1976musicals

7

I DO I DO (Revival) London run: Phoenix, January 21st (6 weeks)

Music: Harvey Schmidt

Lyrics & Book: Tom Jones

Director: Lowell Purvis

Musical Director: Ian MacPherson Producer: Paul Elliott & Veronica Flint-Shipman

Cast: Rock Hudson, Juliet Prowse

The production was hated by the critics,

who claimed the performances were

dreadful, Rock Hudson could not sing,

and the whole thing was a celebrity rip-

off. However, it did excellent business on

the strength of the two names and had

only ever been planned for a fixed six-

week season. During one of the weeks

Rock Hudson was taken ill and the role

was taken over by Leon Greene. It closed

at the beginning of March and then moved

to Toronto.

See: Original London Production, May 1968

THE LADY OR THE TIGER London run: Fortune, February 3rd (52 Performances)

Music: Nola York

Book & Lyrics: Jeremy Paul & Michael Richmond

Director: Michael Richmond

Choreographer: Tony Kinnie

Musical Director: Keith Strachan Producer: John Gale & David Conville

Cast: Kate Crutchley (Princess), John Morton (Hero), Gordon Reid (King),

Vernon Joyner (Factotum)

Songs: I'll Tell You a Truth, Make Way, Forbidden Love (In Gaul) , I've Got What

You Want, Tiger Tiger, Which Door?

Story: The age-old tale has Hero, the victorious warrior making the supreme mistake of falling in love with the

Princess and getting caught. The King puts him on trial, and he has to choose between two doors: behind one

is a beautiful girl; behind the other is a ferocious tiger. However, in this version the hero turns out to be a

seedy wandering minstrel, full of folk-rock ballad songs and snatches; the Princess is a “Baby-Doll” type,

sucking her thumb and clutching her teddy bear at an age when she should have been interested in more grown-

up things; and the King is a kind of despotic Nero. Faced with the choice of sexual bliss or a messy death, Hero

asks the Princess to make the choice. She points to one of the doors: and which door did she choose? The lady

or the tiger?

Notes: Based on an 1882 short story by Frank R. Stockton, this story had been used earlier as one third of the

Broadway musical “The Apple Tree” written by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick. The English version was

quite different in style. With a cast of just four, and two musicians, and no scenery, it originated at the Orange

Tree Theatre, Richmond. Its whimsy did not really work and it lasted just 52 performances.

1976

Photo by Stuart Robinson

8 Photo by Chris J. Arthue

1976

MARDI GRAS London run: Prince of Wales, March 18th (212 performances)

Music & Lyrics: Alan Blaikley & Ken Howard

Book: Melvyn Bragg

Director: Clifford Williams

Choreographer: Paddy Stone

Musical Director: Ray Cook Producer: Bernard Delfont & Richard M. Mills

Cast: Nicky Henson (Lorne), Dana Gillespie (Celandine), Gaye Brown (Conception),

Miguel Brown (Sister Anne), Marsha Hunt (Voodoo Woman), Pepsi Maycock,

Lon Satton, Aubrey Woods.

Songs: Breeze from the River, Everything About You, Isn’t It a Nice Sensation?, New

Orleans, Make Jazz, Celandine’s Blues, When I Feel the Spirit Move Me

Story: Would-be jazz musician, Lorne, arrives in New Orleans at the time of Mardi Gras, and gets caught up in the

atmosphere of hot hearts and hot music among the fleshpots and jazz clubs where all proprieties are thrown aside

and anything goes at the time of this wild carnival of New Orleans. This is a world where the singer Concepcion

works a Spanish tart act and the nun Sister Anne sings with religious fervour while stripping down to her red

bloomers. Lorne meets and is obsessively attracted to Celandine, New Orleans’s top hooker, and, very much in the

tradition of Carmen and Don Jose, it all leads to a tragic finale.

