5 1966

THE MATCHGIRLS

London run: Globe Theatre, March 1st (119 Performances)

Music: Tony Russell

Lyrics & Book: Bill Owen

Director-Choreographer: Gillian Lynne

Musical Director: Ian MacPherson Producer: Geoffrey Russell

Cast: Vivienne Martin (Kate), Marion Grimaldi (Annie Besant),

Gerald Hely (Joe), Julia Sutton, Olivia Breeze, Neil Fitzwilliam, Kim Grant,

Vivienne Ross.

Songs: Phosphorus, ‘Atful of ‘Ope, Something About You, Dear Lady, We’re

Gonna Show ‘Em, Cockney Sparrers, Hopping Dance, An Amendment to a

Motion

Story: The musical focuses on the women and girls working as match cutters

in the Bryant and May factory in the East End of London in 1888. The

employees work in terrible conditions, with inadequate pay, bullying

treatment and the ever present threat of “Phossy Jaw” , a form of osteo-

necrosis caused by the yellow phosphorus they work with. Bryant and May

are portrayed as callous and uncaring employers, and factory foreman Mr Mynel represents the threatening and

imposing regime in which the girls were forced to work. The central character, Kate, writes to socialist

reformer Annie Besant to ask for help in seeking improvements. Kate and Annie's attempts to rally the girls

leads to Kate becoming a strike-leader and a founder member of a trade union for the girls, even though Kate's

involvement in the strike puts strain on her relationship with her docker-love, Joe.

Notes: Despite the subject matter of the musical, a strong emphasis was placed on the positive mentality and

natural ebullience of the so called “cockney sparrows”. However, it was considered rather dark and heavy,

even if very worthy and well-staged, and it did not survive long.

FUNNY GIRL London run: Prince of Wales Theatre, April 13th (112 Performances)

Music: Jule Styne

Lyrics: Bob Merrill

Book: Isobel Lennart

Director: Garson Karnin & Jerome Robbins, re-staged by Lawrence Kasha

Choreographer: Carol Haney, re-staged by Larry Fuller

Musical Director: Marcus Dods Producer: Bernard Delfont & Arthur Lewis

Cast: Barbra Streisand (Fanny Brice), Michael Craig (Nick Arnstein),

Lee Allen (Eddie Ryan), Kay Medford (Mrs Brice),

Stella Moray (Mrs Strakosh), Ronald Leigh Hunt (Florenz Ziegfeld)

Songs: I'm the Greatest Star, People, Don't Rain on My Parade, Sadie Sadie

Married Lady, The Music That Makes Me Dance.

Story: The life-story of American singer-comedienne, Fanny Brice, the

show covers her pushing her way into early auditions, then being discovered

by Florenz Ziegfeld, her marriage to the gambler Nick Arnstein, her career-dip when he is jailed for fraud, and

the break-up of their marriage after he is released from prison.

Notes: The Broadway production featured Barbra Streisand in her first major role, and quickly established her

as a star. The show ran 1,348 performances on Broadway. The London run was forced to close early because

Streisand became pregnant, and it seems no one was interested in seeing any replacement in the role.

Marion Grimaldi as Annie Besant

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ON THE LEVEL

London run: Saville Theatre, April 19th (118 Performances)

Music: Ron Grainer

Lyrics & Book: Ronald Millar

Director-Choreographer: Wendy Toye

Musical Director: Ed Coleman Producer: Martin Landau

Cast: Gary Bond (Joe), Angela Richards (Kathie),

Phyllida Law (Fiona), Sheila White (Eileen),

Rod McLennan (Chuck), Sandra Michaels (Marie-Luce),

Barrie Ingham (Clancy Pettinger)

Songs: Three Crazy Letters -GCE, You Can Take It,

Thermodynamically Yours, Bleep-Bleep, Love Gets Younger

Every Day, Chorale

Story: This was the story of GCE examination papers stolen by

Kathie, a secretary in the Education Department in order to help

Joe, her exam-blocked boyfriend, to pass his exams. Mixed up in

the whole affair is Clancy Pettinger, the security officer of the

Education Department, determined to find out how the exam

papers got passed around all the GCE students. In the course of the show the love-struck pair go on the run and

are eventually arrested and convicted of fraud. While in prison, Kathie has a baby out of wedlock. The baby is

called George Clancy Edward to get the appropriate initials. Sub-plots involve a French girl and an American

boy student, a scene in a morgue (where Joe has a part-time job), and a lot of heavy pop extraneous dancing.

Notes: The show’s film rights were purchased in advance by the Beatles’ manager, Brian Epstein, and the

initial try-outs saw a lot of re-writing and re-casting – with Leslie Phillips leaving when his part was reduced in

length. He was replaced with Barrie Ingham. The show was lively and bright, but received very mixed notices.

It closed after 118 performances and a loss of £43,500.

