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HEATHCLIFF London run: Labatt’s Apollo, February 12th – May 3rd (Limited season) Music:: John Farrar Lyrics: Tim Rice

Book: Cliff Richard & Frank Dunlop Director: Frank Dunlop Choreographer: Brad Jeffries Musical Director: Mike Moran Cast: Cliff Richard (Narrator/Heathcliff), Helen Hobson (Cathy), Jimmy Johnston (Earnshaw/Hindley), Darryl Knock (Edgar), Sara Haggerty (Isabella), Gordon Giltrap (Troubadour), Geoff David, Chris Holland, Sonia Jones, Niki Kitt, Suzanne Parry

Songs: A Misunderstood Man, Each To His Own, Be With Me Always, The Sleep of the Good, Gypsy Bundle, When You Thought of Me Story: Opening with Cathy’s funeral, her thwarted love-affair with the smouldering and brooding Heathcliff is told in flashback. Many liberties are taken with “Wuthering Heights”, Emily Brontë’s bleak and passionate novel set in the Yorkshire Moors, the most controversial being an invented series of scenes explaining what Heathcliff did in his long journey abroad. (Emily Brontë does not explain this, nor how he earned his fortune, but this musical version includes adventures in Africa, India and China with tribal masks and Chinese lion dances). The show ends long before the novel does, with Heathcliff joining Cathy in the grave.

Notes: The music was by John Farrar, a former member of Cliff Richard’s legendary backing group, The Shadows, the lyrics by Tim Rice and the production by the renowned Frank Dunlop. Because of Cliff Richard’s personal reputation as the “Peter Pan of Pop” and the squeaky-clean image of his private life, he was never likely to be taken seriously by the critics. They had great fun suggesting other unlikely pieces of casting: Liberace as King Lear, Max Bygraves as Titus Andronicus, Julie Andrews as Lady Macbeth – and calling the show more “withering than wuthering”. However, for its Birmingham Arena premiere it had a record-breaking £8.5 million advance, with 340,000 tickets sold. It was a sell-out there, in Edinburgh, Manchester and during its London Apollo run, and packed every night with the blue-rinsed army of fans nicknamed the “Cliffhangers”. Whatever the critics’ view of Cliff Richard as an actor, there was no doubting he was a genuine, twenty-four carat star.

ROMANCE ROMANCE (1st Revival) London run: Gielgud Theatre, March 4th (54 Performances) Music: Keith Hermann Lyrics & Book: Barry Harman Director: Steven Dexter Choreographer: Mitch Sebastian Musical Director: Simon Lee/Robert Purvis

Cast: Mark Adams (Alfred/Sam), Caroline O’Connor (Josefine/Monica), Linzi Hately, Michael Cantwell This was a transfer (with mostly a new cast) of the much-praised fringe production at the Bridewell from the previous September. However, what had been delightful in the tiny Bridewell, now seemed “a balding musical on a low budget” in the West End. It ran for just over six weeks. Notes: Original London run: Bridewell, September 1996

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LADY IN THE DARK London run: Lyttleton Theatre, March 11th – 2nd August (Repertoire) Music: Kurt Weill Lyrics: Ira Gershwin Book: Moss Hart Director: Francesca Zambello Choreographer: Quinny Sacks Musical Director: Mark W. Dorrell

Cast: Maria Friedman (Liza Elliott), Paul Shelley (Kendall Nesbitt), Adrian Dunbar (Charley Johnson), Steven Edward Moore (Randy Curtis), James Dreyfus (Russell Paxton), Hugh Ross (Dr. Brooks), Ashleigh Sendin (Miss Foster), Summer Rognlie (Alison Dubois), Charlotte Cornwall

Songs: Oh Fabulous One, One Life to Live, Girl of the Moment, This is New, The Princess of Pure Delight, My Ship, The Saga of Jenny, Tchaikowsky

Story: Liza Elliott, a fashion magazine editor, tries psychoanalysis to cure her feeling of insecurity. The mistress of publisher Kendall Nesbitt, she is briefly attracted to the handsome film-star, Randy Curtis. However, by the end of the show she has fallen in love with Charley Johnson, the magazine’s cynical advertising manager.

