London Musicals 1995-1999.pub

1997
26
HEATHCLIFF
Cast: Cliff Richard (Narrator/Heathcliff), Helen Hobson (Cathy),
Jimmy Johnston (Earnshaw/Hindley), Darryl Knock (Edgar),
Sara Haggerty (Isabella), Gordon Giltrap (Troubadour),
Geoff David, Chris Holland, Sonia Jones, Niki Kitt, Suzanne
Parry
Songs: A Misunderstood Man, Each To His Own, Be With Me
Always, The Sleep of the Good, Gypsy Bundle, When You
Thought of Me
Story: Opening with Cathy’s funeral, her thwarted love-affair
with the smouldering and brooding Heathcliff is told in flashback. Many liberties are taken with “Wuthering
Heights”, Emily Brontë’s bleak and passionate novel set in the Yorkshire Moors, the most controversial being
an invented series of scenes explaining what Heathcliff did in his long journey abroad. (Emily Brontë does not
explain this, nor how he earned his fortune, but this musical version includes adventures in Africa, India and
China with tribal masks and Chinese lion dances). The show ends long before the novel does, with Heathcliff
joining Cathy in the grave.
Notes: The music was by John Farrar, a former member of Cliff Richard’s legendary backing group, The
Shadows, the lyrics by Tim Rice and the production by the renowned Frank Dunlop. Because of Cliff
Richard’s personal reputation as the “Peter Pan of Pop” and the squeaky-clean image of his private life, he was
never likely to be taken seriously by the critics. They had great fun suggesting other unlikely pieces of casting:
Liberace as King Lear, Max Bygraves as Titus Andronicus, Julie Andrews as Lady Macbeth – and calling the
show more “withering than wuthering”. However, for its Birmingham Arena premiere it had a record-breaking
£8.5 million advance, with 340,000 tickets sold. It was a sell-out there, in Edinburgh, Manchester and during
its London Apollo run, and packed every night with the blue-rinsed army of fans nicknamed the “Cliffhangers”.
Whatever the critics’ view of Cliff Richard as an actor, there was no doubting he was a genuine, twenty-four
carat star.
ROMANCE ROMANCE (1st Revival)
London run: Gielgud Theatre, March 4th (54 Performances)
Music: Keith Hermann
Lyrics & Book: Barry Harman
Director: Steven Dexter
Choreographer: Mitch Sebastian
Musical Director: Simon Lee/Robert Purvis
Photo by Mike Martin
Cast: Mark Adams (Alfred/Sam),
Caroline O’Connor (Josefine/Monica),
Linzi Hately, Michael Cantwell
This was a transfer (with mostly a new cast) of the much-praised
fringe production at the Bridewell from the previous September.
However, what had been delightful in the tiny Bridewell, now
seemed “a balding musical on a low budget” in the West End. It
ran for just over six weeks.
Notes: Original London run: Bridewell, September 1996
Photo by BBC
London run: Labatt’s Apollo, February 12th – May 3rd
(Limited season)
Music:: John Farrar
Lyrics: Tim Rice
Book: Cliff Richard & Frank Dunlop
Director: Frank Dunlop
Choreographer: Brad Jeffries
Musical Director: Mike Moran
1997
27
London run: Lyttleton Theatre,
March 11th – 2nd August (Repertoire)
Music: Kurt Weill
Lyrics: Ira Gershwin
Book: Moss Hart
Director: Francesca Zambello
Choreographer: Quinny Sacks
Musical Director: Mark W. Dorrell
Cast: Maria Friedman (Liza Elliott),
Paul Shelley (Kendall Nesbitt),
Adrian Dunbar (Charley Johnson),
Steven Edward Moore (Randy Curtis),
James Drefuss & Maria Friedman
James Dreyfus (Russell Paxton),
Hugh Ross (Dr. Brooks),
Ashleigh Sendin (Miss Foster), Summer Rognlie (Alison Dubois), Charlotte Cornwall
Songs: Oh Fabulous One, One Life to Live, Girl of the Moment, This is New, The Princess of Pure Delight, My
Ship, The Saga of Jenny, Tchaikowsky
Story: Liza Elliott, a fashion magazine editor, tries psychoanalysis to cure her feeling of insecurity. The mistress
of publisher Kendall Nesbitt, she is briefly attracted to the handsome film-star, Randy Curtis. However, by the end
of the show she has fallen in love with Charley Johnson, the magazine’s cynical advertising manager.
Notes: This was the first collaboration of Ira Gershwin following the death of his
brother, and ran for 467 performances in New York in 1941. The leading role was
played by Gertrude Lawrence, and the show made a star of newcomer Danny Kaye in
the role of a camp photographer with a show-stopping patter number “Tchaikowsky”.
The musical is so constructed that all the numbers are sung during the dream
sequences that Liza describes to her doctor. The only exception is the song “My Ship”
which serves a special part of the plot: it is a half-remembered song from Liza’s
childhood and because Charley is the only man who can complete the song for her, he
wins Liza’s love.
55 years after its Broadway debut, this was its first London production, though it did
have a production at Nottingham in 1981 with Celeste Holm. The critics found it
fascinating and important, but felt it suffered by comparison with “Guys & Dolls”
which was currently the opposition under the same National Theatre roof.
