- the musical about Houdini that vanished before our very
eyes …
MAN OF MAGIC
-
- Book and lyrics by John Morley and Aubrey Cash
Music by Wilfred Wylam (an alias for Wilfred Josephs)
Original London cast: Stuart Damon, Judith Bruce, Stubby Kaye,
Doris Hare, Gaye Brown. Musical director: Jan Cervenka
SONGS: Man Of Magic; Floral Sisters; Man In The Crowd; Fantabulous;
The Man That Captures My Heart; Suddenly; Sling The Gin; Conquer
The World; Take Your Medicine; Like No Other Man; The Earth Is
The Lord's; Kester's Crystal Cabbage; You Can't Keep A Good Man
Down; This He Knows; Say Your Name
- This half-hearted stab at a musical biography of escapologist
Harry Houdini could not escape an indifferent press and death
after 135 performances (Piccadilly Theatre, November 1966). Bereft
of the entertaining re-staging of some of Houdini's trickiest
and most frightening feats, the cast recording has to fall back
on a score that fails to establish a style of its own. Frank
Marcus in Plays and Players considered 'the show gets progressively
worse, becoming clogged up in a plot of unbelievable bathos …
Mr Josephs should look at the work of Leonard Bernstein, who
never writes down when composing for musicals'. Stubby Kaye,
there to provide rotund and innocent fun as Houdini's amiable
agent, has two seemingly interminable and unamusing numbers,
'Take Your Medicine' and, equally dire, 'Kester's Crystal Cabbage'.
The singing of Stuart Damon as Houdini is almost as handsome
as his looks, bringing virility to the proceedings, but his songs
are too reminiscent of other, finer efforts. At least Man Of
Magic provides an opportunity to enjoy Judith (previously Judy)
Bruce, one of the lost stars of the British musical theatre,
understudied in the show by her sister Lucy Winters. Bruce, who
during rehearsal balked at some of the frightening stunts she
was asked to participate in (Fielding pooh-poohed her objections,
but demurred after taking her place under a giant sawing pendulum)
has a glass-edged attack in her opening number 'Floral Sisters'
(with a sassy Gaye Brown), and brings her rare quality to everything
she does, even if her three solos are unworthy of her. There
are nevertheless two easy, tuneful numbers, 'Suddenly' (sung
by a love-struck Houdini), and Damon's first act curtain duet
with Bruce, 'Conquer The World' (with more than a hint of the
dreaded Pickwick's 'If I Ruled The World'). Yes, it's pretty
dim stuff. Perhaps one should simply take Man Of Magic on its
own terms (whatever that means), the sort of fare that impresario
Harold Fielding was used to assembling for the London coach trade.
There is no natural force or reason in it, beyond the feeling
that Harold Fielding had telephoned some writers and a composer.
It never dares to approach art or tastefulness or genuine excitement.
During rehearsals, Kaye met Bruce's young daughter Nancy (so
called after Bruce had played leading lady in Oliver in London
and on Broadway). 'Are you ticklish?' Kaye asked. 'No' Nancy
Bruce replied, 'I'm English.' It's funnier than anything Man
Of Magic's creators could manage.
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