RETURN

STUART DAMON
 
with good looks and a pleasant voice, this handsome hawk of a musical actor had his brief moment of glory in British musicals
 
Born in Brooklyn, Stuart Damon was first noticed in 1960 when he played Frangipane in the Broadway production of the British musical Irma La Douce. Three years later he played Antipholus of Syracuse in the successful New York revival of The Boys from Syracuse, a role for which he won a Theatre World award. His pin-up face made him a natural Prince Charming in an American TV edition of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella. His best American break came when he was cast as Edie Yaeger in the Stephen Sondheim-Richard Rodgers Do I Hear A Waltz? which opened on Broadway in March 1965. Like much else that Damon got involved in, it didn't run. Nevertheless, he had an important supporting role (preserved on the excellent cast recording), handing in a personable, spunky performance. He could trill sweetly and handle comedy numbers.
 
At a time when it might have been more sensible for him to pursue a career on the New York stage he moved to London, after Do I Hear A Waltz? closed, to play Jack Connor in Charlie Girl at the Adelphi Theatre. He played a handsome, selfish brute, and did what he could for the songs, but it wasn't a part that attracted much notice, except from impresario Harold Fielding (who had cast him in it). Fielding took him out of Charlie Girl to play the illusionist Harry Houdini in a semi-spectacular musical biography, Man of Magic, a show that went adrift when the magic tricks (cleverly recreated) palled. Damon made an appealing hero - his hawk-like features marked him as a natural romantic lead - and nobody could have done better to make the show work, but it didn't. Man of Magic, weighed down by an unsatisfactory score and characters that didn't engage the interest, departed the Piccadilly Theatre in early 1967 with its finances well in the red. Damon's singing of his main ballad, 'Suddenly', remains a pleasant memory.
 
The following year he did a musical at Leatherhead Theatre Club, Grass Roots, playing Mike Butler in a company that included Marti Webb, Bill Kerr and Eira Heath, but the show has been totally forgotten. In 1970 he toured in Nell!, another forgotten floperoo. It opened at Richmond in April and enjoyed a short tour before closing shop in late May. Damon must have made a statuesque Charles II, even if the rest of the cast (including Hermione Baddeley as Mrs Gwynne and Jackie Trent in the title role) makes one feel a bit queasy.
 
Just as well that from 1969-1971 Damon was more profitably involved in the making of a popular fantasy series on television, The Champions. The programme made a star of him, reaching audiences who had no idea how well he could croon. He had a considerable talent for musical theatre that was more or less ignored in Britain. Perhaps being too good-looking was a slight handicap, or the British couldn't cope with his transatlantic status, or the weather those years was keeping audiences out of theatres … Anyway, he looked like that man dressed in black who drops in to leave a box of Milk Tray.

RETURN TO STOUT-HEARTED MEN