Terry Pratchett`s Johnny and the Bomb by Matthew

TERRY PRATCHETT’S
Johnny and the Bomb
by Matthew Holmes
AN A&C BLACK MUSICAL FOR SCHOOLS
WHITEBOARD LYRIC DISPLAYS
click on the song titles below to navigate through the document
Put the lights out
Mrs Tachyon
Home Guard
Evacuee
When I close my eyes
Change the story
Walk down a street I know
TERRY PRATCHETT’S JOHNNY AND THE BOMB BY MATTHEW HOLMES • WHITEBOARD LYRIC DISPLAYS © 2012 A&C BLACK
Acknowledgements
PUT THE LIGHTS OUT
All sing
Street light glow –
No! No! No!
Shining far too bright.
Air raid warden
Turn the lights off tonight.
Blackout drapes
Hang like capes
’Cross your window pane,
Firebombs fall down
Even in pouring rain.
Chorus
Put the lights out!
The Germans could be here
Before the night’s out!
Don’t you know aeroplanes are flying?
Listen for the siren!
Just run for the shelter
When you hear the sound,
And will you put those lights out now
All around this town!
Soldiers 1–4 sing:
Paradise
Street was nice
Till those bombers came,
Last night – turned that
Street to rubble. What a shame!
Don’t come near
This hole, here’s
An unexploded bomb!
[pointing off the front left of the stage]
You know what to
Do to stop another one!
Chorus - All sing:
Put the lights out…
Final chorus, All:
Put the lights out…
And will you put those lights out
now
All around this town!
TERRY PRATCHETT’S JOHNNY AND THE BOMB BY MATTHEW HOLMES • WHITEBOARD LYRIC DISPLAYS © 2012 A&C BLACK
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MRS TACHYON
.
The four children sing:
She’s a crusty crazy lady,
You can only guess how old,
But she’s always lived in Blackb’ry, so I’m told.
With her wrinkly socks and trainers,
And her crinkly ra-ra skirt,
And a dozen woolly jumpers for the cold.
s she steps from the shadows
A
There’s a sound on the wind –
A shopping trolley with a squeaky wheel!
Bigmac rocks the trolley back and forth – the others stare.
Chorus
Mrs Tachyon, Mrs Tachyon,
Well she comes and goes
But who knows where her mind has gone?
Mrs Tachyon, what is going on?
Why’s this crazy lady lying here?
ear a babbling and a cackling
H
When you put your dustbin out?
It can only mean that Tachyon’s about!
Then she vanishes for ages,
It’s a mystery where to,
Then around the corner, yes, it’s you know who!
s she steps from the shadows
A
There’s a sound on the wind –
A shopping trolley with a squeaky wheel!
Chorus
Mrs Tachyon, Mrs Tachyon...
Mrs Tachyon raps:
What’s the word on the street, there, mister man?
Poor old biddy is it? Tick tick bang!
Dinner dinner batman, points win prizes,
Tell it to the boys in khaki, I sez.
That’s what you think, time goes quick –
Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick.
Mrs Tachyon slumps back down.
The four children and the Paramedics sing:
There’s an ambulance waiting
But that leaves us to deal
With her old trolley and it’s squeaky wheel!
Chorus
Mrs Tachyon, Mrs Tachyon...
TERRY PRATCHETT’S JOHNNY AND THE BOMB BY MATTHEW HOLMES • WHITEBOARD LYRIC DISPLAYS © 2012 A&C BLACK
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HOME GUARD
Soldiers, ARP Warden and Capt. Harris (or All) sing:
When Hitler draws his new invasion map,
Well there’s just one problem, there’s a tiny gap –
It’s a little place called Blackb’ry where his plans
fall down
’Cos you’ll never put a swastika on this town!
Home Guard, we’ll keep them on the run
Until the war is won.
We’ll keep watching ev’ry night and day,
Keeping Jerry and his pals away,
And if Rommel ever rolls his tanks
Up the pickle fact’ry road, no thanks!
I’ll be waiting at the gates,
Me and my mates,
’Cos you can’t beat the old Home Guard!
