric House (Major General),
Howell Glynne (Police Sergeant), Irene Byatt (Ruth)
Notes: This was prompted by the fact that from this year forward, the Gilbert &
Sullivan works were out of copyright. The only productions to date had been the
“authorised” D'Oyly Carte versions, faithful in every respect to the original
productions. Tyrone Guthrie had “re-thought” and re-staged these two shows, though
he had not been very revolutionary in his approach. The traditionalists hated any
changes, but the critics generally appreciated a fresh look at these old classics.
SCAPA
London run: Adelphi Theatre, March 8th (44 Performances)
Music, Lyrics & Book: Hugh Hastings
Director: George Carden
Musical Director: Derek New
Producer: Sandor Gorlinsky
Cast: David Hughes (Dusty), Edward Woodward (Haggis), Pete Murray (Badger),
Timothy Gray (Sprog), Leon Peers (Herbert)
Songs: Napoli, Seagull in the Sky, She Had a Beautiful Touch, The Sound of Bagpipes,
I Wish I Was an Orchestra, Squares Dance
Story: A group of volunteer sailors arrive on a disused naval fortress on an island near Scapa Flow where secret
radar experiements are being conducted. A young former orphanage boy, known as Sprog, immediately renames
the island “Sorrento”. Able-seaman “Badger” keeps the place alive with his jokes; Able-Seaman “Dusty” takes
Sprogg under his wing; Able-Seaman 'Aggis is a man with the dreamy eyes and the funny Scottish accent; Petty
Officer Herbert is the bullying kind. There are no women anywhere near this oddly assorted group of men, though
naturally women are frequently in the minds of the men.
Notes: Based on Hugh Hasting’s play
“Seagulls Over Sorrento”, none of the critics
seemed to pick up on an underlying gay
theme – even though the sailors go into drag
and cavort about at the end of Act 1 in a
number called “Bella”. The original play was
an enormous success and made a great deal
of money. Hugh Hastings invested it all in
this musical version and ended up seriously
out of pocket.
In Rehearsal : David Hughes & Pete Murray
with Hugh Hastings at the piano.
1962
16
BLITZ
London run: Adelphi Theatre, May 8th (568 Performances)
Music & Lyrics: Lionel Bart
Book: Lionel Bart & Joan Maitland
Director: Lionel Bart & Eleanor Fazan
Choreographer: Peter Wright
Musical Director: Marcus Dods
Producer: Donald Albery
Cast: Amelia Bayntun (Mrs Blitzstein), Grazina Frame (Carol Blitzstein),
Tom Kempinski (Harry Blitzstein), Bob Grant (Alfred Locke),
Graham James (Georgie Locke), Toni Palmer (Elsie), Anna Tzelniker,
Kaplan Kaye, Rose Hill, Julie Cohen.
Songs: Far Away, The Day After Tomorrow, Mums and Dads, Who's this Geezer 'Itler?,
Leave it to the Ladies, We're Going to the Country
Story: In Petticoat Lane, in the heart of London's East End, Mrs Blitzstein has a pickled herring stall next to
Alfred Locke's fruit stall. Mrs B hates Alfred almost as much as she hates Hitler. Their respective children,
Carol and Georgie, try to act as peacemakers and inevitably fall in love. Then Mrs B's eldest boy, Harry,
returns on leave with a Gentile girlfriend. The plot involves Carol being blinded in an air-raid, Harry deserting
from the army, Carol and Georgie in a
Jewish wedding, and Mrs B buried in the
wreckage after a bomb goes off. Alfred
digs her out, but the feud continues.
Credit Unknown
Notes: Because of Sean Kenny's scenery,
the show was spectacular and much
praised. Noel Coward described it as
“twice as long and twice as loud as the
real thing”. It was another hit for Lionel
Bart. One scene featured a “radio
broadcast” with Vera Lynn singing “The
Day After Tomorrow” - which she
specially recorded for the show.
The Victoria Station Scene :
Toni Palmer sings to the boys
LOCK UP YOUR DAUGHTERS (1st Revival)
London run: Mermaid Theatre, May 17th (111 Performances)
Transferred to Her Majesty’s Theatre, August 16th (553 performances)
Music: Laurie Johnson
Lyrics: Lionel Bart
Book: Bernard Miles
Director: Richard Wordsworth
Choreographer: Denys Palmer
Musical Director: Derek New
Cast: Sally Smith (Hilaret Politic), Bernard Miles (Squeezum), Hy Hazell (Mrs Squeezum),
Joss Ackland (Sotmore), Laurie Payne, Llewellyn Rees, Bernard Miles, Peter Gilmore, Mary Millar
Notes: This revival ran twice as long as the original production.