MARLENE
London run: Lyric Theatre, April 8th
Music: Various
Book: Pam Gems
Director: Sean Mathias
Musical Director: Kevin Amos
Cast: Sian Phillips (Marlene Dietrich), Lou Gish (Vivian Hoffman),
Billy Mathias (Mutti)
Songs: You Do Something to Me, I Wish You Love, La vie en rose, Where
Have all the Flowers Gone?, Falling in Love Again, Making Whoopee, Lili
Marlene
Story: Backstage in her dressing room, with her long-suffering and silent
dresser Mutti and her assistant, Vivian, Marlene Dietrich shares the secrets of
her life, loves and sex appeal. Between interviews and make-up calls, she
relates some devastating anecdotes ranging from her many lovers to her
friendships with the world’s most powerful men. After an interval the show then comprises an authentic recreation of Marlene Dietrich in a concert performance.
Notes: Sian Phillips created a supremely faithful vocal and physical impression of the real Marlene Dietrich, the
great survivor. Her performance was universally praised, portraying what Sheridan Morley called “a musical
Mother Courage” and providing a constant reminder of what could be done by sheer chemistry of the human spirit
alone.
Photo by Catherine Ashmore
LADY IN THE DARK
1997
28
THE GOODBYE GIRL
London run: Albery Theatre, April 17th (84 Performances)
Music: Marvin Hamlisch
Lyrics: Don Black
Book: Neil Simon
Director: Rob Bettinson
Choreographer: Tudor Davies
Musical Director: Gary Hind
Producer: Paul Elliott
Cast: Ann Crumb (Paula), Gary Wilmot (Elliot Garfield),
Lucy Evans/Dina Tree (Lucy), Shezwae Powell (Mrs Crosby), Michael
Mears, Josefina Gabrieli, Cliff Brayshaw
Songs: (New, with lyrics by Don Black): I’ll Take the Sky, Body Talk, Get a
Life, Am I Who You Think I Am?, If You Break Their Hearts, Do You
Want to be in my Movie?, The Future isn’t what it used to be. (From the
original, with lyrics by David Zippel): Elliot Garfield Grant, Good News Gary Wilmot, Lucy Evans & Ann Crumb
Bad News
Story: Paula has been dumped by latest boyfriend, seemingly a regular feature of her life. She and Lucy, her 11
year old daughter, are threatened with eviction because her departing boyfriend has rented out their apartment to an
off-Broadway actor called Elliot Garfield. Elliot agrees she can temporarily share the space with him, as he is out
most of the time rehearsing the role of a gay transvestite Richard III. This odd couple bicker and squabble,
commented on by Mrs Crosby, the landlady, but, inevitably they fall in love. The show
ends with a Busby Berkeley-type dance-sequence on the rooftop, involving champagne
and (for some unexplained reason!) a chorus of dancing girls and boys in sequins.
Notes: In 1977 this began life as a Neil Simon movie for which Richard Dreyfuss won an
Oscar as the unfortunate off-Broadway actor forced into an all-gay “Richard III”. In
1993 it was turned into a glitzy Broadway musical with Bernadette Peters and Martin
Short, music by Marvin Hamlisch and lyrics by David Zippel. It closed after 188
performances and a series of negative reviews describing it as “old-fashioned and lacking
in plot”. The London version was a completely new revision – with the original songs
thrown out, and seven new songs added with a different lyricist – this time Don Black.
However, despite all the changes and almost unanimous praise for Gary Wilmot, the
critics found the whole thing sugary sweet, predictable, winsome, far too sentimental and
not worth the trouble. It ran for just ten weeks.
THE FIX
Photo by Mark Douet
London run:
Donmar Warehouse,
May 12th – June 14th
John Barrowman
and Company
1997
29
THE FIX
London run: Donmar Warehouse, May 12th – June 14th
Music: Dana P. Rowe
Book & Lyrics: John Dempsey
Director: Sam Mendes
Choreographer: Charles Augins
Musical Director: David Caddick
Producer: Cameron Macintosh & Donmar Warehouse
Cast: John Barrowman (Cal Chandler), Kathryn Evans (Violet Chandler),
Philip Quast (Grahame Chandler), Krysten Cummings (Tina), David Firth,
David Bardsley, Bogdan Kominowski, Mark Frendo, Gael Johnson, Christina Fry.
Songs: Lonely is a Two-Way Street, Two Guys at Havard, Embrace Tomorrow,
America’s Son, Flash Pop Sizzle, Making Sense of Insanity, Lion Hunts the Tiger,
Mistress of Deception
Story: Senator Chandler has died of a heart attack whilst having sex with a receptionist. His family have
hushed it up, and seek to have his son, Cal Chandler, elected in his place. Cal is groomed for high office by
Violet, his manipulative mother, and by Uncle Grahame, a twisted and crippled gay spin-doctor. Cal is forced
to marry strategically, and to learn formulaic oration techniques, whilst all the time being addicted in equal
measure to coke, heroin and Tina, his torch-singing mistress. He is also indebted to the Mafia Mob who cover
up his excesses. When Cal finally sees the light and decides to clean up his act and launch a ferocious antidrugs campaign, his end is grimly foreseeable.
