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FLOPS OF THE 1950s
Reviewing original cast recordings of British shows of the
1950s - including one show, The Crystal Heart, that was American
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CHRYSANTHEMUM
THE CRYSTAL HEART
HARMONY CLOSE
MARIGOLD
ROMANCE IN CANDLELIGHT
TWENTY MINUTES SOUTH
WILD GROWS THE HEATHER
CHRYSANTHEMUM
Book and lyrics by Neville Phillips and Robin Chancellor
Music by Robb Stewart
Original London cast: Pat Kirkwood, Hubert Gregg, Roger Gage,
Patricia Moore, Raymond Newell. Musical director: Roy Lowe
Songs: Alexander; Watch Your Step; Sorry You've Been Troubled;
How Can I Find My Love?; Saturday Night; No More Love Songs;
Shanghai Lil; Mary Ann; Thanks To The Weather; Is This Love?;
Love Is A Game; The Fire Brigade
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The history of Chrysanthemum's London existence is hardly one
of the happiest. Taken up for the West End after a fringe production
by the husband and wife team of Pat Kirkwood and Hubert Gregg,
it tottered towards 148 performances after its November 1959
opening at the Prince of Wales Theatre. Extravagantly praised
by Kurt Ganzl, Chrysanthemum has resisted revival. It has always
seemed a pretty second-rate effort to me, with a faint and ineffective
air of pastiche about it. Where there is pastiche, it is laid
on with a trowel. Composer Robb Stewart (who for many years worked
as musical assistant to Noel Coward) once told me that he blamed
Kirkwood and Gregg totally for its failure. He was pretty angry
about it all. Kirkwood in her autobiography The Time Of My |
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Life shrugs off much of the responsibility as she describes a
sequence of events that plagued |
Pat Kirkwood |
the run (not for the first time, she was absent from
several performances). Hubert Gregg takes on the male lead and
makes a stab at some 'talking' numbers that don't make the grade;
their lack of real wit is so obvious. Kirkwood hits her numbers
squarely and gives a spirited version of everything she does,
but tunes and lyrics seem obvious and earthbound. The Pye recorded
sound is unsubtle. Almost of as much interest as this full recording
is a rare EP made by the composer, with Stewart accompanying
himself at the piano in six songs from a score that is quite
forgotten. Stewart sells the numbers for all he is worth, but
one wonders what the man in the recording booth made of it! For
some relief, it is almost worthwhile returning to the LP, which
at least has Roger Gage and Patricia Moore singing the inconsequential
'Thanks To The Weather'. Like most of Chrysanthemum, it's pleasant
enough when it's around, even if one doesn't miss it when the
record stops going around. Nevertheless, the show stands as a
tribute to Stewart, whose work as Noel Coward's amanuensis, and
as contributor to Coward's musical works, has been very much
overlooked.
THE CRYSTAL HEART
Book and lyrics by William Archibald
Music by Baldwin Bergersen
Original American cast: Mildred Dunnock, John Stewart, Jeanne
Shea, Virginia Vestoff, John Baylis. Musical director: Baldwin
Bergerson
Songs: A Year And A Day; A Monkey When He Loves; Handsome Husbands;
Yes, Aunt; Agnes And Me; A Girl With A Ribbon; I Must Paint;
I Wanted To See The World; How Strange The Silence; Desperate;
Lovely Island; Bluebird; Madam I Beg You; My Heart Won't Learn;
When I Dance With My Love; Lovely Bridesmaids; It Took Them;
D-O-G
 Reviewing
the 1957 London production, the distinguished critic Harold Hobson
wrote of The Crystal Heart that 'I would rather have written
this failure than successes like 'The King and I' and 'South
Pacific'. Listening to this acetate recording of the subsequent
1960 American production, one understands what he meant. Presumably
this delicate, loveable piece has gone to that place where misunderstood
and unwanted musicals go. We can only hope that one day it will
return to a more grateful, sympathetic reception. Do not be put
off by the fact that in London, its leading lady Gladys Cooper
endured an agonisingly troubled tour and could not save it from
being almost laughed off the stage on its opening night at the
Saville Theatre (oh the healthy days when such natural outpourings
of an audience's emotions were allowed), or by the fact that
it vanished after 4 performances; or that in New York it also
only lasted out its first week. Here is a little jewel, its songs
sung against the background of piano and celeste, with the noted
Mildred Dunnock playing Phoebe Ricketts, a wealthy widow living
on an island with her nieces and assorted females. A ship of
men arrives, changing their lives forever. At first hearing,
the score may not reveal its delights (and, anyway, they are
intermittent), but who could resist the broad sweep of its principal
ballad 'I Wanted To See The World', or the entrancing Jeanee
Shea singing 'How Strange The Silence' and 'My Heart Won't Learn'?
