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1953 A pastiche of musicals of an earlier age, The Boy Friend, popped up at the tiny Players Theatre, the management having commissioned a miniature divertissement from Sandy Wilson. The show seemed destined for success beyond the arches of Villiers Street. An even smaller piece by Wilson, The Buccaneer, about an old-fashioned magazine for young boys threatened by American comics (the maxim of the magazine was 'Good Clean Fun') appeared outside the West End. Otherwise, the British musical showed signs of ailing. Happy as a King had the advantage of the enormous Fred Emney playing a character called Alexander 'The Great', supported by the likes of Shani Wallis and Dickie Henderson and a score from Ross Parker, a lower-division composer. The younger stars had no doubt been brought in to give the production a transatlantic twang, but nobody was deceived and the show bombed. Anna Neagle stretched her fragile talent to the utmost in a concoction hopefully called The Glorious Days in which she delineated Queen Victoria (a favourite film role of hers) and subsequently (not as Victoria) danced a supposedly saucy tango. The public seemed only too willing to sit through this series of flashbacks experienced by a plucky female ambulance driver stunned in the blitz (the gallant Miss Neagle) and kept her in work for a year. Ian Douglas's 'play with music' (some of it by George Melachrino) Lucky Boy, limped behind. It closed with speed (one of the shortest runs ever) despite featuring Doris Hare and Harry Welchman, the original Red Shadow of the Drury Lane's The Desert Song in 1927. Two fringe productions, Cloakroom Ticket No. 3 and Girl of the Year stayed put. 'Book' revues did less well than their variety-based companions. Over the Moon had a score by Vivian Ellis (and some stuff by American Harold Rome). It also had Cicely Courtneidge at the top of a good company, but it didn't last too long. High Spirits (not to be confused with an American musical of the same name) was directed by William Chappell and had another fabulous cast (among it Cyril Ritchard, Diana Churchill, Ian Carmichael, Dilys Lay -later Laye - Leslie Crowther, Thelma Ruby and Ronnie Stevens). It came from a team who created an inordinate number of revues: writers Peter Myers, David Climie and Alec Grahame and composers Ronald (Ronnie) Cass and John Pritchett. Foolishly, it was staged in the vast Hippodrome, and couldn't overcome the fact. The best revue of the year was probably the Laurier Lister confection Airs on a Shoestring, first seen at the Royal Court. The cast was stellar, and the future of the British intimate revue seemed assured. More than the British musical itself, it provided for a brief time the perfect platform for such gifted players as Betty Marsden, Moyra Fraser, Patricia Lancaster, Denis Quilley, Charles Ross and Peter Reeves - all of whom, with varying success, would play their part in British musicals. Meanwhile, the 'point' and 'charm' numbers of intimate revue seemed set to stay for ever. The more lowly variety revue had its greatest success of the season in Pardon my French, which doesn't seem to have been particularly Gallic. Even so, Frankie Howerd and pianist Winifred Atwell proved big draws. America's imports sang loudest. Guys and Dolls, The King and I and Paint Your Wagon were works of quality, and all had decent runs. Less successful (and rightly) was Harold Rome's holiday camp frolic Wish You Were Here with an all-British cast led by Dickie Henderson, Bruce Trent and Shani Wallis. |