Notes: Cameron Mackintosh was happy to subsidise this new and very different piece of political satire with its
rock music/vaudeville/country and western score, but was allegedly furious at the dismissive critical reaction,
claiming London critics were too blinkered to accept anything new and progressive. The critics considered it
comic-strip melodrama, with its Kennedy-esque satire grossly overdone and so full of cynicism that not one
single character could involve the audience’s sympathy or interest. However, there was praise for the music
and lyrics, and some suggestions that Dempsey and Rowe could be future talents to watch.
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
Photo by Michael Le Poer Trench
London run: Dominion, May 13th
(1,071 Performances)
Music: Alan Menken
Lyrics: Howard Ashman & Tim Rice
Book: Linda Woolverton
Director: Robert Jess Roth
Choreographer: Glen Kelly
Musical Director: Jae Alexander
Producer: Walt Disney Productions
Alasdair Harvey &
Julie-Alanah Brighten
1997
30
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
London run: Dominion, May 13th (1,071 Performances)
Music: Alan Menken
Lyrics: Howard Ashman & Tim Rice
Book: Linda Woolverton
Director: Robert Jess Roth
Choreographer: Glen Kelly
Musical Director: Jae Alexander
Producer: Walt Disney Productions
Cast: Alasdair Harvey (Beast), Julie Alanah Brighten (Belle),
Burke Moses (Gaston), Richard Gauntlett (Lefou),
Norman Rossington (Maurice), Barry James (Clogsworth),
Derek Griffiths (Lumiere), Rebecca Thornhill (Babette), Mary Millar (Mrs
Potts), Di Botcher (Mme de la grande Bouche)
Songs: Belle, No Matter What, Home, Gaston, How Long Must This Go
On?, Be Our Guest, If I Can't Love Her, Human Again, Maison des Lunes, .
Notes: Based on the 1991 Disney film, seven new songs were written for the stage musical with lyrics by Tim
Rice. Howard Ashman, the original lyricist, had died in 1991. The Broadway production ran for 5,461
performances between 1994 and 2007.
The show had been staged in eight other cities before coming to London and was said to have cost £10 million,
the most expensive musical ever staged in the West End. It was lavish, spectacular and filled with magical
effects and a superb re-creation of the famous “Be Our Guest” sequence from the film – a sequence which
never failed to stop the show. From the opening, when a wicked witch soared high in the air, to the finale,
where the Beast was magically transformed back into a handsome Prince, this was a show that delighted even
the most cynical of the critics. During the London run replacements for Belle included Michelle Gayle and
Annalene Beechey, and John Barrowman and Earl Carpenter as the Beast. The production won the Olivier
Award for Best New Musical in 1998. The world-wide box office takings for this show went on to exceed
$1.4 billion, and the production has since been seen in 13 countries and 115 cities.
DAMN YANKEES (1st Revival)
London run: Adelphi, June 4th (77 Performances)
Music & Lyrics: Richard Adler & Jerry Ross
Book: George Abbott & Douglass Wallop
Director: Jack O’Brien
Choreographer: Rob Marshall
Musical Director: Gareth Valentine
Cast: Jerry Lewis (Mr Applegate), April Nixon (Lola),
John-Michael Flate (Joe Hardy), Dennis Kelly (Joe Boyd) ,
Joy Franz, Julie Prosser, Steven Seale
Notes: The star of this show was the 71 year old American comedian Jerry
Lewis. A 15 minute section of the Second Act was tailored to his presence,
enabling him to hi-jack the show, breaking into his nutty-professor voice,
tossing canes in the air and failing to catch them, telling joke after joke in
his old vaudeville act, and then just as suddenly returning to the script and
the plot. Jerry Lewis fans loved it. The show itself was much praised on
its first return to London after some 40 years, but it ran for just over nine
weeks.
See: Original London run: Coliseum, March 1957
1997
31
ALWAYS
London run: Victoria Palace, June 10th (54 Performances)
Music & Lyrics: William May & Jason Sprague
Book: Frank Hauser
Director: Frank Hauser & Thommie Walsh
Choreographer: Thommie Walsh
Musical Director: Chris Walker
Cast: Jan Hartley (Wallis Simpson), Clive Carter (Edward VIII),
Shani Wallis (Aunt Bessie), David McAlister (Ernest Simpson),
James Horne (Stanley Baldwin), Ursula Smith (Queen Mary),
Chris Humphreys (Lord Mountbatten), Buster Skeggs (Lady Colefax) ,
Helen Anker (Lady Furness) , Sheila Ferguson (Analise L’Avender)
Songs: Long May you Reign, Someone Special, I Stand Before My
Destiny, If Always Were a Place, This Time Around, It’s the Party of the
Year, Hearts Have Their Reasons, Invitation is for Two
Story: Starting with the ex-King’s funeral in 1972, a veiled, frail Duchess
is prompted to reminisce in flashback. Back in the early 1930s the Prince
of Wales’s current mistress asks the twicemarried American Wallis Simpson to look after
him while she goes away. Big mistake! The
Jan Hartley as Wallis Simpson
show then proceeds to tell “the greatest love
story of the century” the story of a man who
gave up a throne for the love of a woman.
Notes: Unfortunately the end result was not a great love story. It was a mishmash of confused scenes, skimpy characterisation, lacking any sense of period and
history, and prone every so often to throw in a musical sequence, including one
spectacularly over-blown fairground nightmare sequence with chorus boys dressed
as carousel horses. The critics had a field day describing “Always” as “Briefly”,
and it was said that backstage the cast themselves referred to the show as “Wallis
and Vomit”. It closed after seven weeks, with huge losses.
