London Musicals - Over The Footlights

1978
22
KINGS AND CLOWNS
London run: Phoenix Theatre, March 1st
(34 Performances)
Music & Lyrics: Leslie Bricusse
Director: Mel Shapiro
Choreographer: Gillian Gregory
Musical Director: Ed Coleman
Cast: Frank Finlay (Henry VIII),
Elizabeth Counsell (Catherine of Aragon),
Dilys Watling (Anne Boleyn),
Maureen Scott (Jane Seymour), Anna Quale (Anne of Cleves),
Colette Gleeson (Catherine Howard),
Sally Mates (Catherine Parr), Michael Napier Brown,
Michael Heath, Ray C. Davis
Songs: Henry Tudor, To Love One
Anna Quayle & Frank Finlay
Man, Get Rid of Her!, The Grape and
the Vine, A Woman is a Wonderful
Thing, In Bed, Ten Wishes, The End of Love, A Man is About to be Born
Story: In the words of Kurt Gänzl: “It starred the distinguished actor Frank Finlay as
an unlikely King Henry at the centre of an anachronistic clutch of wives and a gaudy,
tasteless production as he aged from sporty youth to slobbering elder among a bundle
of feeble songs and some appalling dialogue. It was hard to believe this fiasco of
tastelessness was the work of (Leslie Bricusse)”.
Notes: It was universally damned and closed after a month.
KISMET (1st Revival)
London run: Shaftesbury, March 21st, (3 months)
Music: Borodin
Lyrics: Roger Wright & George Forrest
Book: Charles Lederer & Luther Davis
Director: Albert Marre
Choreographer: Bonnie Evans
Musical Director: Alexander Faris
Producer: Stanley Picker & Richard Pilbrow
Photo by Zoe Dominic
Cast: John Reardon (Hajj),
Lorna Dallas (Marsinah),
Joan Diener (Lalume),
Clifton Todd (Caliph),
Sheila O’Neill (Princess),
Paul Bacon (Omar Khayyam),
Christopher Hewitt (Wazir)
It received very poor notices and closed
after just three months.
Clifton Todd, Lorna Dallas, John Reardon and Joan Diener
Notes: See Original London Production:
Stoll Theatre, April 20th, 1955
Photo by Donald Cooper
Producer: Duncan Weldon & Louis Michaels
1978
23
THE TRAVELLING MUSIC SHOW
London run: Her Majesty’s, March 28th (4 months)
Music & Lyrics: Leslie Bricusse & Anthony Newley
Director: Burt Shevelove
Choreographer: Norman Maen
Producer: Duncan Weldon & Louis I Michaels
Cast: Bruce Forsyth (Fred Limelight),
Valerie Walsh (Evie Limelight),
Katie Budd (Sam Limelight)
Derek Griffiths (Reg),
Tony Maiden (Kim)
Story : Fred and Evie Limelight, on the tattier
end of the showbiz world, decide to stage a
musical about London, although they are
hampered with a leading performer, Reg, who
has never appeared on any stage before. The
show is a series of sketches evoking streetcorner rip-off artists and tawdry tourist tat,
using the hit songs Leslie Bricusse and
Anthony Newley had written for their earlier
shows. “The Good Old Bad Old Days” is
performed by Fred and Reg as two incontinent
drunks, and “Nothing Can Stop Me Now” is
performed by a quivering goalkeeper. With
Bruce Forsyth ad-libbing throughout in his
accepted breezy manner, this was a variety
show cum revue rather than any kind of
structured musical.