Ridiculed on stage, Dunnock's solo 'Bluebird' deserves a sympathetic
hearing, as does John Stewart's apparently nauseatingly naïve
complaint about love 'D-O-G'. One is left wondering what it can
have been like on stage, for the flavour of The Crystal Heart
does not welcome comparison with its fellows. If the Finale,
with its strangely moving spoken speech from Widow Ricketts,
is anything to go by, there must have been something entrancing
about it all. It is that spirit that infuses this mysterious
little piece with a unique charm. As the Widow says in the show's
closing moments
'Once upon a time, a few days ago, in the garden at Rickett's
Folly into which I had come as a bride twenty years before, that
garden where butterflies flew up like flowers that take to the
sky, golden, red as fire, blue, green, of palest lavender, of
deepest tangerine. That garden in which I had sat in moonlight,
in sunlight, while woodpeckers pecked the moments away like little
clocks within the ferns … and I tried to look into my heart
as if it were fashioned of crystal - as if I could see deep within
its centre the face of love winking its eye at me.'
Wow!
HARMONY CLOSE
Book and lyrics by Charles Ross
Music by Ronald Cass and Charles Ross
Original London cast: Jo Ann Bayless [subsequently known as Jean
Bayless], Bernard Cribbins, Colin Croft, Louie Ramsay, Zack Matalon,
Rose Hill, Betty Huntley-Wright, Barry Kent, James Raglan, Barbara
Williams, Sam Woodcock, Pat Gilbert. Musical director: Leonard
Morris
Songs: Opening; Getting Nowhere Fast; Undesirable Elements; Great
Big City; London Is A Village; Don't Knock; Goodbye To All That;
I Go Round In A Whirl; Nothing To Do In London; Robin's Dream;
Goodnight Until Today; Lovely Weather For Ducks; Why Should I
Care?
Original cast recordings don't come much rarer than that of
Harmony Close, first seen at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith in
April 1957, where it ran 62 performances. Responsible for the
libretto and some of its music was Charles Ross, whose association
was mainly with intimate revues such as 4 To The Bar and Look
Who's Here!, although he wrote the score for John Spurling's
unrecorded musical Romance!, a quick flop (6 showings) at the
Duke of York's Theatre in September 1971. His co-composer for
Harmony Close was Ronald (Ronnie) Cass, a composer whose main
work had been in revues as a frequent collaborator of Peter Myers.