ELVIS THE MUSICAL (2nd Revival)
London run: Piccadilly Theatre, June 18th (100 Performances)
Music & Lyrics: Various
Director: Keith Strachan & Carole Todd
Choreographer: Carole Todd
Musical Director: James Compton
Producer: Bill Kenwright
Cast: Alexander Bar (Young Elvis),
Fergus Moriarty (Middle Elvis),
Michael Dimitri (Older Elvis),
This was back in the West End for the second time, with some cast
changes, following its UK tour.
Notes: Original London run: Astoria Theatre, November 1977
First revival: Prince of Wales Theatre, April 1996
Fergus Moriarty
1997
32
SUMMER HOLIDAY
London run: Labatt’s Apollo, July 8th – 20th September (Limited season)
Music: Various
Book: Michael Gyngell & Mark Haddigan
Director: Ultz
Choreographer: Quinny Sacks
Musical Director: Andy Rumble
Cast: Darren Day (Don), Darren J. Bennett (Steve), Mark McGee (Edwin),
Rene Zagger (Cyril), Lucie Fentum (Mimsie), Miranda Richards (Angie),
Jo Sherwood (Alma), Clare Buckfield (Barbara), Hilary O’Neill (Stella),
Ross King (Wallace)
Songs: Bachelor Boy, Summer Holiday, The Next Time, In the Country,
Do you Wanna Dance, Move It, Livin’ Doll
Story: Based on the 1962 Cliff Richard film, this is the story of a group of
red-blooded male London Transport employees, Don, Steve, Edwin and
Cyril. They drive a double-decker bus through Europe for their summer
holiday, and en route meet a bevy of mini-skirted dolly birds - Mimsie, Angie and Alma - who join them for
the ride. The girls sleep on the upper deck and the boys on the lower deck , and, because this is the early
Sixties, they don’t even think about having sex. Then there is a boy stow-away (who turns out to be Barbara, a
demure American pop-singer girl in disguise). The holiday-makers are pursued by the girl’s monstrous, beehived dragon of a mother, Stella, and her agent, Wallace. It ends, of course, with all the couples pairing off and
planning to marry before anything improper takes place.
Notes: This was a gloriously camp re-creation of the film: Paris (berets and an accordion player), Switzerland
(clock, bells, sheep and cows), finally Greece (blokes in white skirts, gold waistcoats and red caps); a tendency
for the boys to strip continually down to their Y-fronts; an updating with some terrible jokes (one of Don’s
gormless male friends gives him a baguette and says, knowingly. “Now you’ve got something else that’s nine
inches” – another gets to Paris and says “I really want to go to the Louvre” only to be told “Well, use that tree
over there”) – the whole show was gloriously awful. Darren Day managed a very creditable impersonation of
Cliff Richard, and Hilary O’Neill stole the show with a totally over-the top comedy performance as the mother.
The show was critic-proof, and packed with Cliff Richard/Darren Day fans who screamed their delight from
start to finish. It had played a six-month sell-out season at Blackpool Opera House in the summer of 1996, and
then toured before this six month season in London.
ASSASSINS (1st Revival)
London run: New End, July 10th – August 3rd (Limited season)
Music & Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim
Book: John Weidman
Director: Sam Buntrock
Musical Director: Caroline Humphris
Cast: Stephen Watts (Proprietor), Mark Davidson (Leon Czolgosz),
Andrew Newey (John Hinckley), Peter Straker (Charles Guiteau),
Adrian Beaumont (Giuseppe Zangara), Nigel Williams (Samuel Byck),
Fiona Dunn (Squeaky Fromme), Sharon Eckman (Sara Jane Moore),
Garth Bardsley (John Wilkes Booth), Paul Keating (Balladeer),
Tom Rogers (Lee Harvey Oswald)
This performance in the tiny New End Theatre was much praised, with, again,
acclaim for Paul Keating (previously seen in “Tommy”). The critics all felt that
Sondheim shows seem to work so much better in smaller, fringe-type stagings.
Original London run: Donmar Warehouse, October 1992
1997
33
KISS ME KATE (3rd Revival)
Photo by Alastair Muir
London run: Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, July 24th
– September 1st
Music & Lyrics: Cole Porter
Book: Sam & Bella Spewack
Director: Ian Talbot
Choreographer: Lisa Kent
Musical Director: Catherine Jayes
Cast: Andrew C. Wadsworth (Fred Graham),
Louise Gold (Lili Vanessi),
John Griffiths (Harry), Issy van Randwyck (Lois Lane) ,
Graeme Henderson (Bill Calhoun),
Gavin Muir & Rob Edwards (Gangsters) ,
Debby Bishop (Hattie)
Notes: Original London Production , March 1951
First revival, Coliseum, December 1970
Second revival: Old Vic/Savoy, May 1987
Paul Bentley, Graeme Henderson,
Paul Thomley & Issy van Randwyck
SIDE BY SIDE BY SONDHEIM (1st Revival)
London run: Greenwich Theatre, July 28th – September 6th
Music: Stephen Sondheim & others
Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim
Director: Matthew Francis
Choreographer: Andrew George
Musical Director: Michael Haslam & Melanie Jessop
Photo by Robert Workman
Producer: Cameron Mackintosh & H. M. Tennent
Cast: Kathryn Evans, David Malek, Lisa Sadovy, Dawn French (Commère)
The novelty of this production was a frequent change (mostly weekly) of
compères. During the run they included Emma Freud, Una Stubbs, Roy
Hattersley, Simon Fanshawe, Tony Slattery, Sheridan Morley and Philip
Franks.