Notes: This was the first collaboration of Ira Gershwin following the death of his brother, and ran for 467 performances in New York in 1941. The leading role was played by Gertrude Lawrence, and the show made a star of newcomer Danny Kaye in the role of a camp photographer with a show-stopping patter number “Tchaikowsky”. The musical is so constructed that all the numbers are sung during the dream sequences that Liza describes to her doctor. The only exception is the song “My Ship” which serves a special part of the plot: it is a half-remembered song from Liza’s childhood and because Charley is the only man who can complete the song for her, he wins Liza’s love. 55 years after its Broadway debut, this was its first London production, though it did have a production at Nottingham in 1981 with Celeste Holm. The critics found it fascinating and important, but felt it suffered by comparison with “Guys & Dolls” which was currently the opposition under the same National Theatre roof.

MARLENE London run: Lyric Theatre, April 8th Music: Various Book: Pam Gems Director: Sean Mathias Musical Director: Kevin Amos

Cast: Sian Phillips (Marlene Dietrich), Lou Gish (Vivian Hoffman), Billy Mathias (Mutti)

Songs: You Do Something to Me, I Wish You Love, La vie en rose, Where Have all the Flowers Gone?, Falling in Love Again, Making Whoopee, Lili Marlene

Story: Backstage in her dressing room, with her long-suffering and silent dresser Mutti and her assistant, Vivian, Marlene Dietrich shares the secrets of her life, loves and sex appeal. Between interviews and make-up calls, she relates some devastating anecdotes ranging from her many lovers to her friendships with the world’s most powerful men. After an interval the show then comprises an authentic re-creation of Marlene Dietrich in a concert performance.

Notes: Sian Phillips created a supremely faithful vocal and physical impression of the real Marlene Dietrich, the great survivor. Her performance was universally praised, portraying what Sheridan Morley called “a musical Mother Courage” and providing a constant reminder of what could be done by sheer chemistry of the human spirit alone.

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THE GOODBYE GIRL London run: Albery Theatre, April 17th (84 Performances) Music: Marvin Hamlisch Lyrics: Don Black Book: Neil Simon Director: Rob Bettinson Choreographer: Tudor Davies Musical Director: Gary Hind Producer: Paul Elliott

Cast: Ann Crumb (Paula), Gary Wilmot (Elliot Garfield), Lucy Evans/Dina Tree (Lucy), Shezwae Powell (Mrs Crosby), Michael Mears, Josefina Gabrieli, Cliff Brayshaw

Songs: (New, with lyrics by Don Black): I’ll Take the Sky, Body Talk, Get a Life, Am I Who You Think I Am?, If You Break Their Hearts, Do You Want to be in my Movie?, The Future isn’t what it used to be. (From the original, with lyrics by David Zippel): Elliot Garfield Grant, Good News Bad News

Story: Paula has been dumped by latest boyfriend, seemingly a regular feature of her life. She and Lucy, her 11 year old daughter, are threatened with eviction because her departing boyfriend has rented out their apartment to an off-Broadway actor called Elliot Garfield. Elliot agrees she can temporarily share the space with him, as he is out most of the time rehearsing the role of a gay transvestite Richard III. This odd couple bicker and squabble,

commented on by Mrs Crosby, the landlady, but, inevitably they fall in love. The show ends with a Busby Berkeley-type dance-sequence on the rooftop, involving champagne and (for some unexplained reason!) a chorus of dancing girls and boys in sequins.