See: Original London Production, Mermaid Theatre, May 1959
1962
17
LITTLE MARY SUNSHINE
London run: Comedy Theatre, May 17th
(44 performances)
Music & Lyrics: Rick Besoyan
Book: Rick Besoyan
Director-Choreographer: Paddy Stone
Musical Director: Philip Martell
Photo by David Sim
Cast: Patricia Routledge (Little Mary Potts),
Terence Cooper (Captain Big Jim Warington),
Joyce Blair (Nancy Twinkle),
Bernard Cribbins (Cpl. Billy Jester),
Erik Chitty (General Fairfax),
Gita Denise (Mme. Ernestine von Liebedich),
Edward Bishop (Chief Brown Bear)
Songs: Look for a Sky of Blue, In Izzenschnooken on the Lovely Ezzenzook Zee, Colorado Love Call, Naught
Naught Nancy, Do You Ever Dream of Vienna?
Story: Set high in the Colorado Rockies, this is the story of the romance between Little Mary Sunshine and Big
Jim Warrington of the Forest Rangers. Big Jim spends most of his time in pursuit of the treacherous Indian,
Yellow Feather, whose designs on Mary are thwarted at the last minute by the hero's re-appearance singing the
“Colorado Love Call”
Notes: Described as a “new musical about an old operetta” it was a send-up of the Naughty-Marietta-RoseMarie school of shows. It was a great hit in America, but failed to take off in London.
SAIL AWAY
London run: Savoy Theatre, June 21st (252 Performances)
Music & Lyrics: Noel Coward
Director: Noel Coward
Choreographer: Joe Layton
Musical Director: Gareth Davies
Producer: Harold Fielding
Cast: Elaine Stritch (Mimi Paragon),
David Holliday (Johnny van Mier),
Dorothy Reynolds (Eleanor Spencer-Bollard ),
Sheila Forbes (Nancy Foyle),
Grover Dale (Barnaby Slade)
Songs: Sail Away, Don’t Turn Away from
Love, Go Slow Johnny, Why Do The Wrong People Travel?,
Beatnik Love Affair, Bronxville Darby and Joan
Photo by Tom Hustler
Story: There's a mixed lot aboard the luxury cruise liner “Coronia”
including Mimi Paragon, the cruise organiser, Johnny van Mier, hoping
to forget a girl; the famous novelist Eleanor Spencer-Bollard and her
niece, Nancy Foyle who is hoping for an on-board romance with fellow
passenger, Barnaby Slade. The cruise sails to Gibraltar and Tangier,
allowing for some fun with foreign languages, and finally Johnny ends up
with Mimi,Nancy has her Barnaby and all ends happily.
Notes: Unusually, this was a Noel Coward show which began on
Broadway and then transferred to London. It was his first successful
musical for several years. It was also the show which established the
reputation of the previously un-recognised Elaine Stritch.
Elaine Stritch
1962
18
GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES
London run: Princes Theatre, August 20th (223 Performances)
transferred to Strand, November 7th
Music: Jule Styne
Lyrics: Leo Robin
Book: Anita Loos & Joseph Fields
Director: Henry Kaplan
Choreographer: Ralph Beaumont
Musical Director: Alyn Ainsworth
Songs: A Little Girl from Little Rock, Diamonds Are a Girl's Best
Friend, Mamie is Mimi, It's Delightful
Down in Chile, I Love What I'm Doing,
Just a Kiss Apart
Photo by Tom Hustler
Cast: Dora Bryan (Lorelei Lee), Anne Hart (Dorothy),
Donald Stewart (Gus), Robin Palmer (Henry), Bessie Love (Ella),
Guy Middleton (Sir Francis Beekman), Valerie Walsh,
Michael Malnick, Toti Truman Taylor, Michael Ashlin,
John Heawood.
Dora Bryan
Story: Gold-digging Lorelei Lee in the Roaring Twenties is engaged to button
tycoon Gus Esmond. Whilst sailing aboard the Ile de France with her chum,
Dorothy, she discovers enough rich gentlemen to ensure she has a good time both
on ship and in various spots throughout Paris. The less predatory Dorothy finds true
romance with the Philadelphian Henry Spoffard.
