London Musicals - Over The Footlights

1995
1
AIN’T MISBEHAVIN’ (1st Revival)
London run: Tricycle Theatre, January 9th - 25th February)
Transferred to Lyric Theatre March 13th (232 Performances)
Music & Lyrics: Various
Book: Murray Horweitz & Richard Maltby Jr
Director: Gillian Gregory & Nicholas Kent
Choreographer: Gillian Gregory
Musical Director: Clement Ishmael
Cast: Ray Shell, Debby Bishop, Dawn
Hope, Melanie Marshall, Sean Palmer.
Notes: This revival was in its original
“chamber” style rather than the large-scale
production staged at Her Majesty’s in 1979.
It received a number of rave notices for
Sean Palmer, hailed as an exceptional bright
new star.
See Original London production: Her
Majesty’s, March 1979
Sean Palmer
MAMA I WANT TO SING
London run: Cambridge Theatre, February 1st (149 Performances)
Transferred to Gielgud Theatre, June 13th (38 Performances)
Music: Rudolph V Hawkins, Wesley Naylor & Doris Troy
Book & Lyrics: Vy Higginsen & Ken Wydro
Director: Vy Higginsen & Ken Wydro
Choreographer: Richard Sampson
Musical Director: Bazil Meade
Cast: Doris Troy (Mama Winter), Howard McCrary (Reverend Winter).
Stacy Francis (Young Doris), Joanne Campbell (Narrator),
Chaka Khan (Sister Carrie), Charles Stewart (Minister of Music)
Songs: You Are My Child, Just One Look, Just follow Your Dream, Precious
Lord, God Will Be, Faith Can Move a Mountain
Story: Set in Harlem in the late 1940s and early 1950s this is the story of the real-life soul singer, Doris Troy,
whose pastor father encouraged her to follow her dream of becoming a gospel singer, whilst her mother, Mama
Winter, tried hard to persuade her to avoid the Apollo Theater crowd and to stop idolising the worldly music of
pop singers. A radio-show narrator tells her story, her great success and her eventual return to her local
community to found a children’s home, and old people’s centre and a “Fame” school for musicaslly talented
children – all named after her beloved Mama.
Notes: This show held the record as the longest running allblack off-Broadway show, running for eight years, playing to
over 3 million people and taking something like £38 million at
the box office in stagings through Europe, Asia and Japan.
The part of Doris Troy’s mother was played by Doris Troy
herself, and the company included a 15 voice gospel choir.
Generally the critics hated it! “Over-amplified, over-long,
under-written, uninspired” (Sunday Express), “you end up
aching for Motown and wishing the show had been about
Diana Ross. Or even Jonathan Ross” (Michael Coveney in
“The Observer”. )
Doris Troy as Mama Winter
1995
2
CLOSER THAN EVER
London run: Bridewell Theatre, February 9th to March 4th
Music: David Shire
Lyrics: Richard Maltby Jr
Book: Steven Scott-Smith
Director: Clive Paget
Musical Director: Jo Last
Photo by Cullen Henshaw
Cast: Lyanna Iveson, Vicky Simmonds,
Richard Tremblay, Clive Paget
Songs: She Loves Me Not, You Want to Be My
Friend?, What am I Doin'?, The Sound of Muzak, One of
the Good Guys, Life Story, I Wouldn't Go Back,
Fandango, Another Wedding Song, The March of Time,
Fathers of Fathers, I've Been Here Before, Closer Than
Ever
Story: This is a sung-through musical revue in two
acts described as a "bookless book musical". It features
self-contained songs which deal with such topics as security, growing old, mid-life-crises, second marriages,
working couples, and unrequited love. Some of the songs were written for but not used in earlier Maltby and
Shire shows, and many were based on the real-life experiences of their friends, or stories told to them.
Lyanna Iveson & Clive Paget
Notes: It won an award as the Best Off-Broadway Musical and several other nominations at its 1989 premiere,
and ran for 312 performances in New York.
ZORRO THE MUSICAL!
