- Anna Sharkey
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- She won an award for an outstanding performance in
a British musical, and was a pleasing presence in many British
musicals. Pert and eminently musical, she was a credit to the
shows that embraced her.
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- British musicals didn't treat Anna Sharkey very well; at
least, the ones she was in mostly refused to attract audiences.
She was born and educated in Scotland. After training at the
Royal Academy of Dancing, she may have been misled by the successes
of Kismet, in which she appeared as a princess at the Stoll Theatre
in 1955, (although she listed Aladdin at Windsor as her debut
in 1957) and by the creditable run of Expresso Bongo at the Saville
Theatre in April 1958, in which she played in the chorus. Nothing
that came later matched their runs. It was her bad luck to get
mixed up in some of the British musical theatre's greatest clinkers.
Perhaps managements didn't know how to make the most of her operatically
trained voice; she studied under Gustav Sacher, and throughout
her career was popping up in opera and operetta.
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Anna Sharkey in a 'straight' version of
Gigi at the Fortune Theatre in 1976
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- In May 1959 she played the minor role of Cornelia Thursday
in John Osborne's shambling mess of a musical The World of Paul
Slickey at the Palace Theatre. An absurd concoction, the show
was given a rude welcome on its opening night, and lingered in
its vast shell at the top of Shaftesbury Lane for a mere 47 performances.
Almost immediately, she was cast in another supporting role,
Dorine Argan, in The Love Doctor at the Piccadilly Theatre in
October 1959. The Love Doctor, an American musical that hadn't
dared surface in New York, was a complete flop, even though Ian
Carmichael's name was over the marquee. There wasn't a chance
that Miss Sharkey would be noticed in it. At a time when things
should have looked up, they got worse. There was another supporting
role, Marianne, in Terence Rattigan's adaptation of his old comedy
French Without Tears, but Joie de Vivre got into the history
books as another disaster, folding after four desultory performances
at the Queen's Theatre in July 1960. Sharkey was credited with
singing in an Act One trio, 'Why?', with Jill Martin and Barrie
Ingham, but it hardly seemed worthwhile learning the notes.
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- One removal from pantomime, The Pied Piper at Stratford East
was a pleasing Christmas diversion for December 1962, with Sharkey
made welcome in the leading role of Ilsa, but it only ran out
its season. In September 1963 she played Sally, the leading lady
for another Stratford East musical What Goes Up …!, which
again agreeably played out its allocated span and was forgotten.
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- After ten years of toil in musicals, her best opportunity
to date came when she was cast in the second female lead of Maisie
van Husen in Sandy Wilson's Divorce Me, Darling! at the Globe
Theatre. It opened in February 1965 to reasonable if unenthusiastic
reviews, but none of the blame could be laid at Sharkey's door.
She displayed a pert personality and rich voice, coating her
numbers (among them a duet 'Out of Step' and a frantic twelve
o'clock dance number 'Swing Time Is Here To Stay') with a real
individuality. In truth, though, the part didn't really get her
noticed. She was another supporting leading lady in The Young
Visiters at the Piccadilly Theatre in December 1968, hitting
some notes only known to dogs in her big number 'That's What
a Visiter's For', but the show simply couldn't establish itself,
and was taken off after the Christmas spirit had evaporated.
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- She worked consistently in television and on stage in plays,
but musicals seemed to dry up. There was at last a long run when
she was cast as one of the revue company in Cowardy Custard at
the Mermaid Theatre in 1972, but there was no danger of her being
mistaken for its star. Stardom, of sorts, came in 1977 when she
was given the role of Maggie Wylie in a musical version of J
M Barrie's classic comedy What Every Woman Knows. Michael Wild
(music, book and lyrics) had written a show that brimmed with
confidence but that was unrelentingly dreadful. Sharkey (working
alongside the show's other star, Anna Neagle) somehow managed
to make Maggie a real character, and turned in a genuinely touching
and vibrant performance. It was just a pity that it was in such
shoddy surroundings. Nevertheless, she had earned her SWET award
for a best performance in a musical, and there is still pleasure
to be had from hearing her sing some of Wild's songs on the live
(and feeble-sounded) original cast recording of the show. Maggie
collapsed after a few weeks, and with it Sharkey's last chance
of stardom in musicals.
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- When The Canterbury Tales was revived at the Shaftesbury
Theatre in April 1979 Sharkey was cast in the leading role of
the Prioress, the role originated eleven years earlier by Pamela
Charles, but the magic of the original effect the show had worked
didn't work again, and it didn't last. In 1980, she returned
to Stratford East to double as Mrs McGuinness and Doris Ashayet
in Ken Hill's romp The Mummy's Tomb, and in 1987 she was happily
cast as Sister Robert Anne in the British production of the American
Nunsense. Perhaps as she sang one of the sister's big numbers
'I Just Want to be a Star' she occasionally reflected on the
career that lay behind her. Over the years, some of her most
interesting work had been outside the West End: playing the Countess
in a national tour of A Little Night Music; singing Gabrielle
in La Vie Parisienne at Sadlers Wells; Piaf at the Mercury Theatre,
Colchester. Fortunately, some of her London roles were recorded,
and they stand as testimony to her contribution to the strange,
and often cruel, world of British musical theatre.
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- Selected discography
- Original cast recordings of
- Expresso Bongo
Divorce Me, Darling!
The Young Visiters
Cowardy Custard
Maggie [live original cast recording on stage]
Maggie [studio cast recording]
Nunsense
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RETURN TO UNSUNG HEROINES
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