Notes: This was the show that propelled Carol Channing to stardom on its New
York première in 1949. It was revived in 1974 in New York again with Carol
Channing, but this time Lorelei was now Gus's widow and was looking back and
reminiscing about her madcap youth. The show was re-titled “Gentlemen Still
Prefer Blondes”
FIORELLO
London run: Piccadilly Theatre, October 8th (56 Performances)
Music: Jerry Bock
Lyrics: Sheldon Harnick
Book: Jerome Weidman & George Abbott
Director: Val May
Choreographer: Peter Wright
Musical Director: Marcus Dods
Producer: Donald Albery & Oscar Lewenstein
Bridget Armstrong as Dora
Cast: Derek Smith (Fiorello), Nicolette Roig (Marie Fischer),
Marian Grimaldi (Thea LaGuardia), Peter Reeves (Ben Marino),
Simon Oates (Floyd Macduff),
Bridget Armstrong (Dora),
Bryan Blackburn (Stanley)
Songs: Home Again, When Did I Fall in Love, On the Side of the Angels,
Politics and Poker, I Love a Cop, Little Tin Box.
Story: Fiorello LaGuardia was the real-life pugnacious, volatile former mayor of
New York, whose larger-than-life political career and personality was the subject
of this musical, which covered ten years of his life – from just before World War 1
to his election as Mayor. Along the way he becomes a pilot in the US Air Force, a
reform Congressman and, initially, a failed mayoral candidate. It proved to be
“too American” for London.
1962
19
VANITY FAIR
London run: Queen’s Theatre, November 27th (70 Performances)
Music: Julian Slade
Lyrics: Robin Miller
Book: Robin Miller & Alan Pryce-Jones
Director: Lionel Harris
Choreographer: Norman Maen
Musical Director: Michael Moores
Producer: Linnit & Dunfee
Cast: Dame Sybil Thorndike (Miss Crawley), Frances Cuka (Becky Sharp),
Eira Heath (Amelia Sedley), Naunton Wayne (Mr Sedley), Joyce Carey (Mrs Sedley),
Gordon Boyd (William Dobbin), George Baker, (Rawdon Crawley), Gabriel Woolf (George Osborne)
Songs: There She Is, Someone to Believe In, The Waterloo Waltz, Advice to Women, How to Live Well on
Nothing a Year, I Could Be Good
Story: Two boarding-school friends, Becky Sharp and Amelia Sedley find themselves in differing
circumstances. Becky is poor but clever, Amelia is rich and silly. Becky marries Rawdon Crawley because he
will inherit a fortune, but his inheritance falls through, and she flirts with other men and is forced to leave the
country because of the scandal. Amelia marries Captain George Osborne, and is too silly to see that he doesn't
really love her. She is loved by the faithful William Dobbin. Eventually George Osborne is killed in battle, and
after a long time Dobbin finally wins Amelia. Eventually, too, Rawdon Crawley dies, at last a rich man. Becky
has become a rich widow, and therefore she is now “respectable” and can return to society.
Photo by Angus McBean
Notes: Based on W. M. Thackeray’s novel “Vanity Fair”, the production was created on a huge scale – massive
scenery, highly complicated technical changes and a big cast, including the 80 year old Sybil Thorndike in her
first ever musical role – and it suffered from music and lyrics that simply failed to measure up to the overall
splendour. It ended up losing a fortune.
CINDY-ELLA , Or I Gotta Shoe
London run: Garrick Theatre, December 17th (Christmas Season)
Music, Lyrics & Book: Caryl Brahms & Ned Sherrin
Some songs: Ron Grainer
Director: Ned Sherrin
Cast: Cleo Laine, Elisabeth Welch, Cy Grant , George Browne
Story: An all-black version of the Cinderella story. “Cindy-Ella is set in no
regulation fairyland. We cannot say for sure whether we have set our Fairyland
down in the Deep South or removed the Deep South to our Fairyland; certainly we have borrowed the
Cinderella story from Perrault and told it as a Mammy might tell the tale of Cindy-Ella to her little girl in a
tenement yard in New Orleans “ (Ned Sherrin).
1963
20
3 MUSKETEERS ?
London run: Lyric Hammersmith, January 30th (11 Performances)
Music: Kenny Graham
Lyrics& Book: Gerald Frow
Director: Sally Miles
Cast: Christopher Tranchwell (D'Artagnan), Jack Tweddle (Athos),
Anthony Paul (Porthos), Brian Hewlett (Archbishop), Emma Young (Princess)
Story: A satirical pantomime based very loosely on the story of the Three Musketeers, the main message
seems to be that British civilisation is being destroyed by Bingo, only our old buildings and the Royal Family
are worth hanging on to, and we should continue to hate the French.