London run: Theatre Royal, Stratford East February 13th – March 25th
Music: Master of the Zarzuela
Additional Music: Warren Wills
Book & Lyrics: Ken Hill
Director: Ken Hill & Peter Rankin
Choreographer: Imogen Clare
Musical Director: Warren Wills
Cast: Bogdan Kominowski (Don José/Zorro), Andrew Secombe (Governor Maté),
Toni Palmer (Maria), Michael N. Harnour (Pirate Lafitte),
Sylvester McCoy (Bernardo), Gary Lyons, Siobhan McCarthy
Songs: I Sold my Soul to the Devil Long Ago,
Story: Don José has been exiled from his native Spain for no good reason, and ends up in Southern California
in 19th Century Spanish colonial times. His enemies are the villainous Governor Maté, who dreams of
becoming America’s first Emperor, with his randy wife, Maria as Empress, and the pirate Lafitte, who eats the
odd budgerigar alive. Pretending to be a bewigged fop, accompanied by his mute servant, Bernardo, Don José
is able to lead a double life – for his real role is as the masked Zorro, defying the villains, assisting the poor,
and pitting his gipsy wits against the villains, and his romantic ardour towards Isabella, the love of his life.
Notes: This was a mixture of folk-opera and political pantomime, making heavy use of zarzuela music (a kind
of traditional comic Spanish operetta) by 19th century Spanish composers. Ken Hill had been fighting cancer
for several years and sadly died during rehearsals for this show.
1995
3
THE KING AND I (4th Revival)
Photo by Photographers Direct
London run: Freemason’s Hall, May 17th – 20th
Music: Richard Rodgers
Lyrics & Book: Oscar Hammerstein II
Director: John Gardyne
Choreographer: Sean Walsh
Musical Director: Peter Ash
Cast: Liz Robertson (Anna), Irek Mukhamedov (King),
Shezwae Powell (Lady Thiang), Deborah Myers (Tuptim),
Mario Frangoulis (Lun Tha)
This was a special festival production for five performances
only, staged in the magnificent Freemason’s Hall as part of
the Covent Garden Festival. It was especially notable for
the appearance of Irek Mukhamedov, the ex-Bolshoi and
Royal Ballet’s great solo dancer.
Irek Mukhamedov
Notes: See original London production, Drury Lane, June 1953
First revival: Adelphi, October 1973
Second revival: London Palladium, June 1979
Third revival: Sadler’s Wells, February & June 1991
THE HOT MIKADO
London run: Queen’s Theatre, May 24th (101 Performances)
Music: Sir Arthur Sullivan & Rob Bowman
Book & Lyrics: David H. Bell
Director-Choreographer: David H. Bell
Musical Director: Simon Lee
Story: Set in the late 1930s-early 1940s, the show abandoned
traditional Japanese costumes for snappy zoot suits and skintight jitterbug skirts, and added elements of gospel, jazz, blues
and swing and an Andrews Sisters send-up to the basic story
of the original Gilbert & Sullivan story.
Notes: The production had been a success in Washington and
other US cities (though it had not played Broadway) and came
to London with some of the original cast. However it failed to
catch on in the West End and closed after 12 weeks.
Photo by Michael Le Poer Trench
Cast: Sharon Benson (Katisha), Lawrence Hamilton (The Mikado),
Paul Manuel (Nanki-Poo),
Ross Lehman (Ko-Ko),
Richard Lloyd King (Pooh-Bah),
Veronica Hart (Peep Bo),
Paulette Ivory (Yum-Yum),
Alison Jiear (Pitti-Sing),
Neil Couperthwaite (Junior)
1995
4
ROCKY HORROR SHOW (3rd Revival)
London run: Duke of York’s Theatre, May 30th (127 Performances)
Music & Lyrics: Richard O’Brien
Director: Christopher Malcolm
Choreographer: Stuart Hopps
Musical Director: Dave Brown
Producer: Christopher Malcolm, Rocky Horror London Ltd
Photo by Rex Features
Cast: Nicholas Parsons (Narrator), Robin Cousins (Frank-n-Furter),
Tony Dowding (Rocky Horror), Paul Collis (Brad), Joanne Farrell (Janet),
Vas Constanti (Riff-Raff), Corrina Powlesland (Magenta),
Rebecca Vere (Columbia), Nicholas Pound(Eddie/Dr Scott)
This was back in the West End a year after its previous revival – again for a
limited season.