VERY GOOD EDDIE London run: Piccadilly Theatre, March 23rd (411 Performances)

Music: Jerome Kern

Lyrics: Schulyer Green

Book: Guy Bolton

Director: Bill Gile Producer: Donald & Ian Albery

Cast: Richard Freeman (Eddie Kettle),

Cookie Weymouth (Georgina Kettle),

Nigel Williams (Percy Darling), Prue Clarke (Elsie Darling),

Robert Swann (Dick Rivers), Mary Barrett (Elsie Lilly) ,

Gita Denise (Mme. Matroppo)

Songs: Some Sort of Somebody, Isn’t it Great to be Married?, Katy

Did, Size Thirteen Collar, Babes in the Wood

Story: Two newly-wed couples, timid Eddie Kettle and his pushy

wife, Georgina, and Percy and Elsie Darling, are about to set sail on

their honeymoon cruise. On the same boat are Elsie Lilly, an ex girl-

friend of Eddie’s, and her ardent suitor, Dick Rivers. By mishap

Georgina and Percy are left ashore when the boat leaves, and Eddie Kettle and Elsie Darling, alone, discover they

haven't even enough money for one meal. Dick appears, and Eddie is forced to pretend Elsie Darling is his bride in

order to borrow some money. The boat stops at the Rip Van Winkle Inn, and they have

to stay overnight, booking separate rooms but using a false name for the booking. But

Georgina and Percy arrive by train, and are surprised to find their partners not named on

the hotel register. They take separate rooms as well. During the night a mouse scares

Elsie Darling out of her room, and she knocks on Eddie's door for his help. Then Elsie

Lilly needs Eddie’s help to escape the attentions of Dick. In the morning everyone

eventually comes face to face and much confusion arises. When finally sorted out, they

get back on the boat, and Georgina noisily issues commands about baggage and tips.

But Eddie, in his newfound confidence with women, orders Georgina to shut up and sit

down. His friends in delight call out "Very Good, Eddie."

Notes: The original London production was at the Palace Theatre on May 18th 1918,

where it ran for just 46 performances – it was deemed far too risqué. A Broadway

revival incorporating some additional songs prompted this first West End revival in 55

years.

Nigel Williams & Prue Clarke

9

SALAD DAYS (3rd Revival) London run: Duke of York's, April 14th (133 Performances)

Music: Julian Slade

Lyrics & Book: Julian Slade & Dorothy Reynolds

Director: David Conville

Choreographer: Wayne Sleep

Musical Director: Neil Rhoden Producer: David Conville

Revival Cast: Bill Kerr (Tramp), Christina Matthews (Jane), Adam Bareham (Timothy),

Louis Hammond (Troppo), Sheila Steafel, Elizabeth Seal, Ian Talbot

This production originated at the Theatre Royal, Windsor. It lasted just under four months.

Notes: See Original Production , Vaudeville Theatre, August 1954.

Revival: Prince’s Theatre, December 1961

Second Revival: Lyric, Hammersmith, August 1964

LA GRANDE EUGENE London run: Roundhouse, April 26th ( 5 months)

Songs: Various composers

Original music: Alain Guiu

Book: Frantz Salieri

Director: Frantz Salieri

Choreographer: Alain Deshayes

Cast: Christophe Basso (Erna von Scratch), Luc Chevalier (Belle de May),

José-Christian Niego (Josepha Badabou), Alain Deshayes, James Caneron,

Bruno Tonioli, Ladislav Perfler, Thierry le Bourgeois, Peter Althoff,

Patrick Louis-Sidney, Jean-Francois Decarufel

Notes: This transvestite revue began at a late-night cabaret venue, La Grande

Eugene, off the Champs-Elysées in Paris, with a company of 11 men miming to records of Marlene Dietrich,

Josephine Baker, Liza Minelli, Lotte Lenya and others. However, it was a long way from an ordinary drag-

show, and its superb choreography, mime, and technical precision was attached to an underlying trenchant

social commentary: nostalgia for a past that never really existed, sexual eroticism that is faked and illusory, and

a sense of dread at our inability to see past the illusion. (Bruno Tonioli remained in London and had an

extensive career as performer and then as choreographer in world-wide demand. He later became a household

name as one of the judges on the TV show “Strictly Come Dancing)

1976

Photo by Daniel Boudinet—Paris

10 1976

CYCLE SLUTS London run: Broadway Theatre, Kilburn, April 26th (A few weeks?)

Music: Various composers

Director: ? Producer: Roxy Theater, Los Angeles

Cast: (Not listed individually)

Songs: Love is a Killer, Nasty, Spaghetti’s Straight Till it Hits Hot Water, All American Boy, Wait Till Your

Son Turns Nellie, Deteriorata

Notes: This was a ten-man transvestite revue from the Roxy Theater, Los Angeles, and by coincidence opened

in London on exactly the same night as the Paris

transvestite show “La Grande Eugene”. In a

very different style to the French show, this was

wild, raunchy, with leather-clad hairy-chested

men, wrapped in chains, mocking the

Hollywood obsession with glamour and glitter.