Notes: The show had been staged at the Theatre Royal Margate in May 1962. The general reaction was no one
could understand why it was considered worthy of revival. Critical comment included: “the real fault comes
back to the script and its solitary funny gag where the Archbishop of Canterbury has the habit of kicking
everyone in the crotch before giving them his blessing”.
CARNIVAL
London run: Lyric Theatre, February 8th (34 Performances)
Music & Lyrics: Bob Merrill
Book: Michael Stewart
Director: Champion, re-staged by Lucia Victor
Choreographer: Gower Champion, re-staged by Doria Avila
Musical Director: Jan Cervenka
Producer: H. M. Tennent Ltd
Cast: Sally Logan (Lili ), James Mitchell (Marco), Michael Maurel (Paul Bertrhalet),
Shirley Sands (Rosalie), Bob Harris (Jacquot), Peter Bayliss (Schlegel)
Songs: Direct from Vienna, A Very Nice Man, I've Got to Find a Reason, Yes My Heart, Everybody Likes
You, Love Makes the World Go Round.
Story: Lili, an orphaned waif from a town called Mira, joins a carnival and falls in love with Marco the
Magnificent. She makes friends with the puppets in the show then realises that her heart really belongs to Paul,
the lame puppeteer.
Photo by Angus McBean
Notes: Gower Champion was much praised for a dramatic opening with no overture in which the cast set up
the carnival tents at dawn and reveal a seedy, second-rate fairground. In a later scene the sleeping company
dream and appear in the Grand Imperial Cirque de Paris. Despite a long Broadway run (719 performances) the
show failed in London. The show was based on the Leslie Caron/Mel Ferrer Hollywood film, “Lili”.
1963
21
HALF A SIXPENCE
London run: Cambridge Theatre, March 21st
(677 Performances)
Music & Lyrics: David Heneker
Book: Beverley Cross
Director: John Dexter
Choreographer: Edmund Balin
Musical Director: Kenneth Alwyn
Producer: Harold Fielding
Cast: Tommy Steele (Arthur),
Anna Barry (Helen Walsingham)
Marti Webb (Ann),
James Grout, Jessica James, Anthony Valentine
Songs: Half a Sixpence, Money to Burn, If the Rain’s Got to Fall,
Flash Bang Wallop, I’ll Build a Palace, She’s Too Far Above Me
Photo by Tom Hustler
Story: This is the career of the orphan, Arthur Kipps, a draper’s
apprentice in Folkestone at the turn of the 19th Century. Arthur loves and
loses rich Helen Walsingham, inherits and loses a fortune, but finds
eventual happiness with faithful Ann Pornick.
Notes: Based on the novel “Kipps” by H.G.Wells, this was written
specially as a vehicle for Tommy Steele. It transferred to Broadway but
was much altered to suit the American audiences.
Tommy Steele and James Grout
HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING
London run: Shaftesbury Theatre, March 28th (520 Performances)
Music & Lyrics: Frank Loesser
Book: Abe Burrows, Jack Weinstein & Willie Gilbert
Director: Abe Burrows & Bob Fosse
Choreographer: Hugh Lambert
Musical Director: Roy Lowe
Producer: Arthur Lewis
Cast: Warren Berlinger (J. Pierpoint Finch),
Billy de Wolfe (J.B.Biggeley), David Knight (Bud Frump),
Patricia Michael (Rosemary), Eileen Gourlay (Hedy la Rue),
Josephine Blake (Smitty)
Story: This was a satire of the Horatio Alger
myth: the boyish hero, J. Pierpoint Finch owes his
advancement from window-cleaner to Chairman
of the Board of the World Wide Wicket Company
not to hard work but to his ability to make others
work hard for him. As it traces his step-by-step
rise, back-stabbing his way up the business
ladder, the show makes fun of nepotism, old
school ties, the coffee break, the office party, the
executive wash-room and the board-room dramas.
Warren Berlinger & David Knight
Photo by Tom Hustler
Songs: Coffee Break, The Company Way, A Secretary is not a Toy, Grand
old Ivy, I Believe in You, Brotherhood of Man.