Ross's book deals with the inhabitants of a London mews, the
bourgeois types conflicting with the artistic types. Almost every
type is represented: the brisk colonel, the ex-madam, the prim
miss, the over-sexed secretary, the philandering husband, many
of whom are put at the mercy of a blackmailer. Roy Plomley, reviewing
the original cast recording, wrote 'there is rather an old-fashioned
air about it all. The conflict ... recalled A. P. Herbert's Tantivy
Towers … and now here is Charles Ross rhyming 'Bohemia'
with 'anaemia' all over again.' Theatre World noticed 'in their
songs the composers are not at their best'. Very true. Jo Anne
Bayless trills sweetly as a wide-eyed newcomer to London, but
her material, including her duets with lazy-voiced Zack Matalon,
isn't strong. Louie Ramsay, who had a brief life as a West End
ingenue (she made an impression, too, in Twenty Minutes South)
should have more to do. Bernard Cribbins gets one number, 'Getting
Nowhere Fast': like a lot of this score, it doesn't go anywhere,
perhaps because of its title, but his performance is nice enough
to make us think he might have made a name in musicals if anybody
had taken the trouble to write one for him. But it's when Ross
and Cass's revue training breaks through that Harmony Close takes
off best. There is the joy of Rose Hill as the ex-prostitute
explaining the lost charms of her working days in 'Goodbye To
All That' - 'Oh my home is not a house any more,' she moans -
'I haven't got a light outside my door/ There's a little plate
of glass/ But the gentlemen who pass/ Just read 'Deportment Lessons
Two Till Four'. In the complex ensemble number 'Robin's Dream'
there are deft lyrics and a real sense of theatrical dimension.
In fact, that is always present throughout this recording. The
music is basic, the orchestration poor, but the vibrancy of it
all cannot be missed. Through the years, I have returned constantly
to Harmony Close, never deluded into believing it is a good work.
But hey, musicals don't have to be good to be enjoyable, as this
forgotten piece proves. The more fortunate of my circle are even
now sometimes regaled with the full lyric of 'Lovely Weather
For Ducks'. They seem to enjoy it, but perhaps I've misunderstood
the expression on their faces.
MARIGOLD
Book and lyrics by Alan Melville, based on the play by F. R.
Pryor and L. Allen Harker
Music by Charles Zwar
Original London cast: Sally Smith, Jeremy Brett, Sophie Stewart,
Jean Kent, Madeleine Christie, Edith Stevenson, Betty Henderson,
Stephen Hancock, William Dickie, Graham Skidmore. Musical director:
Robert Probst
Songs: Romance At The Manse; Love Can't Be Learned; The New Bohemian
Polka; According To Mr Payton; Always Ask Your Heart; Princes
Street; Her Majesty's Health; Wonderful View; Reel; Present Day
Youth; Fashionable Pair
 In
his autobiography, Alan Melville recalled writing 'a musical
called Miss Marigold which opened at the Savoy [May 1959] and
when we were swiftly asked to leave that theatre transferred
to the Saville under such conditions of secrecy that not even
the box-office knew.' The fact that Mr Melville could not remember
the name of his own musical may betray his lack of interest in
this 77 performance valentine to a past that probably only ever
existed in story book. It is nevertheless an appealing piece,
well worth seeking out in its dazzlingly pretty cover that shows
the company splendidly costumed against Hutchinson Scott's attractive
set. It was Melville's deliberate attempt to provide an antidote
to the modernism of such shows as West Side Story; whether this
was a good enough reason for its existence may be questionable.
Melville had also written the revue All Square, which attempted
to turn the revue clock back to where it had been before Beyond
The Fringe, with results as unsuccessful as they were in Marigold.
It is all pleasing and overladen with charm, from the opening
gaggle of the ladies of ultra-respectable Peebles hoping for
a 'Romance At The Manse' and the knowledge of sweet young Marigold
(a first major lead for the seventeen year old Sally Smith) that
'Love Can't Be Learned'. Could there have been a more handsome
leading man than Jeremy Brett, fine of voice and confident in
song? He brings a welcome dash of masculinity to proceedings
that are dominated by the female stars. Sophie Stewart (who in
years gone by had played the title role) is rather on the sidelines
when it comes to Zwar's score, but she, and the other elderly
ladies of the company, provide much gentle pleasure. Of most
interest is the noted film actress Jean Kent in her only stage
musical recording. As the mysteriously out of place Madame Marly,
she exudes a heavily powdered Parisian exoticism in her teaching
to Marigold of 'The New Bohemian Polka' and breathes her way
impeccably through 'Always Ask Your Heart'. But the writers might
have come up with something else for her. Melville's comedy could
hardly have set audiences rocking, but it is good to hear the
sound construction of both 'According to Mr Payton' (in which
Marigold and the company send up the turnip farmer to whom she
seems likely to be married), and 'Present Day Youth' - listen
here to the underscoring to the dialogue, and a seat in the front
stalls is yours. Yes, there is a marvellous sense of this show
happening there on record - a feeling that the cast has indeed
gathered to give us pleasure - and, yes, on recording day (according
to one of the show's supporting actors Stephen Hancock) they
actually danced the Reel for the recording. Marigold's problem
was perhaps that it had no real reason for being except nostalgia.