One of the numbers in the show was the old

song “You Made Me Love You” sung by a line-

up holding lengths of chains. On the song’s

fourth beat at the mention of “love” they smash

their chains in unison on the ground. At the end

of the song – the “Gimme, gimme what I cry

for” they manage to link the chains into one

long line and start a chorus line of high-kicks in

unison like a standard Tiller Girl routine. (This

group was not connected with a later heavy

metal rock group “Cycle Sluts from Hell”)

SIDE BY SIDE BY SONDHEIM London run: Mermaid Theatre , May 4th (781 Performances)

Transferred: Wyndham’s Theatre, July 7th

Transferred : Garrick Theatre, October 4th 1977

Music: Stephen Sondheim & others

Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim

Director: Ned Sherrin

Choreographer: Bob Howe

Musical Director:Tim Higgs & Stuart Pedlar Producer: Cameron Mackintosh & H. M. Tennent

Cast: Millicent Martin, Julia McKenzie, David

Kernan, Ned Sherrin

Notes: An anthology of songs by Stephen Sondheim, this proved to be

enormously popular and did much to promote Sondheim’s reputation and

popularise his works. With just three singers, a narrator and two pianos,

its elegant simplicity was much praised. After a year the original cast left

to appear in the show in New York where it opened on April 18th 1977.

This was the first of Cameron Mackintosh’s productions to open in New

York, but not under his own management. At this time all the USA rights

in Sondheim’s music were held by Harold Prince, and the New York

production was announced under the Prince management, with Cameron

not even invited to the opening night!

The London replacement casts included Robin Ray Russell Harty,

Michael Parkinson, Bernard Braden, Michael Aspel, Christopher Biggins,

Sheridan Morley and even Hermione Gingold as future narrators.

Photo by Zoe Dominic

11

RIDE! RIDE! London run: Westminster Theatre, May 20th (76 Performances)

Music: Penelope Thwaites

Book & Lyrics: Alan Thornhill

Director: Peter Coe

Choreographer: Larry Oaks

Musical Director: Raymond Bishop

Cast: Gordon Gostelow (John Wesley), Caroline Villiers (Martha Thompson),

Brendan Barry (Dr Henry Hobart), Richard Owens (Charles Wesley)

Songs: Have You Heard? The Lord Jehovah Reigns, The Whole Wide World is my Parish, The Garden of

England, Let the Enemies of the Lord, Open Your Heart

Story: This was the “story of a crook parson, a quack doctor, a runaway

girl and a pestilent preacher”, the last of these being John Wesley, the

religious reformer and the founder of the Methodist Church. He spent

much of his life on horseback, travelling all over the country taking his

mission to the people. One of his converts, a northern girl called Martha

Thompson, came to London where her religious fervour was taken to be

insanity and she was imprisoned in Bedlam.

Notes: This was first staged in a Methodist Church in Lancashire and

underwent a considerable UK tour before being presented by Moral Re-

Armament. It was later re-arranged for concert performances and received

many performances in churches throughout the country.

LEAVE HIM TO HEAVEN London run: New London Theatre, June 2nd (4 months)

Music & Lyrics: Various

Book: Ken Lee

Director: Philip Hedley

Choreographer: Pat Adams

Musical Director: Neil MacArthur Producer: Roger Clifford

Cast: Brian Protheroe (Conway Terle),

Larry Dann, Steven Pacey, Sue Bond,

Anita Dobson, Liz White

Songs: A miscellany of 1950s and early 1960s rock’n’roll songs and

ballads.

Story: A very thin tale of a young man being snatched from obscurity,

being given the name Conway Terle, and turned into a rock singer.

Success goes to his head and he loses the only girl who really loves

him and he is exploited by hangers-on. Finally he comes to his senses,

gives up the pop world and marries his true love. However, the story

is an excuse to incorporate the best of the 1950s pop numbers (plus

some very funny send-ups of the worst of the music of that era)

consisting of forty-four “blasts from the past, tracks from way back,

rockers from the locker, platters that matter” making the whole thing

was a very jolly evening’s entertainment. There was much praise for

Brian Protheroe’s performance.