THE THREE MUSKETEERS London run: Arts Theatre, May 18th (27 Performances)

Music & Lyrics: Bruce Lacey & the Alberts

Director: Eleanor Fazan

Cast: Douglas Gray (Porthos), Anthony Gray (Athos), Alexei Javdokimov (Aramis),

Bruce Lacey (D’Artagnan), Rosa Bosom, Jill Bruce, Colin Phillips

Songs: All for One and One for All (sung to the tune of the Marseillaise)

Story: Not really a musical, this was a true burlesque in the old-fashioned sense, containing a beer-drinking

contest with real beer, a remote-controlled mechanical queen who gets stripped to her cog-wheels, a King who

is a chess-piece out of “Alice in Wonderland”, the storming of the Bastille, where the Bastille is made out of

tea-chests, and a nude bath sequence parodying the “Marat-Sade”. Bruce Lacy and the Alberts take most of the

parts, doubling up freely.

Notes: The show played a limited season of 27 evening performances with a children’s show playing the

matinees. Bruce Lacy and the two “Alberts” - Douglas and Tony Gray—were an established anarchic comedy

band, though frequently appearing separately.

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Gary Bond & Angela Richards

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COME SPY WITH ME

London run: Whitehall Theatre, May 31st, (468 Performances)

Music & Lyrics: Bryan Blackburn

Director: Ned Sherrin

Choreographer: Irving Davis

Musical Director: Keith Amos Producer: Peter Bridge

Cast: Danny la Rue (Danny Rhodes), Valerie Walsh (Tamara Flesch),

Riggs O'Hara (Greensleeves), Rose Hill (Momma),

Gary Miller (Agent VO3), Barbara Windsor (Mavis)

Songs: Don't Say a Word, Mister What's-

His-Name

Story: The villains Dr Sigmund Fink and

his accomplices Tamara Flesch,

“Greensleeves” and “Momma” are after

the secret of the fabulous virility drug

invented by the late Professor von Schlump. They are being pursued by Agent

VO3 and Danny Rhodes – but since Dr Fink knows Danny Rhodes, Danny has to

disguise himself in female attire for this assignment. In the course of the show

Danny appears as an Irish nurse, a diplomat's lady, a cabaret stripper, and many

other women. Unknown to them all, the dying Professor planted the drug on the

Mavis, the lift operator.

Notes: The fourteen month run was a personal triumph for Danny la Rue.

STRIKE A LIGHT

London run: Piccadilly Theatre, July 5th (30 Performances)

Music: Gordon Caleb

Lyrics & Book: Joyce Adcock

Additional book & songs: Frank Lawton & John Taylor

Director: Ross Taylor & David Scase

Choreographer: Ross Taylor

Musical Director: George Michie Producer: Peter Bridge

Cast: Jeannie Carson (Sarah Chapman),

Evelyn Laye (Annie Besant), Tommy (John Fraser),

Josephine Blake, Charles West

Songs: Come the Revolution, It’s a Fight, Pawnshop Doorway, Up in the World, Summer

Evening, Private Enterprise, Dear Lady, Girls Who Go with Sailors, Vesta Girls

Story: With the same basic plot as “The Matchgirls”, Sarah Chapman, an employee in the

Bryant and May match factory, enlists the help of Anne Besant in improving the working

conditions of the hard done by women. This time Sarah’s boyfriend, Tommy, is a lot

more supportive than in the earlier show.

Notes: The coincidence of two musicals about a strike in the Bryant and May match

factory was much remarked on. Only one month earlier “The Matchgirls” had ended its

run, and now here was a completely separate group of people staging another musical on

the same theme. This one was advertised as “not a musical about misery, disease and

squalor, but a musical about courage, vitality and hope”. It romanticised and

sentimentalised the story, featured star performers and attractive sets, and was a far more

satisfactory piece of work, with a level of professionalism which the earlier show lacked.

However, it did not succeed, even though the cast agreed to take a pay-cut for the last two

weeks in the hope of keeping the show afloat.

1966

Barbara Windsor & Danny la Rue

Jeannie Carson

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JORROCKS

London run: New Theatre, September 22nd (181 Performances)

Music & Lyrics: David Heneker

Book: Beverley Cross

Director: Val May

Choreographer: Irving Davis

Musical Director: Kenneth Alwyn Producer: Donald Albery

Cast: Joss Ackland (Jorrocks), Thelma Ruby (Mrs Jorrocks), Cheryl Kennedy (Belinda),

Willoughby Goddard (Marmaduke Muleygrubs), Michael Malnick (Roger Swizzle),

Paul Eddington (Misererrimus Doleful), Bernard Lloyd (Charlie Stobbs),

Peter Whitbread (James Pigg)

Songs: The Happiest Man Alive, Toasts of the Town, The Midsummer Fox, I Don’t Want to Say Goodnight, Love