Original London run: Mermaid Theatre, May 1976
Liza Sadovy, David Malek & Kathryn Evans
THE CRADLE WILL ROCK (1st Revival)
London run : BAC 1, August 12th – 24th
Music: Marc Blitzstein
Director: Mehmet Ergen
Musical Director: John Jansson
Cast: Ysobel Gozalez (Moll) , Nathan Osgood (Larry Foreman), Aaron Shirley (Mister Mister),
Kay Montgomery (Mrs Mister), Gareth Owen (Rev Slavation), Russell Wilcox (Editor Daily), Louise Davidson,
Christopher Holt, Alexander Giles, David Forest, Miles Western, Terri-Ann Brumby, Yvonne Pascal.
This revival in the tiny BAC 1 Studio received hardly any critical attention (because they were all away at the
Edinburgh Festival?) but was, by other accounts, an extremely well performed production of this rarely revived but
important piece of agit-prop musical theatre.
Notes: See Original London Production: Unity Theatre June 1951
First revival: Old Vic, August 1985
1997
34
A LOT OF LIVING
Photo by Ash Scott Lockyer
London run: Jermyn Street Theatre,
August 6th – 31st
Music: Charles Strouse
Lyrics: Various
Book: Barbara Siman
Director: Barbara Siman
Musical Director: Chris Frost
Cast: Dave Willetts, Bonnie Langford,
Joanna John, Chris Coleman
Notes: A compilation show, with songs from
some of Charles Strouse’s lesser-known
works like Nick and Nora, Rags, Annie
Warbucks and Dance a Little Closer, as well
as shows like Applause, Golden Boy and Bye
Bye Birdie.
Chris Coleman, Bonnie Langford,
Dave Willets & Joanna John
CARNABY STREET
London run: Arts Theatre, August 7th (20 Performances)
Music & Lyrics: James Hall
Book: James Hall
Director: Terry John Bates
Musical Director: Richard Whennell
Cast: Kevin Curtin (Jude), Michelle Connolly (Lady Jane), Richard Shelton (Jumpin’ Jack),
Danny Edwards (Lily the Pink), Gina Murray (Ruby Tuesday), Elizabeth Price (Rock Bottom)
Songs: Transistor Radio, Clapton is Gone, Mars Bar Blues, Pounds Shillings and Pence, Uppers ‘n’ Downers
Story: A northerner called Jude comes to London in search of fame, and ends up living with Lady Jane, an
aristocrat who has deserted her wealthy background for a squat in Carnaby Street. She overdoses on heroin and
dies, and their child is taken into care. Aided by
Jumpin’ Jack, his Cockney rock’n’roll
manager, Jude goes on to hit the big time,
having worked his way through
sexual
adventures with Mars bars and seedy gigs with
such performers as drag artiste, Lily the Pink,
and blues singer Ruby Tuesday. Jude ends up in
the 1990s wrapped sexily around a girl from a
pop group called Rock Bottom, only to
discover that she is his long-lost daughter.
Notes: Tacky, depressing, poor singing, overamplified and incoherent sound, dreadful lyrics,
monotonous music and dire choreography,
merely a string of third rate songs (27 of them)
played by a competent band and performed by
an incompetent bunch of actors – these were
just some of the words used by the critics.
“Carnaby Street is certainly far out – though not
far enough for my liking”.
Natasha Christie, Elizabeth Price, Gina Murray, Helen Latham,
Sara Ekins, Gordon Cooper & Mitch Jenkins
1997
35
LUCKY STIFF
London run: Bridewell, August 28th – September 20th (Limited season)
Music: Stephen Flaherty
Book & Lyrics: Lynn Ahrens
Director: Stephen Dexter
Choreographer: Mitch Sebastian
Musical Director: Elliot Davis
Producer: Glen Lee Productions
Cast: Paul Baker (Harry Witherspoon), Frances Ruffelle (Annabel Glick),
Tracie Bennett (Rita La Porta), Philip Cox (Vinnie Di Ruzzio),
Alix Longman (Dominique), Nigel Williams, Bernard Tagliavini, Catherine Dyer,
Paul Williams, James Nash (Tony Hendon)
Songs: Something Funny's Going On, Mr. Witherspoon's Friday Night, Rita's Confession, Good to be Alive,
Lucky, Dogs Versus You, Speaking French, Fancy Meeting You Here, A Woman in my Bathroom.
Story: Wealthy American Tony Hendon, has been accidentally shot and killed by his short-sighted mistress,
Rita La Porta. He has left his $6 million estate to a hitherto unknown relative, Harry Witherspoon, an English
shoe salesman - but there is one condition: Uncle Tony had always wanted to see Monte Carlo – and Harry has
to take the corpse there in a wheelchair and must carry out Uncle Tony’s last wishes to the letter – exactly as
detailed on an accompanying cassette tape. If he fails in any of the wishes, the money goes to the dogs’ home.