1976

Brian Protheroe Photo by HouNobby Clark

12

LIZA OF LAMBETH London run: Shaftesbury Theatre, June 8th (110 Performances)

Music: Cliff Adams

Book & Lyrics: William Rushton & Berny Stringle

Director: Berny Stringle

Choreographer: Michele Hardy

Musical Director: John Burrows Producer: John Fenston & Ben Arbeid

Cast: Angela Richards (Liza Kemp), Patricia Hayes (Mrs Selina Kemp),

Christopher Neil (Tommy Pratt), Bryan Marshall (Jim Blakeston),

Michael Robbins, Tina Martin, Stella Tanner, Dudley Stevens

Songs: Husbands, I Come Down from Wigan, Prince of Wales, Is This All? Red

Jollop, Going Down to Chingford on a Chara, What’s the Use of Killing Yourself?

A Little Bit on the Side.

Story: Liza Kemp is an 18-year-old factory worker living alone with her drunken mother. She very much likes

Tom, a boy her age, but when he proposes to her she rejects him. On a charabanc outing she meets Jim

Blakeston, a 40-year-old father of nine, and ends up falling in love with him and begins a secret affair. A few

months into their relationship Jim becomes aggressive, and gives her a black eye, and Jim’s wife discovers

their secret and physically attacks Liza. Despite all her misbehaviour, Tom still wants to marry her, but she tells

him it's too late – she is pregnant with Jim’s child. Tom is still willing to marry her and accept the child as his

own, but she refuses again. Very shortly after, she has a miscarriage and dies as a result.

Notes: The very moral original story by W. Somerset Maugham was jollied along with cockney sing-a-longs,

music-hall type songs, and some Gilbert & Sullivan parodies all mixed up with some touching ballads. The

basic theme of the tart with a heart of gold, surrounded by Pearly Kings and “cockney-sparrers” was too much

for the critics and the public. It survived just three months.

IRENE (Revival) London run: Adelphi Theatre, June 15th (974 Performances)

Music: Harry Tierney

Lyrics: Joseph McCarthy

Book: James Montgomery, newly adapted by Hugh Wheeler & Joseph Stein

Director: Freddie Carpenter

Choreographer: Norman Maen

Musical Director: Michael Reed Producer: Harold Fielding

Cast: Julie Anthony (Irene Dare), Eric Flynn (Donald Marshall),

Jon Pertwee (Mme Lucy), Jessie Evans (Mrs O’Dare), Jenny Logan (Helen)

Songs: Alice Blue Gown, Talk of the Town, To Be Worthy of You, Castle of Dreams, The Last Part of Every

Party. (Interpolated songs for this revival include: You Made Me Love You, I’m Always Chasing Rainbows.)

Story: Poor Irene Dare from New York’s 9th Avenue works for an upholsterer and is sent to mend some

cushions at the Long Island home of wealthy Donald Marshall. Donald is attracted to the talkative girl and gets

her a job, along with two of her friends, to model the designs of a male fashion designer who trades under the

name Mme. Lucy. Since the modelling involves passing herself as a member of society, Irene is wooed by

social-climbing J.P. Bowden, but he drops her when her humble origins are revealed. Donald, however, loves

her exactly the way she is. (In this revival Irene Dare’s occupation is changed to piano tuner, and the character

of J.P. Bowden is dropped)

Notes: The original London production was at the Empire Theatre on April 7th 1920, starring Edith Day, who

had also starred in the Broadway premiere the previous year. The show was revived in the USA in 1973 with

Debbie Reynolds and was originally directed by Sir John Gielgud who was replaced in rehearsals by Gower

Champion. Then Gower Champion himself was replaced when he refused to direct Jane Powell as Debbie

Reynolds’ replacement.

1976

13

A CHORUS LINE London run: Drury Lane, July 22nd (903 Performances)

Music: Marvin Hamlisch

Lyrics: Edward Kleban

Book: James Kirkwood & Nicholas Dante

Director-Choreographer: Michael Bennett

Musical Director: Ray Cook Producer: Michael White

Cast: Eivind Harum (Zach), T. Michael Reed (Larry), Sandy Roveta (Cassie),

Jane Summerhays (Sheila), Mitzi Hamilton (Val), Loida Iglesias (Diana),

Tommy Aguilar (Paul), Steve Baumann (Al), Christine Barker (Kristine)

Jennifer Ann Lee (Connie), Jeff Hyslop (Mike).