Photo by Donald Cooper
Songs: On a Wonderful Day Like Today, London is London, Gonna Build a
Mountain, The Good Old Bad Old Days, Who Can I Turn To? What Kind of Fool am I?, If I Ruled the World,
Nothing Can Stop Me Now,
Bruce Forsyth & Derek Griffiths
LET THE GOOD STONES ROLL
London run: Ambassadors’ theatre, March 29th (5 weeks)
Music: Mick Jagger & Keith Richard
Original music: Steve Dawson
Book: Rayner Bourton
Director: Tony Craven
Choreographer: Albin Pahernik
Musical Director: Keith Strachan
Cast: Louis Selwyn (Mick), James Bath (Charlie), Joss Buckley (Bill), Colin Copperfield (Keith),
David Gretton (Brian), Sara Coward (Girl), Martin Smith (Boy)
Songs: Include: Get Off My Cloud, Satisfaction,
Story: The story of the Rolling Stones is used as an excuse to perform many of their standard hit songs. The
various scenes try to explore the Stones’ career and their attitudes and the media’s attitudes towards them:
Jagger’s relationship with the audience, the leadership squabbles, their anti-Establishment urge, and their
reaction to the death of Brian Jones. All the women in their lives are portrayed by the same actress, and all the
men on the fringes of their story played by one actor.
Notes: Staged in the pretty and ornately decorated Ambassadors Theatre, in a shoestring production, with token
attention paid to the story, and with all the surrounding characters treated as unpleasant caricatures, the show
did not go down well with the critics, though many Stones fans were vociferous in their approval.
1978
24
ANNIE
London run: Victoria Palace, May 3rd
(1,485 Performances)
Music: Charles Strouse
Lyrics: Martin Charnin
Book: Thomas Meehan
Director: Martin Charnin
Choreographer: Peter Gennaro
Musical Director: Ray Cook
Cast: Andrea McArdle (Annie),
Sheila Hancock (Miss Hannigan),
Stratford Johns (Oliver Warbucks),
Judith Paris (Grace Farrell),
Kenneth Nelson (Rooster),
Clovissa Newcombe (Lily),
Damon Sanders (President Roosevelt)
Photo by John Timbers
Producer: Michael White
Andrea McArdle
Songs: Tomorrow, It’s a Hard Knock Life, Little Girls, You’re Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile, I Don’t
Need Anything But You, A New Deal for Christmas
Story: Annie, an 11 year old foundling at the Municipal Orphanage yearns for her
parents to rescues her from the drunken matron, Miss Hannigan. A miraculous
father-figure appears in the form of Oliver Warbucks, multi-millionaire, who has been
encouraged by his secretary, Grace Farrell, to invite an orphan for Christmas at his
mansion. Oliver is much taken with Annie and decides to adopt her. Miss Hannigan
and her accomplices Rooster and Lily try to cash in by pretending to be the real
parents, but with the help of President Roosevelt, their evil plans are thwarted, Annie
is adopted, the orphanage gets a new matron and everyone has a New Deal for
Christmas and the promise that “the sun’ll come out tomorrow.”
Notes: Based on the comic-strip character “Little Orphan Annie” and her dog,
Sandy, by Harold Gray, this became an enormous Broadway hit, running for 2,377
performances.
BIG SIN CITY
London run: Roundhouse, May 30th (6 Performances)
Music & Lyrics: Neil, Lea & John Heather (The Heather Brothers)
Director: Bill Kenwright and Brian Peck
Choreographer: Paul Hart/Henry Metcalf
Musical Director: John Heather
Producer: Bill Kenwright
Cast: Jack Wild (Slic), Michael Price (Al), Su Pollard, Deena Payne,
Nicholas Chagrin
Songs: They’re Sending us Down, I’m a Dick, It Must be Love, The Pleasure Pit,
For Dolores, Hot for Louie, Everything Money can Buy, The Knife Fight
Story: Young innocent Slic arrives in Hollywood, the Big Sin City, which in this
Heather Brothers portrayal is a combination of B-Movie badlands and West Side
Story street gangs . It opened and closed in the same week, though previously it
had enjoyed a successful three-month UK tour..
1978
25
EVERY GOOD BOY DESERVES FAVOUR
London run: Mermaid, June 14th (Fixed season)
Music: Andre Previn
Book: Tom Stoppard
Cast: John Woodvine (Alexander), Ian McDiarmid (Ivanov), Ben Broadbent, James Harris, Sam Monck,
Anthony Robb, Andrew Sheldon, Rowena Cooper, Frank Windsor, John Carlisle.