1963
22
VIRTUE IN DANGER
Photo by Angus McBean
London run: Mermaid Theatre, April 2nd
Transferred to Strand Theatre, June 3rd
(121 Performances)
Music: James Bernard
Lyrics & Book: Paul Dehn
Director-Choreographer: Wendy Toye
Musical Director: Michael Moores
Cast: Jane Wenham (Amanda) , Alan Howard (Loveless),
Patricia Routledge (Berinthia), Basil Hoskins (Mr Worthy), John
Moffatt (Lord Foppington), Barrie Ingham (Fashion), Richard
Wordsworth (Coupler), Patsy Byrne (Miss Hoyden)
Songs: Fortune Thou Art a Bitch, Stand Back Old Sodom,
Hoyden Hath Charms, I’m in Love with My Husband
Story: Despite a happy marriage to his virtuous wife, Amanda,
Loveless relapses into his former ways. During a visit to London he seduces Berinthia, a
pretty widow. At the same time Amanda remains faithful to her philandering husband in
spite of an attempt at seduction by Mr. Worthy. A sub-plot concerns the efforts of the
penniless young Mr Fashion to cheat Lord Foppington, his overbearing brother, out of
marrying for the sake of a fortune, and he succeeds by pretending to be his brother and
marrying the lady himself.
Notes: Based on the play “The Relapse” by John Vanbrugh, this was a rather daring romp
since the Lord Chamberlain's censorship powers were still in effect. A still remembered
couplet comes in the song “Stand Back old Sodom” when Mr Fashion repels the itchy
fingers of the matchmaker with the line: “Take your eye, Sir, Off my fly, Sir”. The reviews
were mixed, and the transfer from the Mermaid to the Strand lasted just four weeks. With
its pre-London tour, the Mermaid and the West End runs, it managed a total of 121
performances.
ON THE TOWN
London run: Prince of Wales, May 30th (53 Performances)
Music: Leonard Bernstein
Lyrics & Book: Betty Comden & Adolph Green
Director & Choreographer: Joe Layton
Musical Director: Lawrence Leonard
Producer: H. M. Tennent Ltd
Cast: Andrea Jaffe (Ivy Smith), Carol Arthur (Hildegarde Esterhazy),
Gillian Lewis (Clair DeLoon), Elliott Gould (Ozzie), Don McKay (Gabey),
Franklin Kiser (Chip Offenbloch), John Humphrey (Judge),
Rosamund Greenwood (Lucy)
Photo by Angus McBean
Songs: New York New York, Come Up to My Place, Carried Away, Lonely Town, Ya Got Me, Some Other Time
Story: Three sailors, Gabey, Chip and Ozzie,
on 24-hour shore leave in New York, meet
three girls, Ivy, Claire and
Hildy, and
discover such landmarks as the subway, the
Museum of Natural History, Central Park,
Times Square , assorted nightclubs and Coney
Island. Once their leave is up the boys go
bounding back to their ship and another trio of
bounding sailors go on the town. (There is a
sub-plot where Gabey mistakes Ivy, a
struggling ballet dancer, for a celebrity
because she was chosen Miss Turnstiles in a
subway competition.
1963
23
OH WHAT A LOVELY WAR!
London run: Wyndham's Theatre, June 29th (507 Performances)
Music:& Lyrics: Various
Book: Charles Chilton & Company
Director: Joan Littlewood
Cast: George Sewell, Avis Bunnage, Brian Murphy, Victor Spinetti,
Myvanwy Jenn, John Gowe, Murray Melvin, Bob Stevenson
Songs: Various songs from the Edwardian era, notably: We Don't Want to Lose
You But We Think You Ought To Go, I'll Make a Man of You, Keep the Home
Fires Burning, They Didn't Believe Me.
Notes: It was a Theatre Workshop
production which originally opened
at the Theatre Royal Stratford East
in March 1963. It marked the return
of Joan Littlewood as director, two
years after she had walked out on
the company. Surprisingly in view
of her scathing attacks on the West
End and commercial theatre, she
permitted this show to transfer.
ENRICO
London run: Piccadilly Theatre, July 3rd (86 performances)
Music : Renato Rascel
Book & Lyrics: Pietro Garinei & Sandro Giovannini
English version by Peter Myers & Ronald Cass
Director-Choreographer: Ralph Beaumont
Cast: Renato Rascel, Roberto d’Esti, Julia Carne, Roger Delgado, Philip Hinton
Songs: Buona Sera, Socialist Anthem, Strike, Arriverderci Not Addio, The Song of Rome,
Resistance Song, Made in Italy
Story: This was a cavalcade of 100 years of Italian history, celebrating the
centenary of Italian unification. It was a kind of costume operetta tenuously
linking various aspects of Italian history through the experience of two families.