Capt. Harris uses his stick to conduct the troop’s singing:
ome Guard, we’ll keep them on the run
H
Until the war is won.
Keep that pickle fact’ry safe and sound,
Keeping Jerry off the cricket ground,
And if Himmler thinks he stands a chance,
Well, he must be thick as two short planks!
We’ll be standing in his way,
Spoiling his day,
’Cos you can’t beat the old Home Guard!
One of the soldiers picks up a tennis racket, steps forward and
pretends it’s a ukulele, miming to the music [in the style of
George Formby].
Shouted [in the gaps]:
We are!
Home Guard!
Quick march!
During the instrumental, the other soldiers join in one by one
miming with mop or broom, umbrella and cricket bat, playing
in the style of a dance band [double bass, clarinet, saxophone].
At the end of the instrumental, Soldiers 1–4 step back in a
line holding their props as if rifles to sing the final verse.
Home Guard, we’ll keep them on the run
Until the war is won.
Watchtower, early warning, guard the skies,
Out on foot we’re catching all the spies,
And if Jerry ever comes round here,
Well, we’ll make him wish he’d stayed well
clear!
We’ll be wiping off his smile,
Blackbury style!
’Cos you can’t beat the old Home Guard!
TERRY PRATCHETT’S JOHNNY AND THE BOMB BY MATTHEW HOLMES • WHITEBOARD LYRIC DISPLAYS © 2012 A&C BLACK
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EVACUEE
Evacuee [optional solo] sings:
Well I ’eard Mister Churchill say
It’s time that children left the city.
Pack your troubles one, two, three.
Spoken [backing vocals]:
E-V-A-C-U double E
Evacuee [optional solo] sings:
So my old mam, she packs me case,
Before you know we’re at the station,
Waving, I’m on my way
To who knows where!
Chorus, all sing:
On the train,
Don’t know when I’ll be home again.
Suddenly I’m an evacuee.
No one cares about me.
‘Please don’t cry,’
Sez me mam, as she waves goodbye.
Now I’m just a poor evacuee.
No one cares about me!
Evacuee [optional solo] sings:
I cannot tell what people say,
The teachers think I must be stupid,
Blamin’ ev’rything on me.
Spoken [backing vocals]:
E-V-A-C-U double E
Evacuee [optional solo] sings:
I stay with Mrs Density,
She does ’er best, but we both sit there
Hopin’ this bloomin’ war
Is over soon.
Chorus, All sing:
On the train...
Evacuee [optional solo] sings:
Over, I want the war to end!
Why can’t it be over?
[spoken]
Come on Jerry, will you please surrender!
Chorus, All sing:
On the train...
No one cares about me!
TERRY PRATCHETT’S JOHNNY AND THE BOMB BY MATTHEW HOLMES • WHITEBOARD LYRIC DISPLAYS © 2012 A&C BLACK
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WHEN I CLOSE MY EYES
Sir John sings:
I could tell you
Such a story,
Tales of rags to riches –
My road to glory.
Jetset livin’,
Chauffeur driven,
Built an empire from these
Days I was given.
Sir John sings:
Making money
I just knew it,
Boardrooms gasping awestruck,
‘How does he do it?’
Many years passed,
Many good things,
Had the world at my feet
But it means nothing!
Chorus [All optional]
But when I close my eyes
I see my friends in a thousand mem’ries,
When I close my eyes
I’m just the frightened child,
Who cried himself to sleep,
Just longing to be
Back here,
Just my best friends and me.
Chorus [All optional]
’Cos when I close my eyes
I see my friends in a thousand mem’ries,
When I close my eyes
I’m just the frightened child,
Who cried himself to sleep,
Just longing to be
Back here,
Just my best friends and me.
I need to be back here
with my best friends and me!
TERRY PRATCHETT’S JOHNNY AND THE BOMB BY MATTHEW HOLMES • WHITEBOARD LYRIC DISPLAYS © 2012 A&C BLACK
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CHANGE THE STORY
The five children sing [or All]:
Clock tower in the distance chime,
Could this mean we’re running out of time?
A deadly flight
Tearing this town apart tonight!
Do those people understand –
While they sleep their future’s in our hands,
Their fate arranged –
Is it too late for us to change?