Story: A 70 minute play with a star part for a symphony orchestra, this deals with the Soviet practice of
treating political dissidence as a form of mental illness. Alexander Ivanov, imprisoned in a Soviet mental
hospital will not be released until he admits that his anti-Government statements are due to his (non-existent)
mental disorder. Alexander shares a cell with a genuine mentally ill schizophrenic, also called Ivanov, who
believes he is the conductor of a symphony orchestra. Alexander is under pressure to confess by a Doctor and a
KGB Colonel. Meantime his son, Sacha, at school, has a teacher trying to convince him that his father is
genuinely mentally ill.
Notes: The play, inspired by a real story, has a cast of ten and a full orchestra, which forms an essential part of
the action. Its 1977 premiere was at the Festival Hall, and was later filmed for BBC TV. This stage version ran
at the Mermaid through the summer and autumn and was the last production at the old Mermaid before it was
demolished and redeveloped.
EVITA
London run: Prince Edward, June 21st (3,176 Performances)
Music: Andrew Lloyd Webber
Lyrics: Tim Rice
Director: Harold Prince
Choreographer: Larry Fuller
Musical Director: Anthony Bowles
Photo by Zoe Dominic
Producer: Robert Stigwood
1978
26
EVITA
London run: Prince Edward, June 21st (3,176 Performances)
Music: Andrew Lloyd Webber
Lyrics: Tim Rice
Director: Harold Prince
Choreographer: Larry Fuller
Musical Director: Anthony Bowles
Producer: Robert Stigwood
Songs: Oh What a Circus, On This Night of a Thousand Stars, Another
Suitcase in Another Hall, High Flying Adored, Don’t Cry for me
Argentina.
Story: The life-story of Eva Duarte, a B-Movie film actress who teams
up with a small-time tango-singer, Magaldi, and moves to Buenos
Aires. She meets the soldier/politician Juan Peron, and becomes his
mistress, kicking out his existing 16 year old favourite. She pushes his
career until he is elected President, and now married to him, as the
Elaine Paige
First Lady of Argentina, she becomes his propaganda mouthpiece,
spreading largesse to the poor by robbing the rich. By the age of 26
she is a folk heroine, a Saint in her own land. She aims at the world stage, and starts a “Rainbow Tour”,
hugely successful in Spain, but snubbed elsewhere because of her husband’s dictatorial reputation. Back home
she is even more adored by the population. But young as she is, she is dying of cancer. Her death throws the
whole nation into the deepest mourning. Throughout the show her career is
commented on in mocking and bitter terms by a true revolutionary narrator, Che (a
fictionalised version of Che Guevara)
Notes: Like “Jesus Christ Superstar”, this show began as an LP recording – though
always intended for the stage. The recording became a runaway hit, with the song
“Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” sung by Julie Covington reaching the No 1 chart
position. The show itself was described as “a sung-through opera” and went through
a great deal of pre-publicity hype and a well publicised search for someone to play
the title role. The opening night saw Elaine Paige acclaimed as a star, but next day
some of the critics were cool about the show itself, finding the subject matter
offensive. However, half the critics gave the show every superlative they could
muster, and claimed this was one of the finest British musicals ever written.
Thereafter it became a world-wide success – one of the first of the “global” hits.
WREN
London run: May Fair Theatre, June 25th (34 Performances)
Music: David Adams & Chuck Mallett
Book and Lyrics: David Adams
Director: Ken Hill
Choreographer: Gillian Gregory
Musical Director: Matthew Freeman
Producer: David Adams
Cast: Steven Grives (Christopher Wren), Raymond Marlowe (John Evelyn), Robert Lister (Oliver Cromwell),
Richard Tate (King Charles II), David Ashley (Samuel Pepys), Donna Donovan (Nell Gwynne)
Songs: In Praise of Man, Will You Build a Little Church for Me?, Saints and Soldiers, Monarchy Madness.