Notes: See original production: Upstairs (Royal Court), June 19th 1973
Transferred to the Comedy Theatre, April 1979;
First revival: Piccadilly Theatre, July 1990
Second revival: Duke of York’s Theatre, June 1994
Nicholas Parsons
THE RISE & FALL OF THE CITY OF MAHAGONNY
(1st Revival)
London run: Coliseum, June 8th – July 30th (Repertoire & Limited season)
Music: Kurt Weill
Book & Lyrics: Bertolt Brecht
English translation: Michael Feingold
Director: Declan Donnellan
Choreographer: Jane Gibson
Musical Director: Sian Edwards/James Holmes
Cast: Robert Brubaker (Jim), John Daszak (Jake), Ricardo Simonetti (Bill),
Richard Angas (Joe), Lesley Garrett (Jenny), Sally Burgess (Widow Begbick),
Adrian Thompson (Fatty), Brian Matthews (Trinity Moses)
Songs: O Moon of Alabama, Benares Song, Mandalay Song
Story: Having escaped from the police, the Widow Begbick, Trinity Moses and Fatty end up in a desolate
place and decide to create a true paradise of their own, a city called Mahagonny, where sex, gambling and
money are available for all. The city grows, and includes Jenny, a young prostitute, and four lumberjacks, Jim,
Jake, Bill and Joe. When their new city is threatened by a destructive hurricane, and saved at the last minute by
a change of course, life takes on an even more frantic pace: indulgence, sex, violence and debauchery become
the rules of everyday life.
Jake eats himself to death; Joe is killed by Trinity Moses in a boxing
match; Jim runs up a massive bar bill and is unable to pay; his mistress,
Jenny, refuses to use her own money to cover his debts, so Jim is sentenced
to death and executed for non-payment of his bill. The citizens of
Mahagonny are warned that they will be sent to Hell because of their sinful
lives. However, they know they are already in Hell, and decide to continue
their lives as before.
Notes: This was a strong satire on capitalism and the state of Germany in
the 1930s during the Weimar Republic. It was banned when the Nazis
came to power, and Brecht and Weill were forced to flee Germany to
escape imprisonment. The first British production was at Sadler’s Wells in
1963 and was much praised. This new version was generally heavily
criticised for being too gimmicky, too pretty, over-amplified, and lacking
the spirit of corruption and decay which was the hallmark of the original
pre-Nazi German version.
Lesley Garrett as Jenny
1995
5
FAME
London run: Cambridge Theatre, June 27th (526 Performances)
Music: Steve Margoshes
Lyrics: Jacques Levy
Book: David de Silva & Jose Fernandez
Director: Runar Borge
Choreographer: Lars Bethke
Musical Director:
Producer: Michael White
Cast: Scott Sherrin (Tyrone), Sonia Swaby (Mabel), Gemma Wardle (Serena),
Richard Dempsey (Nick), Loraine Velez (Carmen), Josefina Gabrielle (Iris),
Jonathan Aris, Nicola Bolton, Alastair Willis, Miguel Brown, Vivien Parry,
Harry Landis, Bill Champion
Songs: Hard Work, I Want to Make Magic, Can’t Keep it Down, Tyrone’s Rap, There She Goes, Let’s Play a Love
Scene, Dancing on the Sidewalk, In L.A. (The title song, “Fame”, by Dean Pitchford & Michael Gore was
interpolated)
Story: Based on the 1980 film by Alan Parker, this was the story of students at the Manhattan High School for the
Performing Arts. Over the four years of their college careers, this charted the lives, trials and romances of a group
of teenagers – high-born and low, gay, straight, Puerto Rican, black, white – and all fiercely ambitious to achieve
fame in the world of showbiz.
