- Follow That Girl - Part 5
Memories of the original production
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- On 16th and 18th April 2000 a semi-staged concert revival
of Follow That Girl was staged at the Theatre Museum, Covent
Garden, directed and staged by Stewart Nicholls. The cast included
Leigh Jones (Tom), Rosie Jenkins (Victoria), Richard Owens (Mr
Gilchrist), Carolyn Allen (Mrs Gilchrist), Stephen Carlile (Tancred),
Ben Stock (Wilberforce), Marion Grimaldi (Cora Miskin), David
Alder (Aquarium Keeper), Caroline Tobin (Mercia), Alexandra Turchyn
(Mavis), Victoria Ashlee (Maud). Musical direction was by Rowland
Lee.
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- On Sunday 16th April, members of the original production,
Marion Grimaldi (who now lives in Los Angeles), Susan Hampshire,
Peter Gilmore, James Cairncross, Robert McBain and Bridget Armstrong
- joined by Julian Slade - talked to Stewart Nicholls. What follows
is a slightly abridged transcript of that conversation
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- Philip Guard (Tancred) and Robert McBain (Wilberforce)
propose to Susan Hampshire (Victoria) in Act I Scene 2
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- Nicholls: Follow That Girl was based on an earlier
musical, Christmas in King Street, which ran at the Bristol Old
Vic in 1952, and it was the first musical that you, Julian, and
Dorothy, wrote together. I believe that you too, James, had some
involvement with the writing of the piece and I wonder if you
could tell us why and how it was written?
Cairncross: I first joined the Bristol Old Vic in the
autumn of 1952 when the theatre director was an Irishman called
Denis Carey. Those were the days when most of the big cities
and indeed many of the towns were able to support at least one
repertory theatre where a company of actors and actresses (we
were scrupulous in those days in our observance of our gender
difference. You would never refer to a lady as an actor, although
there were one or two actors who wouldn't have minded …)
The company of players presented a new production every three
weeks or so for a season running from the end of August to the
beginning of June. At Bristol the repertoire was mainly classical
with the occasional modern and the very occasional new play thrown
in, but a slight little local difficulty used to arise around
Christmas-time when our loyal and loving public who had got to
know us quite well by that time seemed desirous of being present
at some sort of musical entertainment presented by persons who
could neither sing nor dance.
Denis - this was typical - had decided this year to take things
a stage further and present a show written and composed entirely
by the company. As far as the music went he knew he was on to
a winner because the season before Julian had provided incidental
music and settings for songs for the plays when required. So,
a company meeting was called. Denis told us this was going to
happen and that the show was going to be called Christmas in
King Street.
There then followed, and this was absolutely par the course with
Denis, an awesome, pin-dropping silence, broken eventually by
one of the company - it might well have been me - saying 'Denis,
can you give us some idea of what the show is going to be like?'
And, with Irish eyes smiling and twinkling he said 'Yes, indeed
I can' and we thought, thank goodness, he's going to give us
some sort of outline of a plot. He said, 'I see the curtain rising
on an empty stage…' So we took it from there.
When it was announced that this was going to happen there was
a good deal of apprehension and dismay in the town. I was present
at the box-office one day when the phone rang. There were people
ringing up to book for the pantomime and the box-office manager
said 'Well, we're not doing a pantomime this year'. Oh, then
you don't want seats? Thank you.' So we got no help from that
quarter, but the first night of the first Christmas in King Street
was one of those sensational and satisfying triumphs the like
of which I have seen very rarely in over sixty years in the theatre.
Two years later, when Dorothy and Julian were well established
and were going to do Salad Days, Dorothy was walking in the street
one day and met a lady member of the Theatregoers club who said
'How's it going, Miss Reynolds?' 'Oh, all right.' 'This time
is there going to be any dancing or are you all going to jump
up and down like you usually do?'
Nicholls: Julian, could you give us a brief outline of
the differences between Christmas in King Street and Follow That
Girl?
Slade: Christmas in King Street was entirely Bristolian
in flavour and it incorporated all the main landmarks of Bristol,
including the statue of Neptune, memorably played by James Cairncross.
All this had to be altered completely to a London location. In
addition, it was necessary as we were re-shaping it, to add a
considerable amount of music, so there are at least four songs
that were written for Follow That Girl, including the title song.