Perhaps musicals need a better reason behind them. Marigold,
adorable as it is to those of us willing to adopt it, simply
was.
ROMANCE IN CANDELIGHT
Book by Eric Maschwitz, based on the German version by Carl Farkas
and Siegfried Gayer
Music by Sam Coslow
Original London cast: Sally Anne Howes, Jacques Pils, Patricia
Burke, Roger Dann. Musical director: Alexander Faris
Songs: My Heart Says Yes; Oo-la-la, Boom-boom-boom; Romance In
Candlelight; Live A Little, Love A Little
Yes, there is a song in Romance In Candelight called 'Oo-la-la,
Boom-boom-boom', and it was sung by a newcomer to London, Jacques
Pils, whose surname Londoners were wary of pronouncing. This
nonsense was staged by impresario Emile Littler and adapted by
the willing Eric Maschwitz from an old knackered farce. It ran
at the Piccadilly Theatre in September 1955 for 53 performances,
after which Littler and Maschwitz's partnership ended. The four
songs show Sam Coslow to be a composer in whom nobody need show
much interest; the score, said Theatre World, left the play 'shaken
and weak. The singing and acting recalls Olympia, the automaton
in Tales of Hoffmann, who might also have composed the music
… [Monsieur Pils] probably knows some much better songs.'
TWENTY MINUTES SOUTH
Book and lyrics by Maurice Browning
Music by Peter Greenwell
Original London cast: Daphne Anderson, Louie Ramsay, Joan Bailey,
Robin Hunter, Josephine Gordon, John Le Mesurier, Donald Scott
Songs: The Eight Twenty-Seven; I Like People; One Of The Family;
It's A Lovely Evening; This Is Love; Typing, Typing; Never Mind,
I'm Delighted; Why Never Ever; Easy To Say; Addison Mambo; Sunday
Girl; I Shall; Do We? We Do; Having Ourselves A Wonderful Time;
Wondering Alone; The Five Twenty-Seven
The pearls and twin set musical, Twenty Minutes South originated
at the Players Theatre in May 1955 and transferred to the St.
Martins Theatre in October for a run of 101 performances. Its
genteel sounds are the more unexpected because the play's about
the ordinary, the very ordinary, lives of a group of people in
suburbia, their office romances, and the changes wrought in their
existences by the arrival of a nosy relative, Kitty Hemming.
Yes, Maurice Browning's libretto does for the streets of North
Finchley what Betty Comden and Adolph Green did for the streets
of New York. Domesticity, and the thrill of carbon copies and
missing petty cash books, is the thrilling milieu the show inhabits,
and the music - the first West End score from the Players' resident
musical director Peter Greenwell - is perfect for it. However
homemade it may sound - and this is not a score without ambition
- this score is always ready with something diverting. When it's
not being tame, or getting through some lame romantic numbers
(thankfully few) it's liable to go slightly berserk, as when
the girls in the office pool go 'Typing, Typing' or when ingenue
Louie Ramsay (not much of a voice but obviously willing to have
a go) exclaims that she is 'Having A Wonderful Time'. At such
times, this show sounds as if it's about to discover the British
teenager. By the time of the recording, the show's original star
(of sorts) Margaret Burton, had been replaced by Daphne Anderson.