Notes: Garinei and Giovannini were the biggest names in Italy's light
entertainment and musical theatre scene. Their previous London venture had been
“When in Rome” (1959) and they would also stage “Beyond the Rainbow” in
1978. This production featured the Italian star, Renato Rascel, who wrote all the
songs. Its huge success in Italy was not repeated in London, where a chiefly
British cast and Rascel in his original role, didn't go down well. Many critics
claimed Rascel's Italian accent was impenetrable.
Photo by Romano Cagnoni
Story: Not a traditional musical, nor a revue – this was an intelligent and
sometimes bitter satire on the misery and the waste of human life, the incompetence of its military leaders, and
the grim reality of life in the
trenches in the First World War. It
was framed in the context of the
seaside Pierrot shows which had
been so popular in Edwardian days.
1963
24
PICKWICK
London run: Saville Theatre, July 4th (694 Performances)
Music: Cyril Ornadel
Lyrics: Leslie Bricusse
Book: Wolf Mankowitz
Director: Peter Coe
Choreographer: Leo Kharibian
Musical Director: Michael Reeves
Producer: Bernard Delfont & Tom Arnold
Cast: Harry Secombe (Mr Pickwick), Teddy Green (Sam Weller),
Anton Rodgers (Mr Jingle), Jessie Evans (Mrs Bardell),
Julian Orchard (Augustus Snodgrass),
Peter Bull
Story: The story opens with Mr Pickwick in the Fleet prison for debtors
because of his refusal to settle with the lawyers Dodson and Fogg over the
lost case of breach of promise taken against him by Mrs Bardell.
Reminiscing with Sam Weller, he looks back over the best days of the
Pickwick Club recalling: Mr Jingle's mercenary behaviour with Rachel
Wardle; the Eatanswill election where Pickwick was mistaken for a
Parliamentary candidate; the George and Vulture Inn; the skating party.
The show was just as episodic as the novel itself.
Notes: Based on “The Pickwick Papers” by Charles Dickens, the musical
was a triumph for Harry Secombe. After its London run it transferred to the
USA, opening in San Francisco and having such huge success that it
recovered all its costs before arriving on Broadway. Strangely it was a flop
in New York and closed after 56 performances.
THE BEGGAR'S OPERA (Revival)
London run: Aldwych Theatre, July 16th (43 Performances)
Music: Traditional newly arranged by Raymond Leppard
Book: John Gay
Director: Peter Wood
Choreographer: Pauline Grant
Musical Director: David Taylor
Credit Unknown
Cast: Ronald Radd (Peachum), Doris Hare (Mrs Peachum), Dorothy Tutin (Polly Peachum),
Derek Godfrey (Macheath), Patricia Kilgarriff
(Jenny Diver), Virginia McKenna (Lucy Lockitt),
Tony Church (Lockitt)
Virginia McKenna, Derek Godfrey, Dorothy Tutin
Notes: A Royal Shakespeare Company production
played in repertoire for a limited run of 43
performances. Set on a Thames hulk and performed
by a group of convicts awaiting transportation to the
West Indies, it was slaughtered by the critics in
every respect. It was claimed none of the actors
could sing, the production was unbelievably slow
and ponderous, Sean Kenny's sets were hideous and
unworkable, with some wildly inappropriate
additional music written by Raymond Leppard. The
Plays and Players critic wrote: “There were times in
fact when I began to wish I were watching some
relatively fast-moving work like Tristan at Bayreuth
instead of this monumental bore that the programme
so amusingly describes as a 'comedy by John Gay'”.
Photo by Dominic
Songs: If I Ruled the World, Do as You Would Be Done By, That’s What
I’d Like for Christmas, You Never Met a Feller Like Me
1963
25
SO MUCH TO REMEMBER
London run: Vaudeville, September 17th (54 Performances)
Music: Stanley Myers
Lyrics & Book: Johnny Whyte & Fenella Fielding
Director: William Chappell
Cast: Fenella Fielding (Maudie Marlowe), John Standing,
Tristram Jellinek, Jeffrey Gardiner
Story: Maudie Marlowe, an ageing actress, relates her memoirs
which cover a career starting as a Gaiety Girl, working alongside
Diaghilev, appearing in shows by Noel Coward and Ivor Novello,
playing variety with Gracie Fields, and even featuring in the
Brecht-Weill “Mahagonny”.
Notes: This was all a glorious send-up and a tour-de-force for Fenella Fielding, who was supported by four
men who served only as her stooges or to hold the stage momentarily during her rapid costume changes. It was
fast-moving and funny, but it depended on a real knowledge of the history of British musicals and contained a
lot of “in” jokes. It managed a six week run.