Notes: In 1977 this began life as a Neil Simon movie for which Richard Dreyfuss won an Oscar as the unfortunate off-Broadway actor forced into an all-gay “Richard III”. In 1993 it was turned into a glitzy Broadway musical with Bernadette Peters and Martin Short, music by Marvin Hamlisch and lyrics by David Zippel. It closed after 188 performances and a series of negative reviews describing it as “old-fashioned and lacking in plot”. The London version was a completely new revision – with the original songs thrown out, and seven new songs added with a different lyricist – this time Don Black. However, despite all the changes and almost unanimous praise for Gary Wilmot, the critics found the whole thing sugary sweet, predictable, winsome, far too sentimental and not worth the trouble. It ran for just ten weeks.

THE FIX London run: Donmar Warehouse, May 12th – June 14th

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THE FIX London run: Donmar Warehouse, May 12th – June 14th Music: Dana P. Rowe Book & Lyrics: John Dempsey Director: Sam Mendes Choreographer: Charles Augins Musical Director: David Caddick Producer: Cameron Macintosh & Donmar Warehouse

Cast: John Barrowman (Cal Chandler), Kathryn Evans (Violet Chandler), Philip Quast (Grahame Chandler), Krysten Cummings (Tina), David Firth, David Bardsley, Bogdan Kominowski, Mark Frendo, Gael Johnson, Christina Fry.

Songs: Lonely is a Two-Way Street, Two Guys at Havard, Embrace Tomorrow, America’s Son, Flash Pop Sizzle, Making Sense of Insanity, Lion Hunts the Tiger, Mistress of Deception

Story: Senator Chandler has died of a heart attack whilst having sex with a receptionist. His family have hushed it up, and seek to have his son, Cal Chandler, elected in his place. Cal is groomed for high office by Violet, his manipulative mother, and by Uncle Grahame, a twisted and crippled gay spin-doctor. Cal is forced to marry strategically, and to learn formulaic oration techniques, whilst all the time being addicted in equal measure to coke, heroin and Tina, his torch-singing mistress. He is also indebted to the Mafia Mob who cover up his excesses. When Cal finally sees the light and decides to clean up his act and launch a ferocious anti-drugs campaign, his end is grimly foreseeable.

Notes: Cameron Mackintosh was happy to subsidise this new and very different piece of political satire with its rock music/vaudeville/country and western score, but was allegedly furious at the dismissive critical reaction, claiming London critics were too blinkered to accept anything new and progressive. The critics considered it comic-strip melodrama, with its Kennedy-esque satire grossly overdone and so full of cynicism that not one single character could involve the audience’s sympathy or interest. However, there was praise for the music and lyrics, and some suggestions that Dempsey and Rowe could be future talents to watch.

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST London run: Dominion, May 13th (1,071 Performances) Music: Alan Menken Lyrics: Howard Ashman & Tim Rice Book: Linda Woolverton Director: Robert Jess Roth Choreographer: Glen Kelly Musical Director: Jae Alexander Producer: Walt Disney Productions

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BEAUTY AND THE BEAST London run: Dominion, May 13th (1,071 Performances) Music: Alan Menken Lyrics: Howard Ashman & Tim Rice Book: Linda Woolverton Director: Robert Jess Roth Choreographer: Glen Kelly Musical Director: Jae Alexander Producer: Walt Disney Productions

Cast: Alasdair Harvey (Beast), Julie Alanah Brighten (Belle), Burke Moses (Gaston), Richard Gauntlett (Lefou), Norman Rossington (Maurice), Barry James (Clogsworth), Derek Griffiths (Lumiere), Rebecca Thornhill (Babette), Mary Millar (Mrs Potts), Di Botcher (Mme de la grande Bouche)

Songs: Belle, No Matter What, Home, Gaston, How Long Must This Go On?, Be Our Guest, If I Can't Love Her, Human Again, Maison des Lunes, .