Annabel Glick from the dogs’ home is secretly pursuing him, hoping he will mess it up. He is also secretly
pursued by Rita and her optician brother, Vinnie, hoping to get their hands on missing diamonds they think are
hidden on the corpse. The plot thickens with the entry of a sexy cabaret singer named Dominique du Monaco
who is stalking Harry, and gets even thicker with mistaken identity, double-crossing, Rita disguised as a
French Maid, and a surprise ending.
Notes: Lucky Stiff premiered off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizon on April 1988 for a limited two week run.
It subsequently was revived at various USA venues and received a British premiere in Lincoln in 1994. This
West End production went down well with critics and audiences, and was felt to be one the rare occasions
when a musical farce succeeded. (It is usually claimed that a farce needs non-stop pace and action, whereas
songs in a show tend to slow down the action, making farces and musicals basically incompatible.)
ENTER THE GUARDSMAN
London run: Donmar Warehouse, September 17th – October 18th
Music: Craig Bohmler
Lyrics: Marion Adler
Book: Scott Wentworth
Director: Jeremy Sams
Choreographer: Andrew George
Musical Director: Mark Warman
Producer: Donmar & Really Useful Group
Cast: Janie Dee (Actress), Alexander Hanson (Actor), Nicky Henson
(Playwright), Angela Richards (Dresser), Jeremy Finch (Stage Manager),
Walter van Dyk (Wigs Master), Nicola Stone (Wardrobe Mistress).
Songs: Waiting in the Wings, My One Great Love, The First Night, Art Imitating
Life, Language of Flowers, Actor’s Fantasy, In the Long Run
Story: An actor husband, jealous of his actress wife, suspects she is on the verge of an affair. So, disguising
himself as her adoring guardsman fan, he woos her. She succumbs to his advances and they go to bed together.
. .but, is she unaware of the masquerade? Or has she seen through the disguise? The action is enlivened by
backstage bickerings between husband and wife, a romantically inclined dresser, gay technical staff, and an inhouse middle-aged playwright who is attracted to both the husband and the wife, and is a note-taking voyeur
throughout the action.
Notes: Based on the 1911 Hungarian play by Ferenc Molnar, this was adapted with a bitter-sweet, tango- and
waltz-filled, elegant score. (It has some remarkable parallels with Harold Pinter’s play “The Lover”). The
show won a Best New Musical Award in the USA in 1995 and a major International Musical of the Year
competition in Denmark in 1996, but the London critics thought that, charming as it was, it lacked bite.
1997
36
DORIAN
London run: Arts Theatre, September 29th (8 performances)
Music, Book & Lyrics: David Reeves
Director: Mehmet Ergen
Choreographer: Karen Rabinowitz
Musical Director: David Reeves
Cast: Marcello Walton (Dorian), Nicholas Pound (Henry), Mark Huggins (Basil),
Eliza Lumley (Sybil).
Songs: Ballad for the Beautiful, I Like You Lord Henry, Experimentation, What’s
the Scandal?, There’s Nothing That I Would Not Give, O God Give Me a New Life
Notes: A sung-through musical with a three-piece band and a cast of twelve, this
was effectively a vanity production – nearly all the work of one man, David Reeves.
The classic Oscar Wilde story of a man who stays young and beautiful while his
portrait shows the signs of his age and decadence was intended as a study of the
distance between appearance and truth. This adaptation lacked any subtlety, depth or
wit and was unanimously damned as a dreadful waste of time. It lasted just one
week.
MADDIE
London run: Lyric Theatre, September 29th (48 Performances)
Music: Stephen Keeling
Lyrics: Shaun McKenna
Book: Shaun McKenna and Steven Dexter
Director: Martin Connor
Choreographer: David Toguri and Jenny Arnold
Musical Director: Caroline Humphris
Cast: Graham Bickley (Nick), Summer Rognlie (Jan/Maddie),
Lynda Baron (Cordelia van Arc), Kevin Colson (Al), Beth Tuckey, Jon Rumney,
Russell Wilcox, Michael A Elliott, Paddy Glynn, Louise Davidson, Nicola Filshie,
Martin Parr.
Songs: From Now On, I’m Not Afraid, I’ll Have My Way, If Not for Me, The Time of
My Life, I’ll Be a Star
Story: It is 1981 and Nick and Jan move into a dilapidated San Francisco apartment
and discover it is haunted by a 1920s chorus girl named Madeleine Marsh. Maddie died before she could fulfil
her ambitions to become a star, so her ghost decides to take psychic
possession of Jan, and seduce Nick. Every time Jan is allowed to return
to herself, she finds her marriage disintegrating. Maddie is hell-bent on
reaching stardom in her restored life and takes over Jan’s body not just
for a romp with Nick, but chiefly to attend casting calls and auditions
for TV commercials before disappearing back into the spirit world – on
one occasion leaving Jan dressed up as a tomato. “She can’t keep
popping in and out like this” says Jan in desperation, “I’m not a
Holiday Inn!”. The plot is complicated by the presence of Cordelia
van Arc, a randy old widow, and by the Cheyneys’ landlord, Al, now an
old man, but back in the 20s, he happened to be Maddie’s boyfriend.
Ultimately Al appeals to Maddie’s better self, and, being a good sport,
she departs for good, leaving Nick and Jan to make a go of their
marriage after all.
