- pomp and some circumstance … an over-blown musical
about Henry II's troubles …
THOMAS AND THE KING
Book by Edward Anhalt. Lyrics by James Herbert
Music by John Williams
Original London cast: James Smillie, Lewis Fiander, Dilys Hamlett,
Caroline Villiers, Michael Sammes, Richard Day-Lewis, Tom Saffery
SONGS: Processional; Look Around You; Am I Beautiful?; Man Of
Love; The Question; What Choice Have I?; We Shall Do It!; Improbable
As Spring; Power; Consecration; 'Tis Love; Sincerity; The Test;
Replay The Game; A New Way To Turn; Will No One Rid Me?; So Many
Other Worlds
- In a Paris CD mega store, I was sad to discover that, in
among a tired little selection of 'comedies musicale' on sale,
was the recording of the musical that fluttered very briefly
at Her Majesty's Theatre in October 1975. It's hard to come to
terms with the fact that Parisians might be misled into thinking
that out of the many hundreds of musical plays to be recorded,
this tiresome concoction (recorded in 1981, with Lewis Fiander
as Becket joining members of the original cast) has been singled
out for their consideration. One can only think that the name
of its composer, John Williams, carries all before it. In his
stupendous career, Thomas And The King will deservedly remain
a footnote. Making a musical out of the troubled relationship
between Henry II and Thomas a Becket is a hill that the writers
can't climb; the score is portentous and pompous. The village
girls gambolling through the opener, 'Look Around You', establish
the quality of what is to follow, through Caroline Villiers'
mawkish query 'Am I Beautiful?' to a final number, Henry's tortured
'Will No One Rid Me?'. It recalls the worst excesses of the French
Revolution in Two Cities, which had Sydney Carton bringing down
the curtain with 'It's A Far, Far Better Thing.'
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