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Meanwhile, Tony Hancock was said to be preparing for the title role in a new musical about Noah written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson … Noah didn't happen   Lisa Shane, Barbra Streisand's stand-by in Funny Girl, was announced as the show's new leading lady ahead of Streisand leaving (none too reluctantly) the London production. Disappointingly for Miss Shane … it didn't happen   Joseph Losey (no less) was announced as the director of a new British musical, Brighton Rock, based on Graham Greene's famous novel. Mr Greene, apparently, would have a hand in it, but … the show didn't happen   The Matchgirls was announced for a Broadway opening in the autumn of 1966, directed by Gillian Lynne, but it didn't happen. It was also announced in the early spring of 1966 that Strike a Light! (another musical about the matchgirls strike of 1888) would definitely not play London - presumably because The Matchgirls had got there first. Instead, Strike a Light! Would go directly to Broadway after its British tour. In fact, it didn't get to New York but did get to Broadway   A musical around the life of the comic Sid Field? Yes, it was assuredly about to happen in 1966, and had as its star Max Bygraves, but … it didn't happen   Theatregoers had worked themselves into a frenzy of expectation looking forward to a splendid new British musical, Saint Spiv, based on the novel by Ronald Duncan, in late 1965. Father and son Jerry and Jeff Wayne wrote it, but … it didn't happen. Father and son eventually did get a show to London: Two Cities   Gillian Lynne - my goodness, it was going to be a busy time for her! - was slated as the director of a new musical called Navvy. Based on a notable social history of British railway workers (The Railway Navvies by Terry Coleman)) it would star a lady much in need of a hit musical, Anna Quayle. The librettist was Christopher Dandy and the composer Derrick Mason. His music was apparently orchestrated 'for cimbalen and percussion'. In this case, it may have been a pity that … it didn't happen   Londoners were misled into thinking that a musical based on Bram Stoker's much-loved horror classic, Dearest Dracula, would be arriving by early 1966. It was seen in Ireland, with John Gower as the bloodthirsty Count, David Holliday and Mary Millar as a susceptible heroine but in London … it didn't happen   Mary Martin, London's Dolly Levi at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, was announced as returning to London (she'd only just arrived!) in the musical I Do! I Do! But audiences eventually had to make do with the delightful Anne Rogers Updated November 2000 ... and some previous bites ... ?   'twice as loud and twice as long as the real thing' -Noel Coward on Lionel Bart's Blitz!   'This script's no good. We'll make it up' - director Joan Littlewood at the first rehearsal of Lionel Bart's Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be   'Do you know what it's like bringing this show into London? It's like giving a crazy man £30,000 and having him flush the notes down the toilet one by one.' - Burt Shevelove on Lionel Bart's Twang!!   'The scenery comprised chiefly of backcloths which look as though they were in Barnstaple last week and are due in Barnsley next.' - a comment by 'P.H.' in Theatre World on Pocahontas at the Lyric Theatre (very briefly) in 1963   'Hubert and I received no salary for eight weeks' - Pat Kirkwood on her adventures with husband Hubert Gregg in Chrysanthemum.   'During the final week in Manchester, worn to a frazzle and with my own spirits at their very lowest ebb, I begged [the producers] not to take the piece into London' - Ian Carmichael trying to get out of The Love Doctor.   'Whatever strange harmonies you invent, the integral thing is the melody. You reach a greater number of people through melody than through any other quality. It is the melody that lasts in peoples' minds - years after the harmonies and complicated arrangements are forgotten.' - Ivor Novello on songwriting   'Frances was much more than a dizzy blonde. She was an incandescent candle, burning at both ends, that glowed on the stage.' - Vivian Ellis on one of his favourite performers, Frances Day.     Copyright Adrian Wright [CONTACT ] Webmaster John Knowles EMAIL