Notes: Following its original film and spin-off TV series, the critics thought the show was too predictable and
clichéd - dancer with an eating disorder, student with drug problem, girl in love with boy who might be gay,
teacher passionate about Mozart dealing with a class that wants to rap – and was just an excuse for dance numbers
and songs not as good as the original soundtrack. It ran for more than a year in London run and then underwent a
successful UK tour which was to make a few return visits to the West End over the next years.
THE MUSIC MAN (1st Revival)
Cast: Brian Cox (Harold Hill), Liz Robertson (Marian Paroo),
John Challis (Mayor Shinn), Anny Tobin (Mrs Paroo),
Nick Holder (Marcellus Washburn), Adam Goldsmith/Anthony
Hamblin/Simon Humphrey (Winthrop Paroo)
This production subsequently went on a UK tour.
Notes: Original London run: Adelphi, March 1961
HAPPY END (2nd Revival)
London run: Bridewell Theatre, August 11th – September 2nd (Limited season)
Music: Kurt Weill
Lyrics: Bertolt Brecht
Book: Dorothy Lane
Director: Gordon McDougall
Choreographer: Gillian Gregory
Cast: Annette Yeo (Lillian Holliday), Peter Polycarpou (Bill Cracker), Mark White (Sam Wurlitzer),
Phillip Pellew (Rev. Jimmy Dexter), Karen Davies, Gregory Cross, Brett Forrest
Performed in the Michael Feingold translation.
Notes: See original production: Royal Court, March 1965; First revival: Lyric Theatre, August 1975
Photo by Alastair Muir
London run: Open Air Theatre, July 26th – September 4th (Limited
season)
Music: Meredith Willson
Lyrics & Book: Meredith Willson
Director: Ian Talbot
Choreographer: Lisa Kent
Musical Director: Catherine Jayes
1995
6
CAVALCADE (1st Revival)
London run: Sadler’s Wells, August 16th – September 2nd
Music & Lyrics: Noel Coward
Director: Dan Crawford
Choreographer: Elizabeth Blake
Musical Director: Michael Lavine
Cast: Gabrielle Drake (Jane Marryott), Jeremy Clyde (Robert Marryott),
Nicky Goldie (Mrs Bridges), Scott Morgan (Alfred Bridges), Rosalind
Bailey, Lisa Bowerman, Steffan Boje, Jon Peterson, Caroline Oliver,
Penelope Woodman, Ian McLarnon, Siv Klynderud, Virginia Courtney,
Terri Lewis, Nigel Denham
Songs: Twentieth Century Blues, Love of my Dreams, The Mirabelle Waltz
(Interpolated: Soldiers of the Queen, If You Were the Only Girl in the
World, Take Me Back to Dear Old Blighty, Keep the Home Fires Burning.
Story: This epic production covers three decades in the life of the Marryott
family and their servants, starting in 1900 and ending on New Year’s Eve, 1929. The family is caught up in
such events as the Relief of Mafeking, the death of Queen Victoria, the sinking of the Titanic and World War 1.
Popular songs of at the time of each event were interwoven into the score, which also included original music
by Noel Coward.
Notes: The original premiere in 1931 at Drury Lane involved great spectacle, massive sets and a professional
cast of over 200 including Mary Claire, Edward Sinclair, John Mills, Irene Browne, Una O’Connor, Arthur
McCrae and Moyra Nugent . The show was very successful and ran for almost a year. Because of its size and
enormous production costs, it has never been revived on anything like its original scale. The work provided the
idea for the 1970s television series “Upstairs Downstairs”.
This revival had started at Bromley and was part of an extensive UK tour. In each city the basic professional
cast of 15 people would be augmented by hundreds of local amateurs and a large number of children, with
several teams of children in each venue because of licensing restrictions. It required an extremely complex
system of rehearsals dealing with the ever-changing cast of supernumaries. The Sadler’s Wells production
used 275 extras.