The Corn Hop Dance, As I Make Love to Thee, Dreaming Spires
Story: “A musical celebration of the Seventeenth Century”, it made very little impact and did not last a month.
Notes: An attempt was made the following year to revive this show as “dinner theatre” at the Park Lane Hotel.
It was given a new cast, a new director and a new title “Wren Pepys and Charlie Too”. It lasted just one week.
Photo by Zoe Dominic
Cast: David Essex (Che), Elaine Paige (Evita), Joss Ackland (Peron),
Siobhan McCarthy (Peron’s Mistress), Mark Ryan (Magaldi)
1978
GODSPELL (2nd Revival)
27
Shaftesbury Theatre, July 14th (5 weeks)
Music & Lyrics: Stephen Schwartz
Book: John-Michael Tebelak
Director: Robert Cheeseman
Choreographer: Rowan Stuart
Producer: Cameron Mackintosh
Photo by Donald Cooper
Cast: This was the same production as in May
1977, but with a largely different cast. It was used
as a “filler” after the sudden end of “Kismet” at the
Shaftesbury.
During this period Cameron
Mackintosh’s production of “Godspell” would
occasionally pop in and out of the West End every
time a short gap appeared.
Alan Love as Jesus
Notes: See Original London Production,
Wyndham’s, November 1974
First revival: Her Majesty’s Theatre, May 1977
THE GREAT AMERICAN BACKSTAGE MUSICAL
London run: Regent Theatre, August 8th (3 months)
Music & Lyrics: Bill Solly
Book: Bill Solly & Donald Ward
Director-Choreographer: Bob Talmage
Musical Director: Robert Tapsfield
Cast: Bess Motter (Sylvia), Martin Smith (Harry),
Marti Webb (Kelly Moran), Larry Dann (Banjo),
Brian Protheroe (Johnny Brash), Judith Brice (Constance Duquette)
Songs: I Got the Bug, Crumbs in my Bed, You Should Be Being Made Love To,
On the Avenue, The Star of the Show, When the Money Comes In, I Could Fall in
Love, Ba-Boom
Story: The singer in Johnny’s Nightclub bar is his girlfriend,
Kelly, who is also loved by Harry, heir to five million dollars.
The English musical star, Constance Duquette, tries to seduce
Johnny, but he is true to Kelly until he learns Kelly, in order
to be with him, has turned down the chance of crossing the
Atlantic to star in a West End musical. Selflessly he insists
she must go to London for the sake of her career. But War
breaks out, the show is cancelled and instead Kelly goes off
to entertain troops in Europe. Johnny and his friend Banjo
are called into the US Army, and sent to Europe where
Johnny is injured by a grenade – and guess who, by chance,
comes to sing to the hospitalised soldiers? After this
temporary reunion everyone drifts apart again – till, finally,
happy ending! The war is over, they are back home and
reunite.
Notes: As an affectionate pastiche of the 1940s wartime
musicals and Hollywood films, it didn’t quite have the same
charm that “Dames at Sea” had achieved for the ‘30s, or “The
Boy Friend” for the ‘20s. It somehow failed to capture the
right atmosphere and was not a success.
1978
28
London run: Coliseum, August 22nd
(Limited season)
Music: Kurt Weill
Lyrics: Bertolt Brecht
English Version: W.H.Auden & Chester Kallman
Director: Michael Geliot
Choreographer: Richard Alston
Musical Director: Lionel Friend
Producer: English National Opera
Cast: Julie Covington (Anna 1),
Siobhan Davies (Anna II), Terry Jenkins (Father),
Dennis Wicks (Mother),
Alan Woodrow & Alan Opie (Brothers)
Julie Covington (Left)
Story: Anna, the young idealist, is sent from to the
big city to make a fortune for herself and, more
importantly, for her family. She has to learn the lessons of Capitalist Society: the wish to become an artist
rather than a showbiz success is Pride; loving a man for himself rather than his money is Lust; yearning for
ideals is Envy – and so on. The family’s progress from rags to riches proves that Anna has taken their advice
and God has answered their prayers.