HOUSE OF CARDS
London run: Phoenix Theatre, October 3rd (27 Performances)
Music & Book: Peter Greenwell
Lyrics: Peter Wildeblood
Director: Vida Hope
Choreographer: Terry Gilbert
Musical Director: Michael Moores
Cast: Douglas Byng (General Krutitzsky), Patrick Mower (Yegor Glumov),
Pat Gilbert (Mme Glumov), Stella Moray (Mme Mamayev),
Geoffrey Hibbert (Mamyev)
Songs: Somewhere There’s Someone, The Secret with Women, The Mashenka
Waltz, The End of Summer
Story: Yegor Glumov is an unscrupulous scoundrel making his way through Moscow society. His progress is
threatened when his diary is stolen – a diary that contains his real thoughts on the society around him. When his
“respectable” accusers turn on him and threaten him, he turns the tables on them, pointing out that they are
worse than him: he at least knows he is crooked, whereas they lie and cheat without scruple, masking it with
their outward show of good behaviour. Yegor's chief victim is Mme Mamayev, the most hypocritical of
Moscow's social scene.
Notes: This originally opened at the Players Theatre, and based on the Ostrovsky’s Russian comedy “Even a
Wise Man Stumbles” in the translation by David Margarshack.
Peter Wildeblood (1923-1999), a former wartime pilot, was invited to spend the weekend with Lord Montagu
of Beaulieu, and went with his lover, the RAF corporal Edward McNally and another serviceman. They were
joined for supper by Lord Montagu and his cousin, Michael Pitt-Rivers. That party became the subject of major
court case when the two servicemen turned Queen’s Evidence and claimed there had been 'abandoned
behaviour' at the party. Wildeblood, Lord Montagu and Pitt-Rivers were charged with 'conspiracy to incite
certain male persons to commit serious offences with male persons' - the first time this charge had been used in
a British court since the trials of Oscar Wilde. Found guilty, they were each jailed for 18 months.
After his release, Wildeblood became a very public campaigner for prison and homosexual law reform and
insisted his real name should be on the posters of his first musical, “The Crooked Mile” in 1959 and on this
one, even though the producers were afraid it would affect the business. When someone suggested that antigay prejudice had contributed to the short run of this show, Wildeblood replied “No – the show itself doesn’t
work”.
1963
26
A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON
THE WAY TO THE FORUM
London run: Strand Theatre, October 3rd (762 Performances)
Music & Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim
Book: Burt Shevelove & Larry Gelbart
Director: George Abbott
Choreographer: Jack Cole re-created by George Martin
Musical Director: Alyn Ainsworth
Producer: Harold Prince, Tony Walton, Richard Pilbrow
Cast: Frankie Howerd (Pseudolus), Kenneth Connor (Hysterium),
“Monsewer” Eddie Gray (Senex), Robertson Hare (Erronius),
Jon Pertwee (Lycas), Linda Gray (Domina), John Rye (Hero), Isla Blair (Philia),
Leon Greene (Miles Gloriosus)
Songs: Comedy Tonight, Love I Hear, Free, Pretty Little Picture, Everybody Ought to Have a Maid
Story: Pseudolus, a slave in ancient Rome, is obliged to go through a series
of outlandish escapades in order to gain his freedom. These involve his
lascivious master, Senex, Domina, his formidable wife, and their son, Hero,
who is in love with the pretty but empty-headed Philia
Additional
characters are Hysterium, a nervous fellow-slave, Marcus Lycus, a dealer in
courtesans, Erronius, a doddering old man who is kept from entering his
house because he thinks it is haunted, and the magnificent warrior, Miles
Gloriosus
Photo by David Sim
Notes: Based on the plays of Plautus, in the interests of authenticity all the
three Unities are observed – time, place and theme. Miles Gloriosus's line “I
am a Parade” actually comes from Plautus's original. On Broadway the role
of Pseudolus was created by Zero Mostel. In London Frankie Howerd was
succeeded by the comedian Dave King.
(Clockwise) Frankie Howerd, Robertson Hare, Kenneth Connor,
Eddie Gray, Jon Pertwee
BOYS FROM SYRACUSE
London run: Drury Lane, November 7th (100 Performances)
Music: Richard Rodgers
Lyrics: Lorenz Hart
Book: George Abbott
Director: Christopher Hewett
Choreographer: Bob Herget
Musical Director: Robert Lowe
Producer: Williamson Music Ltd
Photo by Tom Hustler
Cast: Bob Monkhouse (Antipholus of Syracuse), Maggie Fitzgibbon (Luce),
Lynn Kennington (Adriana), Paula Hendrix (Luciana),
Ronnie Corbett (Dromio of Syracuse) , Sonny Farrer (Dromio of Ephesus),
Denis Quilley (Antipholus of Ephesus)
Songs: Falling in Love with Love, This Can't Be Love, You Have Cast Your
Shadow on the Sea, Sing For Your Supper, Oh Diogenese.
