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ZIP GOES A MILLION at the Theatre Museum
 
It's a sad fact that so many of the finest musicals lapse into obscurity. There are millions who delight in Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! and The Sound of Music but have never sampled the wonders of their Flower Drum Song, surely one of their finest achievements. Leonard Bernstein is forever remembered by West Side Story, but his superb musical biography of the White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, seems destined to remain a footnote in musical history. Jule Styne's Gypsy will never be forgotten, but Darling of the Day, a notable Broadway flop of the 1960s, is an unending enchantment. So often, it seems, the best slips away.
 
In a grey Britain, six years after the end of a weary war, Eric Maschwitz and George Posford crafted a vehicle for the hugely popular George Formby from a successful play, Brewster's Millions. Zip Goes a Million was given a spectacular production, opened at the Palace Theatre in October 1951 and ran for 544 performances. A touring version enjoyed success, too, but since then - silence. Eric Maschwitz's very considerable (and consistently underrated) work for British musical theatre has gone almost unnoticed, and his composer George Posford has never been awarded laurels. It was fitting, then, that Stewart Nicholls, that untiring soldier of the lost British musical, should - in Maschwitz's centenary year - choose one of the team's most famous collaborations as the opening production in the new series of Lost British Musicals at the Theatre Museum. For the first time in half a century, we had the opportunity to judge for ourselves, and even Judge Jeffery's heart would surely have melted.
 
There was something wonderful about the zest and commitment Nicholls' youthful cast brought to this old charmer, negotiating his expert choreography on the seriously undersized stage of the Theatre Museum with unflagging confidence. Nicholls has an innate understanding of what these shows need, adapting their scripts into a semblance of new life. He knows how to inject charm, how to move the old things along, how to invent, how to point pastiche (as here in the delightful 'Garter Girl' sequence, with its arch posturing), and - crucially - he knows how to cast. One can hardly imagine the thing better done, and one only wishes that some divine power could pluck up his little army of players and transport them - costumed, orchestrated and well lit - directly in to the West End.
 
But Zip Goes a Million without George Formby? Can it work? In fact, the show went on to survive Formby leaving it through ill health, finding new life in the hands of Reg Dixon and, finally, Charlie Chester. Now, Gavin Lee, the youngest Percy Piggott yet, makes the part his own in a performance that is properly gormless and canny. The details of this portrayal (echoed by most of the principals) are skilfully done, and in the scenes with Zoe Curlett the feeling of 'ordinary people' - the subject of their most famous duet - is perfectly established. At its best, as these sterling players show, this is a show that can still move its audience with its affecting simplicity. Curlett is a joy. She comes across first as a plain-Jane Northern lass with her feet firmly planted in reality, but in the terrific second act opener 'Raratonga' she scales notes that sound out of this world with Hawaiian-like harmonies that lift you out of your seat. We care about what happens to this Sally. She survives a long way from glamour, and provides a depth and feeling that is unforgettably right; she is a worthy successor to the original Sara Gregory.
One of the main revelations of this event is the unexpected quality of Posford and Maschwitz's score, coming up as fresh as paint. From the snatch of songs recorded by the original 1951 cast, one had the suspicion that the score might seem only workmanlike. But it isn't so. Maschwitz's lyrics are never less than apt, often clever, very often witty, and they crucially catch a particular feeling of old fashioned decency that in today's musical theatre seems in short supply. Especially fascinating are the songs written for the second leads, played here by Andrew Halliday and the appealing Louise Davidson. Here is a sophistication that is no less than a masterstroke by Maschwitz, a perfect antidote to the broader comedy written for Formby. Thus we get the duets for the show-bizzy Lilac and Buddy Delaney - 'The Thing About You' and (with shades of a better-known song by Rodgers and Hart) 'Thou Art For Me', and - most beautiful of all - a thrilling ballad for Buddy, 'Nothing Breaks Like The Heart'. It is a glorious song, and Andrew Halliday has a perfect sympathy for it. He seizes the moment, too, in a performance that should be seen by anyone interested in the craft of musical acting. He is, simply, fantastic.
 
As so often in this production, there is an off-stage chorus providing almost eerie sounds that seem to have dropped from heaven. Gavin Lee, musical director and pianist, extracts performances and a quality of sound that is another of the evening's miracles. The teamwork of the company is beyond praise, for there is delight on every hand, with a youthful ensemble that bring flavour and humour to everything they do.
The joyful news for those who need to feed on the beautiful things of life is that the cast is now recording the score for a CD. For that, I think, we have to thank the industry of Rex Bunnett, a guru of the British musical whose guiding hand is also on these Theatre Museum productions. Meanwhile, my memories remain of an occasion that convinced me that young artists have not lost that very particular art needed to 'put over' such a glorious old piece as this. Its complete success should strengthen Nicholls in his determination to go on with his discoveries. And, finally, this was a reminder of all we owe to Posford and Maschwitz, surely a great man of British theatre. Oscar Hammerstein, no less, was at the first night of Zip Goes a Million, and I can assure you that Maschwitz had nothing to fear from it. If there has to be a monument to Maschwitz, Zip Goes a Million may serve as well as any other.
 

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