Notes: Based on the 1991 Disney film, seven new songs were written for the stage musical with lyrics by Tim Rice. Howard Ashman, the original lyricist, had died in 1991. The Broadway production ran for 5,461 performances between 1994 and 2007. The show had been staged in eight other cities before coming to London and was said to have cost £10 million, the most expensive musical ever staged in the West End. It was lavish, spectacular and filled with magical effects and a superb re-creation of the famous “Be Our Guest” sequence from the film – a sequence which never failed to stop the show. From the opening, when a wicked witch soared high in the air, to the finale, where the Beast was magically transformed back into a handsome Prince, this was a show that delighted even the most cynical of the critics. During the London run replacements for Belle included Michelle Gayle and Annalene Beechey, and John Barrowman and Earl Carpenter as the Beast. The production won the Olivier Award for Best New Musical in 1998. The world-wide box office takings for this show went on to exceed $1.4 billion, and the production has since been seen in 13 countries and 115 cities.

DAMN YANKEES (1st Revival) London run: Adelphi, June 4th (77 Performances) Music & Lyrics: Richard Adler & Jerry Ross Book: George Abbott & Douglass Wallop Director: Jack O’Brien Choreographer: Rob Marshall Musical Director: Gareth Valentine Cast: Jerry Lewis (Mr Applegate), April Nixon (Lola), John-Michael Flate (Joe Hardy), Dennis Kelly (Joe Boyd) , Joy Franz, Julie Prosser, Steven Seale Notes: The star of this show was the 71 year old American comedian Jerry Lewis. A 15 minute section of the Second Act was tailored to his presence, enabling him to hi-jack the show, breaking into his nutty-professor voice, tossing canes in the air and failing to catch them, telling joke after joke in his old vaudeville act, and then just as suddenly returning to the script and the plot. Jerry Lewis fans loved it. The show itself was much praised on its first return to London after some 40 years, but it ran for just over nine weeks. See: Original London run: Coliseum, March 1957

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ALWAYS London run: Victoria Palace, June 10th (54 Performances) Music & Lyrics: William May & Jason Sprague Book: Frank Hauser Director: Frank Hauser & Thommie Walsh Choreographer: Thommie Walsh Musical Director: Chris Walker

Cast: Jan Hartley (Wallis Simpson), Clive Carter (Edward VIII), Shani Wallis (Aunt Bessie), David McAlister (Ernest Simpson), James Horne (Stanley Baldwin), Ursula Smith (Queen Mary), Chris Humphreys (Lord Mountbatten), Buster Skeggs (Lady Colefax) , Helen Anker (Lady Furness) , Sheila Ferguson (Analise L’Avender) Songs: Long May you Reign, Someone Special, I Stand Before My Destiny, If Always Were a Place, This Time Around, It’s the Party of the Year, Hearts Have Their Reasons, Invitation is for Two

Story: Starting with the ex-King’s funeral in 1972, a veiled, frail Duchess is prompted to reminisce in flashback. Back in the early 1930s the Prince of Wales’s current mistress asks the twice-married American Wallis Simpson to look after him while she goes away. Big mistake! The show then proceeds to tell “the greatest love story of the century” the story of a man who

gave up a throne for the love of a woman.

Notes: Unfortunately the end result was not a great love story. It was a mish-mash of confused scenes, skimpy characterisation, lacking any sense of period and history, and prone every so often to throw in a musical sequence, including one spectacularly over-blown fairground nightmare sequence with chorus boys dressed as carousel horses. The critics had a field day describing “Always” as “Briefly”, and it was said that backstage the cast themselves referred to the show as “Wallis and Vomit”. It closed after seven weeks, with huge losses.

ELVIS THE MUSICAL (2nd Revival) London run: Piccadilly Theatre, June 18th (100 Performances) Music & Lyrics: Various Director: Keith Strachan & Carole Todd Choreographer: Carole Todd Musical Director: James Compton Producer: Bill Kenwright

Cast: Alexander Bar (Young Elvis), Fergus Moriarty (Middle Elvis), Michael Dimitri (Older Elvis), This was back in the West End for the second time, with some cast changes, following its UK tour. Notes: Original London run: Astoria Theatre, November 1977

