Mr and Mrs

Book, music and lyrics by John Taylor, based on the plays of Noel Coward.

Original London cast: John Neville, Honor Blackman, Hylda Baker, Alan Breeze, Liz Edmiston, Leslie Meadows md Derek New.

Millions Of People; Happy Family; I Feel I Want To Dance; And So We Got Married; No More Money; Big Wide World; If The Right Man Should Ask Me; Father Of Two, Mother Of Three; Give Us A Kiss; Come Thursday; I Want To Wet My Whistle; Before Today; The Electric Circus; I'll Always Be Loving You; Mr And Mrs

After much agonising, I can't decide how to recommend this recording to our readers. Although there can be little doubt that it's a grotty example of musical theatre it is hugely enjoyable, a rampaging assault on two fragile little Coward playlets. The theatrical connoisseur should not make the mistake of thinking that only the good can be appreciated. At first, Coward seems to have been wildly enthusiastic about John Taylor's musicalisation of Fumed Oak and Brief Encounter, but his enthusiasm vanished after sitting through its first night. Mr And Mrs has been relegated to the dustbin of British musicals, but its recording, at least, should be retrieved.

Consider its attractions: John Neville, once one of England's greatest Shakespearean actors, playing opposite one of England's most underrated musical performers, Honor Blackman, supported by a legendary grotesque of British comedy, Hylda Baker, and one of the greatest stammerers to have worked in showbusiness, Alan Breeze (a veteran of Billy Cotton Band Shows). It's a potent mixture, especially when surrounded by Taylor's whopping, brash, vulgar-tongued score that lets nothing get in its way. The show had two acts, the first Mr (the Fumed Oak adaptation) and the second Mrs (Brief Encounter light years away from Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard's momentary lovers in David Lean's film).

The noisy chorus (they wallop everything out as if the microphones might not be working) starts things badly with 'Millions Of People', but nothing quite so awful happens again until the final title song. In 'Mr', the characterisation of Neville (as the hen-pecked husband), Blackman (as the nagging wife) and Baker (as the ghastly mother-in-law) are little treasures nicely delineated in 'Happy Family'. Liz Edmiston as the adenoidal daughter gets a number to herself, 'I Feel I Want To Dance' - any female ingenue wanting to know how to project should listen to it. Like much in this show, it's horrifying but effective.

When Neville's little man finally breaks the bonds and walks into the 'Big Wide World', Taylor summons up the full resources of the production to thrilling effect. With 'Mrs', that immortal story of a love begun in a British Rail refreshment room, we are on more serious territory. Taylor responds by a series of duets for the romantic leads (Neville and Blackman, of course) that show the best of his writing: 'I'll Always Be Loving You' may be pedestrian, unimaginative and totally unoriginal, but it works. Alan Breeze comes into the picture with 'Give Us A Kiss', suitably breezy, and 'I Want To Wet My Whistle', numbers that must have deafened audiences at the Palace Theatre where the show played in December 1968 for only 44 performances.

Baker abuses Coward's lines by inserting the malapropisms that were an essential in her variety act. Her numbers are not good, but the opportunity to hear her in these circumstances is golden. Coward didn't think so: he noted, after seeing her, his desire to wring her neck. But this is London musical theatre trying to swing for the mid-1960s while coping with dated themes. When Leslie Meadows pops up from nowhere to lambaste us with 'The Electric Circus', the mood becomes psychedelic, with throbbing rhythms that crash the gears on what has gone before. It's what you come to expect of Taylor, for whom refinement is hardly a consideration (he did, after all, co-write the score of Charlie Girl). In the theatre it may have been totally unbearable, but in recordings shows take on another existence, another opportunity is given them. Mr And Mrs is undoubtedly a clinker, but it inspires a positive reaction.

 

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