Bridge
Hold my hand and run with me.
Can you feel the energy?
Here and now the world turns round
With only one chance
To change the story.
Chorus
Time to wake the mem’ry of a dreadful night,
Take the past and make it right –
Travel in time with me.
Firebombs rip the sky to set the street alight
But no one has to die tonight –
Travel in time with me.
Watch the clock ahead replay,
Landscape, night, lit up in shades of grey,
And all around
Rushes a whispering of sound.
Strange light blurs the new and old,
Streets aglow and ev’rything looks cold,
The leaves, the trees,
Glittering like the winter’s freeze.
Bridge
Hold my hand and run with me.
Can you feel the energy?
Here and now the world turns round
For Johnny Maxwell
To change the story.
Chorus
Time to wake the mem’ry of a dreadful night...
Kirsty: [during the instrumental verse] I can see the clock
tower. It’s working, Johnny. The hands are moving
backwards.
Johnny: We only need to go back a few minutes.
Just keep running.
Bridge
Hold my hand and run with me.
Can you feel the energy?
Here and now it all comes down
To Johnny Maxwell,
So change the story!
Chorus
Time to wake the mem’ry of a dreadful night...
TERRY PRATCHETT’S JOHNNY AND THE BOMB BY MATTHEW HOLMES • WHITEBOARD LYRIC DISPLAYS © 2012 A&C BLACK
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WALK DOWN A STREET I KNOW
All sing:
Back in town,
Back on time,
Best place that I could be!
Oh, let me go
Down a street I know.
Little town,
Here and now,
This is the one for me.
The past was fine,
But the present’s mine.
Chorus
We’re back, we’re back,
On a Tesco trolley time machine.
We’re back, from far and long ago.
Come on, come on,
Well, you won’t believe the things I’ve seen,
But it’s paradise to find a way back home,
And walk down a street I know.
Made it, then,
Back again,
Tell me you got the date?
Wait, Johnny, wait,
Say we’re not too late.
World War Two
Bomber crew
Already on their way.
Hey, Johnny, hey,
Guess you saved the day!
Chorus
We’re back, we’re back…
All except Johnny [chanted]:
Johnny Maxwell, you can see
Tonight a piece of history
Has turned for you, you’ve changed the past,
And time has healed to make it last.
Though these wartime mem’ries fade,
We shan’t forget our escapade.
Those yesterdays have long since gone,
But what a night in forty-one!
All [sung softly, growing louder]:
We’re back, we’re back, we’re back, we’re back,
We’re back, we’re back, we’re back!
Chorus [optional backing vocals]
We’re back, [We’re back,] we’re back, [we’re back,]
On a Tesco trolley time machine.
We’re back, [We’re back,] from far and long ago.
Come on, [Come on,] come on, [come on,]
Well, you won’t believe the things I’ve seen,
But it’s paradise to find a way back home,
And walk down a street I know.
Walk down a street I know.
Walk down a street I know.
TERRY PRATCHETT’S JOHNNY AND THE BOMB BY MATTHEW HOLMES • WHITEBOARD LYRIC DISPLAYS © 2012 A&C BLACK
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First published 2012 by A & C Black,
an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc,
50 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3DP
ISBN 978-1-4081-6560-7
Johnny and the Bomb, original story and characters,
copyright © 1996 Terry and Lyn Pratchett.
Stage adaptation and original songs, music
arrangements and incidental music
© 2012 Matthew Holmes.
Illustrations by Akbar Ali
Edited by Emily Wilson, Design by Jocelyn Lucas
All rights reserved. Excepting whiteboard display for
the purposes of rehearsal and performance within
the purchasing educational establishment, no part
of this publication may be reproduced or used in any
form or by any means ~ photographic, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping
or information storage and retrieval systems ~ without
the prior permission in writing of the publishers.
The complete performance pack of Terry Pratchett’s
Johnny and the Bomb by Matthew Holmes is available
from:
www.acblack.com/music
TERRY PRATCHETT’S JOHNNY AND THE BOMB BY MATTHEW HOLMES • WHITEBOARD LYRIC DISPLAYS © 2012 A&C BLACK
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