Notes: An “opera-ballet” this remarkable piece of work was originally written for Kurt Weill’s wife, Lotte
Lenya, and the ballet dancer Tilly Losch and was choreographed by Balanchine in Paris in 1933. It was funded
by the English millionaire Edward James as part of his plan to win back his estranged wife, Tilly Losch. It is
hard to categorise it – opera? ballet? – though it really is a mini-masterpiece belonging in a category all of its
own: high-class cabaret. It was the last of the collaborations between Brecht and Weill.
BARMITZVAH BOY
London run: Her Majesty’s, October 31st (77 Performances)
Music: Jule Styne
Lyrics: Don Black
Book: Jack Rosenthal
Director: Martin Charnin
Choreographer: Peter Gennaro
Musical Director: Alexander Faris
Producer: Peter Witt & Wolverstow Ltd
Cast: Joyce Blair (Rita Green), Harry Towb (Victor Green),
Barry Angel (Elliot Green), Ray C. Davis (Harold),
Leonie Cosman (Lesley Green), Vivienne Martin (Sylvia)
Songs: The Harolds of This World, We’ve Done All Right, Simchas, Rita’s Request, The Sun Shines Out of
Your Eyes, Thou Shalt Not, You Wouldn’t Be You
Story: Young Eliot Green, filled with apprehension about his forthcoming bar mitzvah, escapes from the
synagogue, much to the dismay of Rita and Victor, his middle-class parents, who have invested their savings in
a lavish party to celebrate their son's coming of age. Elliot is supported by his sister, Lesley, when he tells her
that looking at the adult world, he doesn’t feel he can belong to it.
Notes: Based on Rosenthal's award-winning and much-praised 1976 BBC television play, the musical was a
flop. The original honest portrayal of a family turned into a standard, excitable, stage-Jewish couple, cardboard
versions of the Rabbi and the cantor, and the whole thing had become a series of clichés where the action
stopped for songs and dances which didn’t really fit in. Only the scenes with the two youngsters had any
validity. Jack Rosenthal himself was aware of how his original play was being damaged by the musical
process, and he later wrote a play called “Smash”, an hilarious but scathing look at getting a musical from page
to stage, complete with a cantankerous composer, a fantasist lyricist, a cocksure director and a bombastic
producer, and clearly based on his own experience.
Photo by Reg Wilson
THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS
1978
29
BEYOND THE RAINBOW
London run: Adelphi Theatre, November 9th (238 Performances)
Music: Armando Trovailoi
Lyrics: Leslie Bricusse
Book: Garinei and Giovannini with Iaia Fiastri
English version: David Forrest
Director: Pietro Garinei
Choreographer: Gino Landi
Musical Director: Michael Reed
Producer: Harold Fielding, Bernard Delfont & Richard M. Mills
Cast: Johnny Dorelli (Father Silvestro), Roy Kinnear (Mayor Enrico),
Lesley Duff (Clementina), Geoffrey Burridge (Toto), Janet Mahoney (Consolation),
Dorothy Vernon, Franco Ricchio
Songs: Come Join Us at the Table, Pity, The Ding Dong Song, Throw it Away, A Time for Love, A Tiny Art,
San Crispino, I Want You, Love According To You.
Story: The small Italian mountain village of San Crispino is a quiet sort of place, whose inhabitants include
Father Silvestro, the young priest, Toto, the village simpleton, the miserly Mayor and his daughter, Clementina,
who is madly in love with Father Silvestro. The only excitement is the arrival of Consolation, a lady of
somewhat doubtful virtue, who has come to the village on a dowry fund-raising trip. But things change when
the Innkeeper answers the only telephone in the village. The caller says that he is God and intends to destroy
the world in a second flood, except he has chosen San Crispino to survive. The villagers start building a rather
oddly shaped ark, designed by the local undertaker.
