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 Producer: Duncan Weldon & Louis Michaels

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

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

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.

Notes: See Original London Production:

Stoll Theatre, April 20th, 1955

1978

Clifton Todd, Lorna Dallas, John Reardon and Joan Diener

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Zoe

Dom

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Anna Quayle & Frank Finlay

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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)

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,

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 street-

corner 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.

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

Bruce Forsyth & Derek Griffiths

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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 Producer: Michael White

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)

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

Andrea McArdle

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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 Producer: Robert Stigwood

1978

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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

Cast: David Essex (Che), Elaine Paige (Evita), Joss Ackland (Peron),

Siobhan McCarthy (Peron’s Mistress), Mark Ryan (Magaldi)

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

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.

1978

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Dom

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Elaine Paige

27

GODSPELL (2nd Revival) Shaftesbury Theatre, July 14th (5 weeks)

Music & Lyrics: Stephen Schwartz

Book: John-Michael Tebelak

Director: Robert Cheeseman

Choreographer: Rowan Stuart Producer: Cameron Mackintosh

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.

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

Alan Love as Jesus

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28

THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS 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)

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.

1978

Julie Covington (Left)

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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.

1978