Songs: I Hope I Get It, I Can Do That, At the Ballet, Nothing, What I Did for Love, Dance Ten Looks Three,

One

Story: There is no story, just a series of episodes where 18 dancers audition for places in an eight-member

chorus line. Goaded by a largely unseen and rather sadistic director named Zach (and his assistant Larry), each

applicant in turn reveals truths that should help the director make his final choices. Among those auditioning

are Cassie, a former featured dancer now down her luck who was once romantically involved with Zach; the

street-smart but vulnerable ballet-loving Sheila; the still hopeful Diana who once failed a method acting class;

the voluptuous Val who has had breast implants to improve her chances; and the sad Paul who relates his

humiliating experience as a drag queen, and then twists his ankle in the closing moment and loses his chance of

the job. Finally the eight are chosen and the rest are dismissed.

Notes: The show originated as a

series of taped interviews with

Broadway chorus dancers

r em i n i s c i n g a b o u t t h e i r

experiences, and these tapes were

assembled into the basis of a show

without scenery or costumes (and

played without an interval). As a

concession to the audiences the

company appeared in finale

costumes against a set of mirrors

and performed one of the most

precise and perfect ensemble

dances ever seen on the stage. The

show became the longest-running

show ever on Broadway (until it

was finally overtaken by “Cats”.)

T.ZEE London run: Royal Court, August 10th (38 Performances)

Music & Lyrics: Richard O’Brien & Richard Hartley

Director: Nicholas Wright

Musical Director: Richard Hartley Producer: Michael White

Cast: Richard O’Brien (Eugene de Lyle), Belinda Sinclair (Alison Dare),

Warren Clarke (T.Zee), Paul Nicholas (Bone Idol), Diane Langton (Princess La),

Arthur Dignam, Jim Sweeney, Kimi Wong

Story: Two intrepid explorers, Eugene de Lyle and Alison Dare, get caught in

the mists of a pinball world that once was Los Angeles. They become the

prisoners of a sadistic pop-singer, Bone Idol, and the over-sexed Princess La,

and meet T.Zee, an overweight muscle-man looking for his lost Jane in the jungle.

Notes: This was clearly an attempt to create another “Rocky Horror Show”, but it fell flat on its face in spite of

some fun scenes and one or two good songs. It played its season at the Royal Court and then disappeared.

1976

Photo by Martha Swope

14

I GOTTA SHOE (Revival) London run: Criterion, December 15th (Christmas season)

Music, Lyrics & Book: Caryl Brahms & Ned Sherrin

Some songs: Ron Grainer

Director: Ned Sherrin

Choreographer: David Toguri

Cast: Linda Lewis, Clarke Peters, Felix Rice, Eric Roberts, Elisabeth Welch

Notes: See original production, Garrick Theatre in December 1962 under the title “Cindy-Ella, or I Gotta

Shoe”. This was a revised version.

THE POINT London run: Mermaid Theatre, December 16th (Christmas season)

Music & Lyrics: Harry Nilsson

Adaptation: Ron Pember & Bernard Miles

Director: Ron Pember

Choreographer: Wayne Sleep & Graham Powell

Cast: Wayne Sleep (Oblio), Kenneth Caswell (The Count’s Kid),

Colin Bennett (The Count), Paul Aylett (Arrow),

Bernard Miles (The King), Peggy Ann Jones, Richard Merson

Songs: Me and My Arrow, Think About Your Troubles, Are You

Sleeping?, He’s Leaving Here Tomorrow, It’s a Jungle Out There,

Think About Your Troubles.

Story: The story of Oblio, the only round-headed boy born in Pointed Village, where everyone else has a

triangular head and, by law, everything has to have a point. He wears a pointed hat to hide his "pointless"

condition and he is accepted in the village until one day he unwittingly offends an evil Count. The Count

demands that the Good King upholds the law of the land, and reluctantly the King is forced to banish Oblio and

his dog, Arrow, to the Pointless Forest. They meet curious creatures like giant bees, a "pointed man" pointing

in all directions who proclaims "A point in every direction is the same as no point at all", a man made of rock,

three dancing fat sisters, and a man who proves that everyone has a point (as in reason) though it might not be

readily displayed. Oblio and Arrow return to the Pointed Village and tell the King and the people that

everything has a point, including the Pointless Forest, and the King himself. Unable to believe this, the evil

Count pulls off Oblio's pointed hat, and everyone is surprised to see that Oblio now has a pointed head like

everyone else.

Notes: Originally created as a 90-minutes animated TV film in the USA, and much praised for its contribution

to awareness of racial prejudice, the show was issued as an LP. The success of this led to a stage musical

adaptation in the USA an this version at the Mermaid. Additional songs from Harry Nilsson’s back catalogue

were used to extend the stage version.

1976