Turning the pages of musical theatre history - (for 1962 click here!)
1964

Obviously urgently required at the hairdressers … Donald Wolfit, the famed actor-manager whose life was one long struggle to serve ham to the British theatre audience. He made his mark in British musical history when he took over the role of the creepy Edward Moulton-Barrett in Robert and Elizabeth from its original West End creator John Clements. At the performance I attended at the Lyric Theatre, Sir Donald (he had been created a knight in 1957) generously laid mustard on the ham. With those really serious eyebrows, he no doubt had to spend much less time in make-up than the altogether milder Mr Clements. When the show toured, the role was taken by Robert Speaight, a name that seems to have slipped out of the annals.

Elizabeth Larner gazes with admiration at the actor who has just taken over from Laurence Harvey in the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane production of Camelot. Paul Daneman, well-stretched in the tights department, made a sturdy Arthur, switching easily from these comfortable rather fashionable bootees in to some equally fetching but more butch chain-mail. He could sing passably too, and had no difficulty with the acting. He also got to record the role on a budget recording of the score.

In 1964 the abundantly-coiffured Yvonne Marsh was leading lady to Max Bygraves in the revue Round About Piccadilly at the Prince of Wales Theatre. By the 1970s she had become - according to her publicity - 'Britain's favourite principal boy' (there always seems to have been a good number of those around). By then most people had forgotten that she once had a career of sorts in mainstream theatre. As a starlet she graced the silver screen in the film biography of Gilbert and Sullivan (1953) - as the bride in the 'Trial by Jury' sequence - and appeared in some more movies. Our plucky Yvonne's musical appearances included John Taylor's crack at a musical of The Water Babies (at the Royalty Theatre, matinees only) and a lead in the touring floperoo Once More Darling.

Curious, isn't it, how producers often used to cast take-overs because they bore a strong physical resemblance to the actors whom they were replacing? This may help explain why the elephantine Bert Brownbill was cast in the Stanley Holloway role of Doolittle for the provincial tour of My Fair Lady following its colossal West End run. Bert held nothing back, but perhaps that is unsurprising in a performer whose credits included understudying Nellie Wallace as Widow Twankey in Aladdin.

Avril Angers lifts a glass to celebrate her winning the important role of the elder Belle Poitrine in the Cambridge Theatre production of Little Me. It opened November 1964 to welcoming notices, especially for its star Bruce Forsyth. In his only proper book musical, Mr Forsyth was simply terrific. The show was also one of the glory moments of Miss Angers' long career, and we must be grateful that it was committed to vinyl. She described herself in the show's programme as 'a really funny girl in real life too'. Whatever else Miss Angers lacked, she seems to have had no shortage of confidence.

Still running in 1964, The Sound of Music continued to spin around the Palace Theatre. Here, you may just make out Sonia Rees as the guitar-playing (or guitar-holding) heroine, and the sharp-eyed attending the stage performance could just about spot Olive Gilbert as one of the nun's chorus trying to solve the problem named Maria.

Nyree Dawn Porter was announced as one of the stars for the forthcoming West End production of the Broadway musical She Loves Me at the Lyric Theatre in April 1964. Illness forced her to withdraw before the opening, and she was replaced by Rita Moreno. Miss Moreno was eventually replaced by Amanada Barrie, she of the wide open eyes. Sadly, Nyree Dawn Porter, so beloved of a generation of television viewers of The Forsyte Saga, died in April 2001.