First revival: Prince of Wales Theatre, April 1996

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SUMMER HOLIDAY London run: Labatt’s Apollo, July 8th – 20th September (Limited season) Music: Various Book: Michael Gyngell & Mark Haddigan Director: Ultz Choreographer: Quinny Sacks Musical Director: Andy Rumble Cast: Darren Day (Don), Darren J. Bennett (Steve), Mark McGee (Edwin), Rene Zagger (Cyril), Lucie Fentum (Mimsie), Miranda Richards (Angie), Jo Sherwood (Alma), Clare Buckfield (Barbara), Hilary O’Neill (Stella), Ross King (Wallace) Songs: Bachelor Boy, Summer Holiday, The Next Time, In the Country, Do you Wanna Dance, Move It, Livin’ Doll Story: Based on the 1962 Cliff Richard film, this is the story of a group of red-blooded male London Transport employees, Don, Steve, Edwin and Cyril. They drive a double-decker bus through Europe for their summer

holiday, and en route meet a bevy of mini-skirted dolly birds - Mimsie, Angie and Alma - who join them for the ride. The girls sleep on the upper deck and the boys on the lower deck , and, because this is the early Sixties, they don’t even think about having sex. Then there is a boy stow-away (who turns out to be Barbara, a demure American pop-singer girl in disguise). The holiday-makers are pursued by the girl’s monstrous, bee-hived dragon of a mother, Stella, and her agent, Wallace. It ends, of course, with all the couples pairing off and planning to marry before anything improper takes place.

Notes: This was a gloriously camp re-creation of the film: Paris (berets and an accordion player), Switzerland (clock, bells, sheep and cows), finally Greece (blokes in white skirts, gold waistcoats and red caps); a tendency for the boys to strip continually down to their Y-fronts; an updating with some terrible jokes (one of Don’s gormless male friends gives him a baguette and says, knowingly. “Now you’ve got something else that’s nine inches” – another gets to Paris and says “I really want to go to the Louvre” only to be told “Well, use that tree over there”) – the whole show was gloriously awful. Darren Day managed a very creditable impersonation of Cliff Richard, and Hilary O’Neill stole the show with a totally over-the top comedy performance as the mother. The show was critic-proof, and packed with Cliff Richard/Darren Day fans who screamed their delight from start to finish. It had played a six-month sell-out season at Blackpool Opera House in the summer of 1996, and then toured before this six month season in London.

ASSASSINS (1st Revival) London run: New End, July 10th – August 3rd (Limited season) Music & Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim Book: John Weidman Director: Sam Buntrock Musical Director: Caroline Humphris Cast: Stephen Watts (Proprietor), Mark Davidson (Leon Czolgosz), Andrew Newey (John Hinckley), Peter Straker (Charles Guiteau), Adrian Beaumont (Giuseppe Zangara), Nigel Williams (Samuel Byck), Fiona Dunn (Squeaky Fromme), Sharon Eckman (Sara Jane Moore), Garth Bardsley (John Wilkes Booth), Paul Keating (Balladeer), Tom Rogers (Lee Harvey Oswald) This performance in the tiny New End Theatre was much praised, with, again, acclaim for Paul Keating (previously seen in “Tommy”). The critics all felt that Sondheim shows seem to work so much better in smaller, fringe-type stagings. Original London run: Donmar Warehouse, October 1992

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KISS ME KATE (3rd Revival) London run: Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, July 24th – September 1st Music & Lyrics: Cole Porter Book: Sam & Bella Spewack Director: Ian Talbot Choreographer: Lisa Kent Musical Director: Catherine Jayes

Cast: Andrew C. Wadsworth (Fred Graham), Louise Gold (Lili Vanessi), John Griffiths (Harry), Issy van Randwyck (Lois Lane) , Graeme Henderson (Bill Calhoun), Gavin Muir & Rob Edwards (Gangsters) , Debby Bishop (Hattie)

Notes: Original London Production , March 1951 First revival, Coliseum, December 1970 Second revival: Old Vic/Savoy, May 1987

SIDE BY SIDE BY SONDHEIM (1st Revival) London run: Greenwich Theatre, July 28th – September 6th Music: Stephen Sondheim & others Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim Director: Matthew Francis Choreographer: Andrew George Musical Director: Michael Haslam & Melanie Jessop Producer: Cameron Mackintosh & H. M. Tennent

Cast: Kathryn Evans, David Malek, Lisa Sadovy, Dawn French (Commère)

The novelty of this production was a frequent change (mostly weekly) of compères. During the run they included Emma Freud, Una Stubbs, Roy Hattersley, Simon Fanshawe, Tony Slattery, Sheridan Morley and Philip Franks.