Notes: Based on the novel “Marion’s Wall” by Jack Finney, and its
film adaptation, “Maxie” with Glenn Close. The production was first
staged at the Salisbury Playhouse, but it failed to find backing for a
London transfer until the Daily Telegraph covered the story and more
than a hundred of its readers became individual “angels”, raising some
£150,000. It ran for six weeks and lost over half a million pounds.
Graham Bickley & Summer Rognlie
1997
37
KAT AND THE KINGS
London run: Tricycle, October 2nd – November 8th
Repeated: February 28th – March 14th 1998
Transferred to Vaudeville Theatre, March 23rd (152
Performances)
Music & Lyrics: David Kramer & Taliep Petersen
Director: David Kramer
Choreographer: Loukmaan Adams & Jody Abrahams
Musical Director: Taliep Petersen (Kevin Robinson for the repeat &
transfer)
Cast: Salie Daniels (Kat Diamond), Jody Abrahams (Young Kat
Diamond), Loukmaan Adams (Bingo), Junaid Booysen (Ballie),
Mandisa Bardill (Lucy Dixon), Alistair Izobell (Magoo)
Second Cast: Salie Daniels (Kat Diamond),
Jody Abrahams (Young Kat Diamond), Loukmaan Adams (Bingo),
Junaid Booysen (Ballie), Kim Louis (Lucy Dixon), Ricardo Buchenroder (Magoo)
Songs: Lonely Girl, Mavis, Lagunya, Only If You Have a Dream, Happy to be Nineteen
Story: An elderly shoeshine boy, Kat Diamond, looks back on his life. In flashback, we learn that in 1957 he
and his boisterous mates spend their time hanging out, harmonising and fantasising about girls until Lucy, the
musically minded sister of the boyish Magoo shapes them into a well-dressed,
well-pitched group. They become the Cavalla Kings, an amazing close-harmony
doo-wop group which achieved fame on South African radio in the late 50s
before anyone discovered that – shock horror – they were not white. Their
showbiz story of how they were introduced by a white manager with the words
“If they weren’t onstage they’d be outside breaking into your cars” and of how
they were allowed to sing in hotel cabaret by night only if they carried guests’
baggage by day was terrifyingly true. However, the group eventually broke up,
and Kat himself becomes an elderly shoeshine boy.
Notes: With some amazing singing and tap-dancing, this was a South African
import which delighted everyone with its exuberance. It was repeated with the
some cast changes for a further two week run in February of the following year,
and then transferred to the Vaudeville where it ran till the end of July.
NOEL & GERTIE (3rd Revival)
Photo by Ash Scott Lockyer
London run: Jermyn Street Theatre, October 14th – November 8th
Music & Lyrics: Noel Coward
Book: Sheridan Morley
Director: Sheridan Morley
Choreographer: Irving Davies
Musical Director: Michael Law
Cast: Peter Land (Noel Coward),
Elizabeth Counsell (Gertrude Lawrence)
Original production King’s Head 1983
First revival : Comedy Theatre, December 1989
Second revival: Duke of York’s, December 1991
Elizabeth Counsell and Peter Land
1997
38
TALES MY LOVER TOLD ME
Cast: Susie Blake (Lesley), Sue Kelvin (Jean),
Lindsey Dancer (Laura), Mark Adams (David),
James Pickering (Perry), James Staddon (Steve).
Songs: What do Women Want?, Blue Shadow Eyes, What’s
the Game? I Hate That Dog, Unsuitable Men, Terrified
Notes: The story of three middle-aged, middle-class women
and their erratic – but not very erotic – romances. Thricemarried Lesley works in an advertising agency and is
romancing David, a smooth travel writer; Jean’s boyfriend is
James Stadden and Lindsay Danvers
an old university friend called Perry, a gauche northerner
obsessed with his pet dog; and Laura, a former groupie who can’t quite kick the self-destructive habits of her
youth, is enamoured of a charmless, drunken, violent biker called Steve. Wittily exploring the chattering
classes’ fixation on relationships, it was described as a Sondheim-style metropolitan cocktail with a twist of
Woody Allen. The 19 songs and cast of six were praised, along with the show itself, though the general
reaction was the material itself was too lightweight to have much of an after-life.
STEPPING OUT – THE MUSICAL
London run: Albery Theatre, October 28 (142 Performances)
Music: Denis King
Lyrics: Mary Stewart-David
Book: Richard Harris
Director: Julia McKenzie
Choreographer: Tudor Davies
Musical Director: Stephen Hill
Producer: Bill Kenwright
Cast: Liz Robertson (Mavis), Colin Wakefield (Geoffrey),
Helen Bennett (Sylvia), Sharon D Clarke (Rose), Rachel Spry (Lynne),
Carolyn Pickles (Vera), Barbara Young (Maxine),
Helen Cotterill (Dorothy), Gwendolyn Watts (Mrs Fraser)
Songs: One Night a Week, Quite, Don’t Ask Me, Love To, What Do
Men Think? Too Much, Never Feel the Same Again, Definitely You,
What I Want, Once More, Loving Him.
Story: Richard Harris’s original play becomes in this version, a play
Felicity Gordon & Carolyn Pickles
with songs, rather than a full-scale musical. Mavis teaches tap-dancing
to an amateur evening class of seven women and one man. All the women, including Mavis, have their
troubles, and most of their troubles are to do with men. The mixed bunch includes Sylvia, the tarty Essex girl;
Rose the lugubrious black mother; Lynne, the young vulnerable nurse; Vera,
posh, nosey and house-proud; the brassy Jewish Maxine; the twee put-upon
Dorothy with the invalid mother; and finally the battered Andy, who seeks
refuge in the ineffectual arms of the widower, Geoffrey. There is much in their
lives to pull them apart, but the tap-dancing classes actually pull them together.
