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Ronnie Stevens
An early start in revues and musicals
Stevens in 'No Morpheus in the Underground',
a favorite revue turn. |
He had a splendid face, and was always a sound performer.
He attacked anything he was given. He sparked in everything he
did in intimate revue - a genre in which he seemed capable of
becoming a star - before making for straight theatre, in which
he proved equally welcome, and films, where his face was frequently
observed. It was probably a wise decision to get out of revue.
- Ronnie Stevens was born in London on 2 September 1925 and
attended Peckham Central School and the Camberwell School of
Art. During the war he served in the RAF and the Royal Engineers
and
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subsequently he paid to train at PARADA, where his friendship
with Joan Sims began. His first appearances were in revue, beginning
with Ad Lib at the Chepstow Theatre Club in 1948. Many other
small revues in small fringe theatres (often the Irving Theatre,
long vanished) followed, and Stevens was soon established as
a valuable member of the revue guru Peter Myers' stable.
Stevens's West End debut at the Hippodrome in 1953 couldn't
have been among more distinguished company. High Spirits (a revue
by Myers, Alec Grahame and David Climie) included in its cast
Cyril Ritchard, Diana Churchill, Ian Carmichael, Thelma Ruby,
Dilys Lay and Joan Sims. Marooned in the vast spaces of the Hippodrome,
High Spirits lasted only 125 performances, but it was the Golden
Age of such revues, most of which had casts to die for. In 1954
Stevens was in Intimacy at 8.30 at the Criterion Theatre (Ron
Moody, Joan Heal, Sims and Lay were in it too) and in June 1956
there was another hit with For Amusement Only, another Myers
effort. Here Stevens had a personal success with 'No Morpheus
in the Underground', an item written for him by Peter and Stanley
Myers to music by Offenbach.
1960 was an interesting year. It began with five roles in
The Lily White Boys at the Royal Court Theatre. One of the more
intriguing British musicals of its period, The Lily White Boys
had a small but fascinating cast (including Georgia Brown and
Albert Finney) but it couldn't make itself popular. By April
Stevens was opening in The Billy Barnes Revue at the Lyric Theatre,
Hammersmith, but that too was short-lived and didn't go up West.
There was more of an audience for a brash revival of Rose Marie
at the Victoria Palace in August 1960. A favourite of the masses,
singer David Whitfield was the lusty leading man, with Stevens
in the comedy role of Hard Boiled Herman, playing opposite the
always welcome Maggie Fitzgibbon. Rose Marie kept the curtain
up for 135 performances.
It seemed appropriate, after such long and faithful service,
that Stevens should at last get star billing in peter Myers's
last big West End revue, The Lord Chamberlain Regrets, at the
Saville Theatre in August 1961. He shared the glory with two
fine leading ladies, Millicent Martin and Joan Sims. Stevens
had some decent material, including 'The Ballad of Basher Green'
(a song about colour prejudice). There was also 'Lac des Scenes',
a clever number in which Peter and Stanley Myers repeated the
ploy of using classical music - as they had in the earlier 'No
Morpheus in the Underground' - as a frame for a funny lyric.
This time it was a famous tune from Swan Lake that served to
tell the story of a frustrated balletomane. After the relative
splendours of The Lord Chamberlain Regrets (and it ran reasonably
well, too) the much less ambitious Myers' revue Round Leicester
Square at the remote Prince Charles Theatre in April 1963 seemed
a bit of a come-down.
There didn't seem much hope, either, for an effort in march
1964 entitled 'Is There Intelligent Life On Earth?' In which
he played Kolumbo, which came and went uncelebrated at the Essoldo,
Brighton. At the Arts Theatre the following summer Stevens played
Cecil in a trifle called Mr Whatnot; it had music by Vivian Ellis
but wasn't a musical. After that he joined the Prospect Theatre
Company and embarked on a prolific list of straight roles. He
was in Joseph and his Amazing etc. at Leeds Playhouse in the
mid-1970s, and also played in David Woods's childrens' musical
play The Gingerbread Man at the Old Vic in 1977, but there were
no more musicals, or revues.
Discography:
The Lord Chamberlain Regrets
The Gingerbread Man
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