A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC (2nd Revival)
Cast: Judi Dench (Desirée),
Laurence Guittard (Frederik) ,
Sian Phillips (Mme Armfeldt),
Brendan O’Hea (Henrik),
Issy van Ryndwyck (Petra),
Lambert Wilson (Count Malcolm),
Patricia Hodge (Charlotte),
Joanna Riding (Anne),
Claire Cox (Fredrika)
Notes: See original London run:
Adelphi, April 1975
First revival: Piccadilly
Theatre, 1989
Judi Dench
Photo by Michael Le Poer Trench
London run: Olivier Theatre, September 26th – August 31st 1996 (Repertoire)
Music & Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim
Book: Hugh Wheeler
Director: Sean Mathias
Choreographer: Wayne McGregor
Musical Director: Paddy Cunneen
Producer: Royal National Theatre
1995
7
JOLSON THE MUSICAL
London run: Victoria Palace, October 26th (580 Performances)
Music: Various
Book: Francis Essex & Rob Bettinson
Original idea: Michael Freedland
Director: Rob Bettinson
Choreographer: Tudor Davies
Musical Director: John Evans
Producer: Paul Elliott, Laurie Mansfield & Greg Smith
Cast: Brian Conley (Al Jolson), Sally Ann Triplett (Ruby Keeler),
John Bennett (Louis Epstein), John Conroy (Frankie Holmes),
Brian Greene (Lee Shubert), Gareth Williams (Harry Cohn),
David Bacon (Sam Warner)
Songs: Swanee, Sonny Boy, My Mammy, By the Light of the
Silvery Moon, You Made Me Love You, I’m Just Wild About
Harry, About a Quarter to Nine
Story: The real life-story of Al Jolson, depicting his childlike
desperation need to please in his extravagant stage presentations, but having the courage to take on the warts
and all. Privately Jolson was an ego with tonsils – a man who could ruthlessly steal
other peoples’ songs, hijack their careers and destroy their affections. The story
opens in the 1920s with his enormous success on Broadway and the first talking
pictures and tells of his monstrous behaviour to his agent, managers and his much
abused third wife, Ruby Keeler. The second act moves to the 1940s when his career
is in decline until Hollywood films a totally false bio-pic, “The Jolson Story” and he
stages a legendary “comeback” at the Radio City Music Hall.
Notes: This was a complete triumph for Brian Conley, and there was much praise
for Sally Ann Triplett in her first major West End role. There was one number in
black-face, potentially controversial, though ironically in the same theatre where the
Black & White Minstrels had reigned for some ten years!
PRISONER OF CELL BLOCK H – THE MUSICAL
London run: Queen’s Theatre, October 30th (88 Performances)
Music & Lyrics: Don Battye & Peter Pinne
Director: David McVicar
Choreographer: Peter Titus
Musical Director: Andrew Jarrett
Producer: Helen Montagu
Cast: Lily Savage (Herself), Maggie Kirkpatrick (Joan Ferguson),
Penny Morrell (The Governor), Liz Smith (Minnie), Alison Jiear (Mrs Austin),
Sara Stephens (Patsy), Terry Neason, Emma Kershaw, Jeffrey Perry.
Songs: The Freak, Life on the Inside, Top Dog, Gimme a Man, Twinset and Pearls
Notes: The cult Australian TV soap set in a women’s prison was re-created as a
camp musical which dispensed with any seriousness, kept the wobbly sets and daft plot, added some witty
songs, and ended up as a gloriously hilarious show for some critics – and as a complete load of tacky
amateurish rubbish for others. Liverpool’s own Lily Savage (Paul O’Grady) has been wrongly jailed for
prostitution, theft and murder whilst on holiday Down Under – accused of stealing a fondue set. Joan “ the
Freak” Ferguson (from the original TV cast) is a leather-clad jackbooted prison warder with a compulsive
fondness for strip-searching the prisoners. British actress, Liz Smith, plays a mad old lady doing bird pottering
around in a dishevelled and confused state. Such plot as there was involved Joan Ferguson attempting to poison
the Governor’s tea in order to take over control of the prison to show the prisoners some “real discipline”
1995
8
MACK AND MABEL
London run: Piccadilly Theatre, November 7th
(270 Performances)
Music & Lyrics: Jerry Herman
Book: Michael Stewart
Director: Paul Kerryson
Choreographer: Michael Smuin
Musical Director: Julian Kelly
Cast: Howard McGillan (Mack Sennett),
Caroline O’Connor (Mabel Normand),
Kathryn Evans (Lottie), Philip Herbert (Fatty Arbuckle),
Jonathan D. Ellis, Graham Hubbard, Alan Mosley
Songs: I Won’t Send Roses, Tap Your Troubles Away,
Movies Were Movies, Time Heals Everything, I Promise
You a Happy Ending, Mack and Mabel, Hit ‘Em on the
Head
Howard McGillan & Caroline O’Connor
Story: Told in flashback from the year 1938 when Mack
Sennett is leaving the movie-business for good, this recounts his earliest days in silent movies, and how he took the
sandwich-delivery girl, Mabel Normand, and put her into pictures, making a star of her. However, their private
and professional relationship didn’t work out, and eventually she left him when offers of
better work came along.