Anderson makes a strange leading lady, sounding frightfully snooty
(perhaps it's characterisation) but intriguing just the same.
She sounds painfully condescending in her opening number (on
a railway station, apparently) in which she tells a group of
very RADA-voiced Cockney boys that 'I Like People'. When Kitty's
interfering comes home to roost, Anderson's 'Wondering Alone'
provides one of the show's most reflective items. But most of
the real fun here is in the pleasing ensemble numbers, not least
the snappy opener 'The Eight Twenty-Seven', in which the premise
of the piece is nicely introduced in a rousing style (and, cleverly,
the song is re-used, with a new timing, for the finale). The
skirt-swirling 'Sunday Girl' belongs to an England where there
was nothing to do on the seventh day, but this dark age of a
much more innocent society, even as microscopically studied here,
pervades this recording. The men (except Robin Hunter, who gets
to let his hair down) are a frighteningly tame bunch, happy candidates
for the slippers and pipe. The women belong to a different age,
and, believe me, you will almost smell Daphne Anderson's perfume.
I bet she recorded it wearing a nice cardy and some pearls.
WILD GROWS THE HEATHER
Book by Hugh Ross Williamson, based on J. M. Barrie's play The
Little Minister. Lyrics by William Henry
Music by Robert Lindon
Original London cast: Bill O'Connor, Valerie Miller, Eira Heath,
Madeleine Christie, Peter Dimuantes, Ann Giles, Richard Golding,
Peter Sinclair. Musical director: Michael Collins
Songs: Wild Grows The Heather; Law And Order; A Little Bit Of
Devil; I See Everything I Love In You; Walking To The Kirk; I
Want The Stars To See You; I Once Had A Wonderful Day; He's Got
The Whole World In His Hands
It's almost possible to watch the scenery wobble on this 10"
souvenir; you can imagine the brightly painted but inaccurate
backcloths fluttering in the breeze. Does Wild Grows The Heather
really have a score? It seems more like a highly coloured calendar
of a Scotland that only existed in the most fanciful of minds.
There are some passable songs, yes, and a finale that (and will
somebody please explain why) ends with an appalling arrangement
of 'He's Got The Whole World In His Hands' (not in the published
vocal score). Most of the music was apparently found after the
death of Jack Waller's writing partner Joseph Tunbridge, old
material that Waller warmed over to cobble together this ramshackle
creation. Not that Tunbridge would have turned in his grave:
the score does its work adequately, it doesn't think it's Rodgers
and Hammerstein, and it bends over backwards to make itself as
Scots as possible. Those wanting undemanding fare, and a well-tried
story about a little minister (Bill O'Connor) who falls in love
with Babbie (Valerie Miller), a lovely gypsy who really comes
of good family, will have come to the right shop. The romantic
leads sing lustily, and there is nothing disgraceful about words
or melody in 'I See Everything I Love In You' and 'I Want The
Stars To See You', even if such sentiments don't really advance
the recesses of human understanding. There is an expansive sense
of Highland landscape in the first two numbers, but it's a patchy
affair. Eira Heath skips prettily through her one number 'A Little
Bit Of Devil', and Madeleine Christie gets the number of her
life in 'I Once Had A Wonderful Day', which shows what can be
done with a few chiming notes and predictable words. Peter Sinclair
singing 'Walking To The Kirk' is another matter, so sporon-bouncing
and so bogus and so behind-the-times an attempt to write a pop
number, that one despairs. It fits Wild Grows The Heather perfectly,
for this is a piece done with the broadest of strokes. Even in
May 1956, when it opened at the London Hippodrome, it seemed
a museum piece, and the public wanted none of it: it was taken
off after 28 performances. Still, it is perhaps the closest British
writers ever got to creating their own Brigadoon. Pity that the
songs sound as if they have been rescued from a provincial panto.
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