Original London run: Mermaid Theatre, May 1976

THE CRADLE WILL ROCK (1st Revival) London run : BAC 1, August 12th – 24th Music: Marc Blitzstein Director: Mehmet Ergen Musical Director: John Jansson Cast: Ysobel Gozalez (Moll) , Nathan Osgood (Larry Foreman), Aaron Shirley (Mister Mister), Kay Montgomery (Mrs Mister), Gareth Owen (Rev Slavation), Russell Wilcox (Editor Daily), Louise Davidson, Christopher Holt, Alexander Giles, David Forest, Miles Western, Terri-Ann Brumby, Yvonne Pascal. This revival in the tiny BAC 1 Studio received hardly any critical attention (because they were all away at the Edinburgh Festival?) but was, by other accounts, an extremely well performed production of this rarely revived but important piece of agit-prop musical theatre. Notes: See Original London Production: Unity Theatre June 1951 First revival: Old Vic, August 1985

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A LOT OF LIVING

London run: Jermyn Street Theatre, August 6th – 31st Music: Charles Strouse Lyrics: Various Book: Barbara Siman Director: Barbara Siman Musical Director: Chris Frost Cast: Dave Willetts, Bonnie Langford, Joanna John, Chris Coleman Notes: A compilation show, with songs from some of Charles Strouse’s lesser-known works like Nick and Nora, Rags, Annie Warbucks and Dance a Little Closer, as well as shows like Applause, Golden Boy and Bye Bye Birdie.

CARNABY STREET London run: Arts Theatre, August 7th (20 Performances) Music & Lyrics: James Hall Book: James Hall Director: Terry John Bates Musical Director: Richard Whennell Cast: Kevin Curtin (Jude), Michelle Connolly (Lady Jane), Richard Shelton (Jumpin’ Jack), Danny Edwards (Lily the Pink), Gina Murray (Ruby Tuesday), Elizabeth Price (Rock Bottom)

Songs: Transistor Radio, Clapton is Gone, Mars Bar Blues, Pounds Shillings and Pence, Uppers ‘n’ Downers Story: A northerner called Jude comes to London in search of fame, and ends up living with Lady Jane, an aristocrat who has deserted her wealthy background for a squat in Carnaby Street. She overdoses on heroin and dies, and their child is taken into care. Aided by Jumpin’ Jack, his Cockney rock’n’roll manager, Jude goes on to hit the big time, having worked his way through sexual adventures with Mars bars and seedy gigs with such performers as drag artiste, Lily the Pink, and blues singer Ruby Tuesday. Jude ends up in the 1990s wrapped sexily around a girl from a pop group called Rock Bottom, only to discover that she is his long-lost daughter. Notes: Tacky, depressing, poor singing, over-amplified and incoherent sound, dreadful lyrics, monotonous music and dire choreography, merely a string of third rate songs (27 of them) played by a competent band and performed by an incompetent bunch of actors – these were just some of the words used by the critics. “Carnaby Street is certainly far out – though not far enough for my liking”.

