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Johnny The Priest - Part 4

Did You Know That…?

  • the theatre programme for Johnny the Priest carried an advertisement from Decca announcing the imminent appearance of the original cast recording. Unfortunately, Decca had Malcolm Arnold, not Hopkins, as the composer! Anyway, the recording, once made, was not issued, but put in the Decca archives. Only many years later was the recording issued in a limited edition.
  • The 'teenagers' that make up the chorus are a patently bogus bunch, with thinly veiled RADA accents. The second female lead, Frances Buckeridge, is very East End until she has to go into her head voice, when she becomes very 'cut glass'
  • Antony Hopkins does not list his score for Johnny the Priest among his works.
  • Johnny the Priest was Jeremy Brett's last appearance in a musical play. It was Bunny May's only starring performance in a London musical (although he was one of the gaggle of young boys in Passion Flower Hotel a few years later). It was also Frances Buckeridge's one and only London lead.

THE ORIGINAL CAST RECORDING
 
Several of the musical numbers listed in the theatre programme did not make it into the studio. These were, as listed in the programme:
 
From Part I:
The Maybury Story [Boys and Girls]
Hellfire [Mrs Palmer, Boys and Girls]
Johnny the Priest [Boys and Girls]

From Part II:
Bound Over [Boys and Girls]

 
The recording does not give performer details of the specific recorded items, but they are as follows (here, cast members names are given)
 Not quite a villain. Bunny May as the wayward young Johnny
Doin' The Burp [Boys and Girls]
The Little Box [Hope Jackman, Boys and Girls]
Vicarage Tea [Jeremy Brett, Stephanie Voss, Phillada Sewell]
Be Not Afraid [Jeremy Brett, Stephanie Voss]
I'm Your Girl [Bunny May, Frances Buckeridge]
Beyond These Narrow Streets[Stephanie Voss, Jeremy Brett]
Rooftops [Bunny May]
The Foggy Foggy Blues [Norman Warwick, Boys and Girls]
He'll Let You Down [Boys and Girls]
Ping Pong [Boys and Girls]
Johnny Earn Peanuts [Hope Jackman, Boys and Girls]
A Tanner's Worth Of Tune [Bunny May, Frances Buckeridge]
Charge Me [Lisa Noble, Pat O'Reilly]
A Boy Called Johnny [Jeremy Brett]
Stormy Evening [Jeremy Brett, Stephanie Voss, Phillada Sewell, Bunny May]
Finale [Jeremy Brett, Boys and Girls]

PRINTED MUSIC

Three of the songs were published by Chappell: 'Be Not Afraid', 'I'm Your Girl' and 'A Tanner's Worth of Tune'

The piano selection, arranged by Felton Rapley [duration 7 minutes!], contained a medley of the songs, in the following sequence:
'Be Not Afraid' [intro], 'A Tanner's Worth Of Tune', 'Be Not Afraid', 'Farewell, Johnny', 'Ping Pong', 'A Boy Called Johnny', 'I'm Your Girl', and finally (Molto maestoso) 'Be Not Afraid'

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