After Christmas in King Street, I was asked by Denis Carey to
write a new score for Sheridan's operetta The Duenna, which starred
James Cairncross and Dorothy Reynolds and I wrote a second Christmas
show, The Merry Gentleman, which also starred James Cairncross.
Cairncross: We got terribly tired.
Slade: It was during the run of The Merry Gentleman that
we were asked to write a summer show especially for the company,
and we'd all been together for about two or three years. Salad
Days was written specifically for a company of repertory actors,
which I think, to be honest, was part of its strength.
Nicholls: Then followed Free as Air and Follow That Girl. So
why did you decide to turn Christmas in King Street into Follow
That Girl?
Slade: Because we were asked to by Jack Gatti who owned
the Vaudeville. He'd come to see a revival of Christmas in King
Street in 1958 and he was immensely taken with it and said that
was the show he wanted to follow Salad Days when the time came.
And that's why we re-wrote it.
Cairncross: Jack Gatti got awfully fed up with the new
wave of stuff and said I want to see a play which starts with
everybody being happy and just goes on getting happier and happier.
Nicholls: Was it the normal run of auditions or were you
specifically asked to audition for a role? Susan?
Hampshire: I did audition several times. I hadn't done
a musical other than Expresso Bongo and really I didn't sing
well enough to do Follow That Girl. I can't imagine how I got
the part, but I did. I remember one of the auditions was in a
house where Julian was playing and giving me so much encouragement,
willing me to get through the song. I just remembered something.
There was something called the Gallery First Nighters and before
the first night we knew that these people were going to shout
'Boo' and 'Rubbish'. All you could think about was not doing
the play but this terrible fear of when this was going to happen.
But I was very lucky to be in it, very, very lucky.
Nicholls: Peter, you'd done quite a few musicals up to
then?
Gilmore: I can't be as meticulous as this lot. I can't
remember much, but I think Susan and I did a sort of pantomime
where you sang perfectly well, getting better and better and
feeling very shy about singing.
Hampshire: I auditioned with you, then?
Gilmore: Probably.
Hampshire: Yes, that's right. Peter had the part, and
he wanted someone who would go well with him.
Gilmore: So that's how it was, was it? I can't honestly
remember.
Slade: You did Hooray for Daisy!
Gilmore: That's right, yes. Then you were lumbered with
me for the next show.
Hampshire: And he sang like a dream. Everybody in the
audience was in love with him.
Nicholls: Marion, how did you come to be in the show?
Grimaldi: I'll tell you how in a second. I was in the
Royal Court one night. I remember those Gallery First Nighters.
It wasn't a very good play - I can't remember what it was - but
from the top of the gods, 'Take it off! It's rubbish!'. Anyway,
I'd just had a musical written for me - Trilby - and it was Geoffrey
Wright who got going on me and said Oh you can't do that, you've
got to do this. It was as simple as that. I got £10 more
a week, I think. I'd worked with Denis Carey before.
Nicholls: On A Girl Called Jo. Bridget?
Armstrong: I had just arrived about a year before from
New Zealand where I'd played Jane in Salad Days and that was
my great claim to success. I became in New Zealand a very big
star in a very tiny pond because Salad Days was the hugest success.
We went round and round the country. I wasn't supposed to play
Jane but on the opening night the leading lady took ill and I
went on and the papers the next day said 'Last night a star was
born. We have a new Jessie Matthews'. I'd never heard of Jessie
Matthews. I thought that she was Tessie O' Shea [a very large
lady] so I took to my bed and said Oh this is disgusting - I'm
never going to eat again. I'm never going to get up either.
So when I auditioned for Julian I wore a hat and I sang 'Spread
a Little Happiness' and Julian was terribly sweet and talked
to me about Salad Days in New Zealand. I got the part and - I
was just saying to someone today - my time in Follow That Girl
was the happiest time in my career, simply because it was such
a magical time, and Princess Margaret had just got engaged and
she was at the gala opening and one was in the chorus and playing
another small part and one didn't have any responsibilities and
one just looked gorgeous and went on and had a wonderful time.
It was marvellous.
McBain: I was working in Salisbury at the time, in rep,
where I met Dorothy Reynolds, so I suppose that's how I got on
the list. My friend Josephine Tewson who'd also been working
with me for a long time at Salisbury had just left to go up to
town to do Free as Air and I thought - This is what I want to
do. I want to go up to London and be in a musical and sing a
bit and dance a bit and get £30 a week.
Gilmore: You got £30?
