A Girl Called Jo

Book and Lyrics: Peter Myers, Alec Grahame & David Climie, based on 'Little Women' and 'Good Wives' by Louisa M. Alcott
Music: John Pritchett
Additional Music: Stanley Myers
Piccadilly Theatre, London, 1955

I heard the score of this lovely show on a 'live' recording that had been made by Peter Myers. It featured the original cast in the last performance of the original production: Joan Heal, Denis Quilley, Edward Woodward, Marion Grimaldi, Virginia Vernon and Diane Todd.

The score was wonderful and I wanted to know more about the show. Fortunately I was introduced to Patricia Lancaster (the well known actress) who is the widow of the composer John Pritchett. Patricia had fortunately kept all her husbands manuscripts and scripts, however it was clear from all the material that although the piece had potential, it not stand up today without a little re-working.

Original manuscript of 'The Wedding Dance' from A Girl Called Jo

in the hand of the composer, John Pritchett

(Click on manuscript to see it full-size!)

All the writers had died, with the exception of Alec Grahame. I met with Alec who could not quite understand why on earth we wanted to do the show and was most worried that we wanted to do the show with the original script! I explained that if was allowed to take all the script drafts and all the existing manuscripts I would attempt to put together a new working script. His blessing was given along with the families of all the other writers and I set to work. The original production went through a lot of problems and they were re-working it up to the closing notice. Without any pre-conceived ideas and with a free reign, I was able to take a fresh look at the show. The original production was an elaborate affair with large sets, full orchestra and a huge company including a corps-de-ballet. I took the show down to the bare essentials and tried to focuses fully on the story and less on the spectacle. Alec approved the script, which was still very faithful and we started casting.

We wanted to find some good young talent to play the March family and we were fortunate in finding a wonderful 'Jo' - Lorraine Graham, a new up and coming talent who took on the mammoth role and shone. Su Chandler played Meg, Kareena Dainty played Amy, Samantha Shimbart played Beth, and Michael Cotton played Laurie. We asked Patricia Lancaster to play the role of Marmee, and were delighted that Josephine Gordon joined us for the role of Aunt March.

The show was extremely well received and no one need have worried that it may have come across as too old fashioned. There was much interest in the piece and there are hopes for future productions.

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