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1968 The outstanding British winner of the year was a musical version of Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, with a literate libretto and appealing music. In episodic form, it had a slightly titillating edge to it, and quickly found public favour. An adaptation of two Noel Coward plays, Fumed Oak and Still Life (better known as the film Brief Encounter) turned up with a score by John Taylor. A walloping disaster, Mr and Mrs was fascinatingly cast. John Neville, Honor Blackman, Hylda Baker and Alan Breeze signed for it, but the critics killed it. Machine-made for swinging London, it didn't run, but it stands as one of the most vulgar and enjoyable British musicals of the 1960s. There should have been a warmer welcome for The Young Visiters, a clever adaptation of Daisy Ashford's childhood, and childish, novella. It had a nimble score by Michael Ashton and Ian Kellam and a carefully assembled company led by Alfred Marks (perhaps a little dull) as Mr Salteena and Jan Waters as the over-ambitious Miss Ethel Monticue. It held on over the Christmas period and then slipped away. A revival of The Dancing Years starred June Bronhill but indicated that Ivor Novello's shows were impossible to revive. A revival of The Student Prince with John Hanson was more successful in bringing back old memories. The revival of The Beggar's Opera could hardly have been better cast. Hy Hazell, Frances Cuka, Peter Gilmore, Angela Richards and Jan Waters were involved, but it only had a short run.A musical biography by John Dankworth and Benny Green, Boots with Strawberry Jam, was seen at Nottingham. Directed by Wendy Toye, it had John Neville as George Bernard Shaw and Mrs Dankworth (Cleo Laine) as Ellen Terry. London wasn't keen to see it. A musical of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest was the work of the composer of She Smiled at Me, but Allen Bacon's Found in a Hand-Bag ran out its brief life in the privacy of Eastbourne. Dickens was plundered for My Gentleman Pip, but the gentleman (the hero of Great Expectations) turned out to be the pop-singer Jess Conrad. It never looked promising. At Worcester, She'd Rather Kiss Than Spin was based on Middleton's A Mad World, My Masters, but the book and lyrics by Michael Richmond and music of Anthony Isaac didn't get another hearing. One of the most intriguing efforts of the year was The Station Master's Daughter by Frank Harvey, with music from the practised hand of Charles Zwar. Rose Hill played the Minister of Transport, but the show didn't get beyond its opening at Guildford. Like Zwar, composer Ronne Cass had written mostly for revues, but he provided the music for Peter Myers's musical Liz, a mythological romp with Ron Moody at Canterbury. Revues happened in the provinces, except for an import, Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris. It had a limited appeal. Among the imported musicals there was clear evidence that the field was fast changing. When the company took their clothes off in Hair, the delicacies of so much of the British musical semed even more doomed than ever. But Broadway also showed how strong intelligence could elevate the status of the musical play. Kander and Ebb's Cabaret had the darkest of underbellies, Nazi Germany, and a star performance from Judi Dench. The score had a consistency and powerfulness that eluded British writers. Man of La Mancha was a powerful piece, too, with an irritating theme song ('The Impossible Dream') but a score that did its work superbly and with dramatic force. It had a reasonable run. The sweetness of a two-hander, I Do! I Do!, by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt, was served up by Anne Rogers and Ian Carmichael, but the writers had never had a success in Britain, and the show carried on the tradition. Cindy, a little American import mostly by Johnny Brandon, who had appeared in the London production of Love from Judy, was packed off speedily. Sammy Davis was the main reason for audiences turning up at the Palladium for Golden Boy. When his leading lady Gloria de Haven left, good old Vivienne Martin stepped in, but she didn't have to partner Mr Davis for long. A revival of Lady Be Good was slightly more lucky, but the casting was dubious (Aimi Macdonald and Lionel Blair). A cartoon musical, You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, showed that the American musical could be as light-headed and whimsical as its British counterpart, but it didn't last long. Neither did The Man With a Load of Mischief, a tiny affair with a cast of five that included Julia McKenzie. |