McBain: He only got £25, and dinner. And I'd live
in a huge white flat in Mayfair like Anna Neagle and Michael
Wilding, and that bit didn't quite come off. I was called for
an audition and I'd never done a singing audition before …
I didn't know what to do. Somewhere I found the sheet music of
'The Whistling Gypsy' which was pretty funny even in 1960. So
I went up to London with this piece of sheet music under my arm
and sang it and thank goodness Julian said You're all right.
Nicholls: So the casting was complete and, unusually,
there was no pre-show tour or try-out. It just opened cold in
the West End. Did much change in rehearsal?
Slade: I don't think so before the opening night, but
it changed a bit after the opening night.
Nicholls: Indeed. The press was a little mixed. You'd
had Salad Days which was a big success, and Free as Air [which
had run for a year]. Why did Follow That Girl not quite have
the run of those?
Slade: It was a very different sort of show to the climate
that was in vogue at the time and probably seemed terribly old-fashioned,
which it was meant to be because it's set in the Victorian period.
But it was just the sort of show that critics did not like at
that particular time, and also I think that they were quite ready
to put the knife in a bit after Salad Days.
Grimaldi: Too successful.
Nicholls: But Follow That Girl did have a six-month run,
which isn't bad. A few things happened during that run. Robert,
your duet, 'Life Must Go On', was axed.
McBain: I was very cross! I thought it was lovely. Besides,
it was my duet, so I enjoyed it. I believe letters were written.
The public was up in arms; it was in very bad taste!
Nicholls: Some things happened to you, Bridget?
Armstrong: It was very exciting, especially on the night
of the gala, and Princess Margaret became engaged to Tony Armstrong-Jones
and they sat in the box. I was in a number called Three Victorian
Mermaids (I'm afraid there's only one of us here today) and my
second mermaid was my great friend Grazina Frame who was wondrously
endowed. On the excitement of Princess Margaret and Tony Armstrong-Jones
being there she became a little enthusiastic and came out of
the top of her costume. She looked straight up at the royal box
and held them and said 'My God, I'm out!' Another thing, which
was very funny … There was a period in the 1960s when you
wore a lot of false hair and false eyelashes. I'd put my wig
on in a hurry over my false hairpiece and while doing the number
my false hair dropped out on to the stage. It looked like a turd.
Mr Cairncross came on with his broom afterwards, looked at the
hair and looked at the audience - 'Someone's dropped an armpit.'
-
 The
three Victorian mermaids escape their tank. Left to right: Bridget
Armstrong (Mercia) Grazina Frame (Mavis) and Betty Wood (Maude)
Nicholls: Julian, I believe you had a present during the
run?
Slade: I had a most unusual present. Miss Hampshire came
into my dressing-room one day with a little cardboard box. I
opened the lid slightly and up popped a grey ear. She'd bought
me a grey rabbit. I said, Oh this is lovely. What am I going
to feed it on? And you said Oh I've thought of that, and you'd
bought me an enormous sack of rabbit food.
Hampshire: Worse than that, I was late for rehearsal one
day and I was quite upset because the understudy was on, and
why was I late? Apparently, I'd bought Peter a hamster.
Gilmore: Me?
Cairncross: The all-time excuse for being late - I was
buying a hamster.
Hampshire: I must have been hell to work with! That menagerie
… Julian's rabbit had to be given away eventually, after
it had eaten through all the wires in his mother's flat.
Grimaldi: But I thought you lost your hamster one day?
Hampshire: I did lose my hamster, yes.
Nicholls: Susan, looking back on the show, how important
do you think it was to have a leading role at that point in your
career, because in Expresso Bongo you had a small part and also
looked after the props, didn't you?
Hampshire: I did. I was ASM. I think it was too soon.
I wasn't really ready to be a 'leading lady' in a West End musical,
I have to confess this. I was very lucky, and when luck comes
take it, don't say I'm not ready, go with it. But I wasn't ready.
Grimaldi: But you were a leading lady. You were lovely,
if I may say so.
Nicholls: What happened after the show closed, Julian?
Slade: It was done a certain amount in rep, but not as
much as Salad Days. And then its greatest chance of survival
was being asked to re-jig it a bit for amateur production, and
there has been quite a lot of those. I added a few bits of music
for that as well.
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- - Our thanks to Stewart Nicholls for allowing British
Musical Theatre to publish this transcript
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