Story: Set in Ephesus in ancient Greece, the tale involves the attempt of
Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse to find their long lost twins. Complications
arise when Adriana and Luce, wives of Ephesian Antipholus and Dromio
mistake the boys from Syracuse for their husbands.
Ronnie Corbett, Bob Monkhouse
& Lynn Kennington
Notes: The fact that no one had ever before thought of basing a musical on a play by Shakespeare made the idea
more appealing to Rodgers and Hart. The original Broadway production was in 1938, but this version was a transfer
of an April 1963 Broadway revival.
1963
27
POCAHONTAS
London run: Lyric Theatre, November 14th (12 performances)
Lyrics and Music: Kermit Goell
Director: Michael Manuel
Choreographer: Nelle Fisher
Musical Director: Philip Martell
Cast: Anita Gillette (Pocahontas), Terence Cooper (Captain John Smith),
Isabelle Lucas (Winnuska), Michael Barrington (Captain Dale Wingfield)
Songs: You Have to Want to Touch Him, She Fancied Me, Too Many Miles from London Town, I love You
Johnnie Smith, I Have Lost My Way, You Can’t Keep a Good Man Down.
Story: From a playgoer's diary entry at the time: “Captain Smith heads an expedition to the New World and is
confronted by some half-naked Indians (and some half-baked dialogue). He then meets a chorus of Indian maidens
(wearing bikinis), amongst them Pocohontas, the daughter of the Indian chief. Some Dorothy Lamour-Ray Milland
dialogue ensues (covered by a programme note which states “the Author recognises the historical deviations
necessitated in the creation of this musical”). Then comes the interval, at which point I escaped.”
Notes: Described by Hugh Leonard as “the most diabolically putrid musical anyone ever saw anywhere”. This was
the one and only London appearance of the leading lady, Anita Gillette.
THE MAN IN THE MOON
London run: London Palladium, December 23rd (Christmas season)
Music& Lyrics: Tom Springfield, Max Diamond, John Taylor
Book: Charlie Drake, Lew Schwarz, John Waterhouse & Phil Park
Director: Tod Kingman
Choreographer: Michael Charnley
Cast: Charlie Drake, David Davenport, Reed de Rouen, Jess Clews, Barry Shawzin,
Notes: Based on a story by Jack Davies and Robert Nesbitt, this was billed as a “Space
Age Musical”. It was, however, a mixture of variety, revue and pantomime, playing
twice-daily to an audience expecting a traditional Palladium panto. The following year
the Palladium reverted to the tried and true and did not repeat its experiment of “a family
musical for modern times”.
NO STRINGS
London run: Her Majesty's, December 30th (135 Performances)
Music & Lyrics: Richard Rodgers
Book: Samuel Taylor
Director & Choreographer: Joe Layton, re-stage by Wakefield Poole
Musical Director: Johnnie Spence
Producer: Williamson Music Ltd
Cast: Art Lund (David Jordan), Beverly Todd (Barbara Woodruff),
Hy Hazell (Mollie Plummer), Ferdy Mayne (Louis de Pourtal),
David Holliday (Mike Robinson), Erica Rogers (Jeanette Valmy)
Songs: The Sweetest Sounds, Love Makes the World Go, Nobody Told Me, An
Orthodox Fool, Maine, No Strings
Story: This is an inter-racial love story, though race is never mentioned. Barbara Woodruff, a black fashion model
living in Paris meets David Jordan, a former Pulitzer Prize winning novelist, now living as a “Europe bum”. After
meeting they enjoy hearing the sweetest sounds in such locations as Monte Carlo, Honfleur, Deauville and St
Tropez. The story ends with no strings attached as the writer returns home to Maine to try and resume his writing
career.
Notes: This was Richard Rodgers's first show following the death of Oscar Hammerstein. Rodgers wrote both
music and lyrics, the only time he did this. The show was highly innovative: the orchestra was placed onstage; the
cast moved the scenery in full view of the audience; the orchestrations had no string section, as the title suggested.
The successful Broadway production starred Diahann Carroll. The London production only managed 135
performances.