Notes: This had been a spectacular two month flop on Broadway in 1974, despite leading
stars Robert Preston and Bernadette Peters, directed by Gower Champion. It had
occasional touring and stock revivals in America but seemed unlikely to come to the West
End. In 1984 the Olympic ice skaters Torvill and Dean used the overture as music for
their gold-medal winning performance, and then the radio disc-jockey David Jacobs
began promoting the album, claiming, quite rightly, it was one of the very best and most
ignored of musical scores. Finally, 21 years after its Broadway premiere, a production
was mounted at Leicester Haymarket and brought into the West End. The book had been
revised to create a happy ending (in the original Mabel Normand died), and some new
songs were added, but the book proved to be the problem. The songs were great, yet the
show didn’t really hang together. It managed a seven month run during which Howard
McGillan was replaced with James Smillie.
COMPANY (1st Revival)
London run: Donmar Warehouse, December 13th (93 Performances)
Transferred to Albery Theatre March13th 1996 (124 Performances)
Music & Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim
Book: George Furth
Director: Sam Mendes
Musical Director: Paddy Cunneen
Notes: This revival was hugely praised, especially for Adrian Lester’s central
performance.
Original London run: Her Majesty’s, January 1972
Adrian Lester
Photo by Mark Douet
Cast: Adrian Lester (Robert),
Sheila Gish (Joanne),
Kiran Hocking (Kathy),
Rebecca Front (Sarah), Clive Rowe,
Clare Burt, Gareth Snook, Liza Sadovy, Teddy
Kempner, Sophie Thompson, Michael Simkins, Anna Francolini, Hannah James
1995
9
RETURN TO THE FORBIDDEN PLANET (1st Revival)
London run: Shaftesbury Theatre December 19th – January 13th 1996
Music: Various
Book: Bob Carlton
Director: Peter Rowe
Choreographer:
Musical Director:
Producer: Andre Ptaszinski & Pola Jones Associates
Cast: Alex Kelly (Miranda), Karen Mann
This was a brief Christmas season stop-over for the touring production.
Notes: Original London production: Cambridge Theatre, September 1989
SOUTH PACIFIC (2nd Revival)
London run: Drill Hall, December 12th – January 20th
Music: Richard Rodgers
Lyrics: Oscar Hammerstein II
Book: Hammerstein & Joshua Logan.
Director: Phil Willmott
Choreographer: Jack Gunn
Musical Director: Annemarie Lewis Thomas
Producer: Steam Industry
Cast: Joanna Maddison (Nellie Forbush), Peter Polycarpou (Emile),
Christopher Howard (Lt. Cable), Patti Boulaye (Bloody Mary) ,
John Marquez (Luther).
Notes: See Original London Production,
Drury Lane November 1951
First revival: Prince of Wales Theatre,
January 1988
Peter Polycarpou & Joanna Maddison
Photo by Sheila Burnett
With a 17 strong cast and a 6 piece band this was one of
the earlier attempts to re-stage the standard large-scale
West End and Broadway musicals as “chamber” pieces
in small venues.