Notes: This was adapted from the English novel “After Me the Deluge” by David Forrest (the pseudonym used
by Robert Forrest-Webb and David Eliades). The adaptors, Garinei and Giovannini had a previous production
entitled “When in Rome” at the Adelphi in 1959, and they also wrote popular songs including "Volare" and
"Arriverderci Roma!"
LITTLE WILLIE JR’S RESURRECTION
London run: Regent Theatre , November 13th ( 4 week season)
Music & Lyrics: Johnnie Thompson
Book: Oscar L. Johnson
Director: Robert L. Hightower
Choreographer: Joanne Huckstep
Producer: Lon Satton
Cast: Ray Shell (Little Willie), Darrah Gustafson (Susan), Bella Weil (Clara),
Arlene Mills, Roosevelt Robinson, Jan Ellis Scruggs, Steven Wilmot
Songs: This Life I Live, Two Perfect Halves, Carolina Sunshine, Trust in Him,
Lord It's Me, Big Apple, Some Things Are Made to Be, Black Momma
Story: This was a “secular” play by the Rev. Johnny Thompson, an American evangelist, song-writer and
playwright, who had formed a seven-piece gospel choir in 1965 and over the years toured all over Europe with
much success. The Johnny Thompson Gospel Singers eventually grew into a major business, and sold
millions of records through the Rev. Thompson’s own record company. This show was announced as “in the
West End prior to a Broadway opening”, and although no actual Broadway venue followed, it did play
throughout the USA and several European cities over the following years.
1978
30
JOSEPH & THE AMAZING
TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT (1st Revival)
London run: Westminster Theatre, November 28th (85 Performances)
Music: Andrew Lloyd Webber
Lyrics: Tim Rice
Director: Ken Hill
Choreographer: David Thornton
Musical Director: Jack Forsyth
Producer: Martin Gates
Cast: Paul Jones (Joseph), Michael Bauer (Jacob), Clive Griffin (Benjamin), Michael Heath (Potiphar),
Audrey Duggan (Potiphar’s Wife), Leonard Whiting (Pharaoh), John Golder (Narrator),
Notes: See original London Production, Albery Theatre, February 1973
TROUBADOUR
London run: Cambridge Theatre, December 15th (76 Performances)
Music: Ray Holder
Lyrics & Book: Michael Lombardi
Director: James Fortune
Choreographer: David Drew
Musical Director: Denys Rawson
Producer: Michael Lombardi
Cast: John Watts (Lupus-Oblatus), Kim Braden (Ermengarde),
Andrew C. Wadsworth (Pierre Vidal-Saladin), Sandra Berlan, Gordon Whiting,
Michael G. Jones, Dudley Owen, Ian Steele
Songs: The Wife Beating Song, One Only Rose, Woman Is a Cheat, Panic in
the Palace, Onward to Jerusalem, Mary’s Child, Kalenda Maya, The Loneliness
of Power
Story: Set in 12th Century France, this is a tale of Courtly Love, the intricate medieval concept of placing
woman on a pedestal as the recipient of deep emotional feeling, even if such sentiment is not returned. The
young chauvinist, Lupus, believes woman is totally subservient to man, and should be beaten if she dares
disobey. His beating goes too far, and he is imprisoned. The Viscountess Ermengarde, who rules the province
of Narbon, decides to tutor him in the rules and code of Courtly Love, and the show charts his progress and
conversion to what was the politically correct attitudes of that era.
Notes: The lyricist, Michael Lombardi was an extremely wealthy businessman, and he was backed by the
Success Motivation Institute of Japan, so this was the most lavishly designed, costumed and orchestrated show
in town. His money kept the show going for 72 performances, but after cancellations due to audiences staying
away, and one matinee at the 1,283 seat Cambridge Theatre where 80 people attended, but only five of them
had paid, they decided to call it a day.