As in the original play, the final chorus-line of misfit tappers is a joy to behold.
Notes: The critic, Sheridan Morley, described it as the perfect British antidote to
“A Chorus Line”. Where the Broadway show was all about the desperation to
succeed at all showbiz costs, the British version is about the quieter pleasures of
failure and inefficiency, and the joys of pulling together.
Photo by John Haynes
Photo by Francis Loney
London run: King’s Head. October 24th – November 4th
Music: Sarah Travis
Book & Lyrics: Chris Burgess
Director: Chris Burgess
Choreographer: Mitch Sebastian
Musical Director: Sarah Travis
1997
39
FAME (1st Revival)
London run: Victoria Palace, November 10th – January 17th (Limited season)
Music: Steve Margoshes
Lyrics: Jacques Levy
Book: David de Silva & Jose Fernandez
Director: Karen Bruce
Choreographer:
Musical Director:
Producer: Paul Elliot & Adam Spiegel
Cast: Lucy Williamson, Kev Orkian
All other details unknown.
Original London Production: Cambridge Theatre , June 1995
CHICAGO (1st Revival)
London run: Adelphi Theatre, November 18th
Transferred to Cambridge Theatre, April 24th, 2006
(Still running 2011)
Music: John Kander
Lyrics: Fred Ebb
Book: Fred Ebb & Bob Fosse
Director: Walter Bobbie
Choreographer: Ann Reinking
Musical Director: Gareth Valentine
Cast: Ruthie Henshall (Roxie Hart), Ute Lemper (Velma Kelly),
Nigel Planer (Amos Hart), Meg Johnson (Momma Morton),
Henry Goodman (Billy Flynn),
C. Shirvell (Mary Sunshine)
Notes: This revival originated as part of
the New York Encores musicals
programme – staged simply with the
orchestra on stage, no scenery and no
costume changes. In November 1996 it
transferred to Broadway, still more or
Ute Lemper & Ruthie Henshall
less in this stark almost “concert” form
and was a huge success, winning six
Tony Awards. It was re-created in London, again in the same cut-down form and
repeated that success, winning two Olivier Awards.
Original London run: Cambridge Theatre, April 1979
THE SOUND OF MUSIC (3rd Revival)
London run: BAC Main, December 4th – January 10th (Limited season)
Music: Richard Rodgers
Lyrics: Oscar Hammerstein II
Book: Howard Lindsay & Russel Crouse
Director: Phil Willmott
Choreographer: Jack Gunn
Musical Director: Annemarie Lewis Thomas
Cast: Penny-Belle Fowler (Maria), Tim Berrington (Captain von Trapp), Roz McCutcheon (Mother Abbess),
Charlotte Bicknell (Elsa), Phil Willmott (Max Detweiler), Katey Crawford Kastin (Liesl), Mark Powell (Rolf).
This was a cut-down production, accompanied by just two pianos, but with a cast of 40. It was extremely well
received by the critics and public, and acclaimed as a triumphant example of how a fringe, shoe-string
production could work just as well as the grandest of stagings.
Notes: See Original London production, 1961; 1st London revival, August 1981; 2nd revival, June 1992
1997
40
SATURDAY NIGHT
London run: Bridewell, December 17th – January 24th
Music & Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim
Book: Julius & Philip Epstein
Director: Carol Metcalfe & Clive Paget
Choreographer: Tim Flavin
Musical Director: Peter Corrigan
Cast: Sam Newman (Gene), Anna Francolini (Helen), Jeremy David (Artie),
Simon Greiff (Ray), Mark Haddigan (Hank), James Millard (Bobby),
Maurice Yeoman (Dino), Tracie Bennett (Celeste), Ashleigh Sendin (Mildred),
Rae Baker, Paul Brereton, Gavin Lee
Songs: Marry Me a Little, Class, Love’s a Bond, In The Movies, One Wonderful
Day, It’s That Kind of Neighbourhood, What More Do I Need?, A Moment With
You
Story: In pre- Wall Street Crash New York, Gene and his friends dream of dating
available women every Saturday night and then making a stock-market killing
every Monday. While the others dream, Gene, passing himself as a young
stockbroker, manages to gate-crash a society ball and meets the lovely, wealthy Southern belle, Helen. They
fall in love – but Helen, herself, is in disguise. Instead of investing his buddies’ money, as promised, Gene has
been using it to live the high life. When Helen finally persuades him that a loving home in Brooklyn is all they
need, he happily faces his responsibilities, and hands himself in for a light jail sentence, his buddies’ lost
savings having been recouped.
Notes: This was planned for Sondheim’s Broadway debut in the early 1950s, but prior to the opening Lemuel
Ayers, the producer, suddenly died from leukaemia. His widow decided to abandon the project and refused to
release the rights to anyone else. The show remained unproduced for more than 40 years. In 1995 permission
was granted for a group of students at Birmingham University to present a concert version, and this led to
Sondheim allowing the Bridewell to stage this world premiere – a production of enormous interest to critics,
performers and musical enthusiasts alike. It was well received.