Your Neighbour, I Don’t Want to Behave Like a Lady, Once He’s In He’ll Never Get Out, The Sport of Kings

Story: John Jorrocks is a hero among the hunting set – his praises are even sung by the men who work in his tea

warehouse. They also are much enamoured of the charms of Belinda, his niece and ward. However, Mrs Jorrocks is

not happy. She finds her husband's hunting, eating and drinking habits more than a little irksome, and she feels she

has been snubbed by the “posher” people when Jorrocks is inaugurated as Master-of-Foxhounds for Handley Cross

Spa. She plans his overthrow, aided by jealous rivals Marmaduke Muleygrubs, Dr. Roger Swizzle and Captain

Misererrimus Doleful. However, their plotting is thwarted by Belinda’s lawyer fiancé, Charlie Stobbs, who is

helped by James Pigg, a jolly but seldom sober fellow huntsman. The jealous schemes of the Handley Cross 'black

sheep' are exposed, and Jorrocks, the lovable 'h'-dropping hero, emerges triumphant as the 'appiest man alive.

Notes: Based on R.S.Surtees’s “Jorrocks’ Jaunts and Jollities” and “Handley Cross”, the originals had been turned

into a popular TV series starring Jimmy Edwards as the sporting grocer who, despite his common accent and

unconventional ways, becomes a Master of Hounds. For undisclosed reasons, Jimmy Edwards did not appear in the

stage version – which would surely have guaranteed its success – and despite an excellent performance from Joss

Ackland, the show did not last very long.

JOEY JOEY London run: Saville, October 11th (23 Performances)

Music & Lyrics: Ron Moody

Book: Keith Waterhouse & Willis Hall

Director: Arthur Lewis

Harlequinade Choreographer: Johnny Hutch

Cast: Ron Moody (Joey Grimaldi), Vivienne Martin (Mary Grimaldi),

Nigel Grice (Joey Jr.) Johnny Hutch (Mr Shockmorton),

Anne Hamilton (Louisa Bristow), Joe Baker, Teddy Green

Songs: Hot Codlins, Typitywitchet, (original 19th Century songs), The

Life That I Lead, Our Place, Let’s Think About Me for a Change.

Story: This was a version of the life story of Joe Grimaldi, the great pantomime clown of the

early 19th Century. Although it centred around Joey and his wife Mary, with a smaller role played

by their son, Joe, Jr., it had a very large cast and featured some spectacular re-creations of the

Victorian harlequinades – with Columbine, Harlequin and Pantaloon and a full company of

acrobats, jugglers and clowns.

Notes: This show was something of an obsession of Ron Moody’s. He first wrote the whole

thing in 1962 for a production at Bristol, and then spent the next four years polishing it and trying

to persuade a management to support it. He was not happy when Waterhouse and Hall were

brought in to improve his original book, and was adamant on playing the role himself – a mistake,

for although he was an extremely fine actor, he was not a natural comic, something essential for

the role. The producers put up the notice at the end of the first week.

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Ron Moody as Joey Grimaldi

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MAN OF MAGIC

London run: Piccadilly Theatre, November 15th (135 Performances)

Music: “Wilfred Wylam” (Wilfred Josephs)

Lyrics & Book: John Morley & Aubrey Cash

Director: Peter Ebert

Choreographer: Norman Maen

Musical Director: Jan Cervenka Producer: Harold Fielding

Cast: Stuart Damon (Harry Houdini), Doris Hare (Moma),

Stubby Kaye (Toby Kester), Judith Bruce (Bess), Colin Welland (Big Andy),

Gaye Brown (Maggie)

Songs: You Can't Keep a Good Man Down, Sling the Gin, Kester’s Crystal Cabbage, You Can’t Keep a Good

Man Down, Say Your Name

Story: Harry Houdini is a great disappointment to his Yiddisher Momma: escapology is not a nice job for a

Jewish boy, and shacking up with Bess, a showgirl from Coney

Island, is not what she hoped. However, impresario Toby Kester

offers a big contract for a European tour, after persuading “Big

Andy” to put up some backing. Big Andy’s girl-friend, Maggie,

has seen Houdini’s act and persuaded her lover to come up with

the finance. The European tour is a huge success, but fame and

fortune leads Houdini to reject his manager, anger his backers,

disappoint his mother and cheat on his wife, though eventually

(of course!) everything turns out all right.

Notes: A major part of the production was the re-creating of

some of Houdini's most spectacular effects, including an exact

replica of the famous Chinese Water torture escape. There were

also some clever and ingenious “trick” effects – a fantasy scene

where Houdini is so delighted at being offered his European

contract that the room becomes alive: the table revolves, flowers

sprout in their pots, the cuckoo flies out of the clock. It was

reviewed as a delightful show for adults and children alike, but

didn't really catch on.

1966

Stuart Damon, Gaye Brown, Stubby Kaye & Colin Welland

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