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1959 The influence of Soho (or what the writers of British musicals thought Soho was) gripped the British musical. It had its greatest flowering in a piece that marked a watershed in theatrical taste, Joan Littlewood's production of Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be. Would all British musicals hereafter be as rough and ready, as concerned with the doings of prostitutes and their pimps as with the tinkle of tea-cups that had apparently permeated almost everything the British had written before? Frank Norman's libretto, with songs by Lionel Bart, seemed to establish almost a new genre, and the show went on to a huge West End success with such players as Miriam Karlin, James Booth and Barbara Windsor. Make Me an Offer wasn't exactly Soho, but Portobello Road, and had the shape and tone of a more conventional British musical than Fings. It also had a first-rate score from David Heneker and Monty Norman, and a central performance from Daniel Massey that, as with Scofield's appearance in Expresso Bongo, showed that musicals could accommodate a superb acting performance and attempt some sort of meaningfulness. There was another intelligent show in The Crooked Mile, with book and lyrics by Peter Wildeblood and music by Peter Greenwell, whose earlier Twenty Minutes South had showed such promise. But it hadn't suggested a score of the depth of The Crooked Mile. Splendidly produced in an almost extravagant style by the Players Theatre, it had a superb cast, including Jack McGowran, Elisabeth Welch and Millicent Martin, but - although it had a hopeful premiere - the show didn't appeal to the public. The Mermaid Theatre had a great hit with a period piece Lock Up Your Daughters, a show that helped fill its coffers for many years to come, and which enjoyed revival. The other musicals of the day met with less success. John Osborne, the énfant terrible of the British theatre, poured his venom into The World of Paul Slickey in which Osborne's hopeless lyrics were set to music by Christopher Whelen, but the show was ridiculed on its first night and didn't survive public indifference despite a cast that tried to put together such different beasts as the popular singer Dennis Lotis and the grande dame Marie Lohr. A valentine to the past, Marigold pretended that nothing had altered in British musicals, and instead provided an evening of gentle delight, with a cast led by Jeremy Brett, Sally Smith, Sophie Stewart and Jean Kent. The score, from Alan Melville and his composer Charles Zwar, was a real charmer, but the public obviously wanted something more meaty, and Marigold was hastily put aside. The Quiz Kid, starring its author Jimmy Thompson, collapsed in a heap at Hammersmith after a few weeks. Eric Spear wrote the score for an 'Australian' musical, Kookaburra, which was possibly one of the most interesting entries of the year, but it flopped. Maggie Fitzgibbon, Gordon Boyd and Julia Shelley did their best in it. Imported musicals didn't have a very good time. The Love Doctor was one of the (rare) original works by the adapters of such works as Kismet, Robert Wright and George Forrest. Ian Carmichael and Joan Heal led the company that struggled through its few London performances. Leonard Bernstein's operetta Candide had an all-English cast, and an indifferent reception. Of much broader appeal was When in Rome in which Dickie Henderson and June Laverick teamed as leading man and lady. Taken from the Italian, the show didn't establish itself as a very vital contribution. The British revue of the year was the brilliantly written Pieces of Eight in which Peter Cook distinguished himself (along with several other excellent contributors) and Kenneth Williams emerged as a true star of the intimate revue. |