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LUCKY STIFF London run: Bridewell, August 28th – September 20th (Limited season) Music: Stephen Flaherty Book & Lyrics: Lynn Ahrens Director: Stephen Dexter Choreographer: Mitch Sebastian Musical Director: Elliot Davis Producer: Glen Lee Productions

Cast: Paul Baker (Harry Witherspoon), Frances Ruffelle (Annabel Glick), Tracie Bennett (Rita La Porta), Philip Cox (Vinnie Di Ruzzio), Alix Longman (Dominique), Nigel Williams, Bernard Tagliavini, Catherine Dyer, Paul Williams, James Nash (Tony Hendon)

Songs: Something Funny's Going On, Mr. Witherspoon's Friday Night, Rita's Confession, Good to be Alive, Lucky, Dogs Versus You, Speaking French, Fancy Meeting You Here, A Woman in my Bathroom.

Story: Wealthy American Tony Hendon, has been accidentally shot and killed by his short-sighted mistress, Rita La Porta. He has left his $6 million estate to a hitherto unknown relative, Harry Witherspoon, an English shoe salesman - but there is one condition: Uncle Tony had always wanted to see Monte Carlo – and Harry has to take the corpse there in a wheelchair and must carry out Uncle Tony’s last wishes to the letter – exactly as detailed on an accompanying cassette tape. If he fails in any of the wishes, the money goes to the dogs’ home. Annabel Glick from the dogs’ home is secretly pursuing him, hoping he will mess it up. He is also secretly pursued by Rita and her optician brother, Vinnie, hoping to get their hands on missing diamonds they think are hidden on the corpse. The plot thickens with the entry of a sexy cabaret singer named Dominique du Monaco who is stalking Harry, and gets even thicker with mistaken identity, double-crossing, Rita disguised as a French Maid, and a surprise ending.

Notes: Lucky Stiff premiered off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizon on April 1988 for a limited two week run. It subsequently was revived at various USA venues and received a British premiere in Lincoln in 1994. This West End production went down well with critics and audiences, and was felt to be one the rare occasions when a musical farce succeeded. (It is usually claimed that a farce needs non-stop pace and action, whereas songs in a show tend to slow down the action, making farces and musicals basically incompatible.)

ENTER THE GUARDSMAN London run: Donmar Warehouse, September 17th – October 18th Music: Craig Bohmler Lyrics: Marion Adler Book: Scott Wentworth Director: Jeremy Sams Choreographer: Andrew George Musical Director: Mark Warman Producer: Donmar & Really Useful Group

Cast: Janie Dee (Actress), Alexander Hanson (Actor), Nicky Henson (Playwright), Angela Richards (Dresser), Jeremy Finch (Stage Manager), Walter van Dyk (Wigs Master), Nicola Stone (Wardrobe Mistress).

Songs: Waiting in the Wings, My One Great Love, The First Night, Art Imitating Life, Language of Flowers, Actor’s Fantasy, In the Long Run

Story: An actor husband, jealous of his actress wife, suspects she is on the verge of an affair. So, disguising himself as her adoring guardsman fan, he woos her. She succumbs to his advances and they go to bed together. . .but, is she unaware of the masquerade? Or has she seen through the disguise? The action is enlivened by backstage bickerings between husband and wife, a romantically inclined dresser, gay technical staff, and an in-house middle-aged playwright who is attracted to both the husband and the wife, and is a note-taking voyeur throughout the action.

Notes: Based on the 1911 Hungarian play by Ferenc Molnar, this was adapted with a bitter-sweet, tango- and waltz-filled, elegant score. (It has some remarkable parallels with Harold Pinter’s play “The Lover”). The show won a Best New Musical Award in the USA in 1995 and a major International Musical of the Year competition in Denmark in 1996, but the London critics thought that, charming as it was, it lacked bite.

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DORIAN London run: Arts Theatre, September 29th (8 performances) Music, Book & Lyrics: David Reeves Director: Mehmet Ergen Choreographer: Karen Rabinowitz Musical Director: David Reeves

Cast: Marcello Walton (Dorian), Nicholas Pound (Henry), Mark Huggins (Basil), Eliza Lumley (Sybil).

Songs: Ballad for the Beautiful, I Like You Lord Henry, Experimentation, What’s the Scandal?, There’s Nothing That I Would Not Give, O God Give Me a New Life

Notes: A sung-through musical with a three-piece band and a cast of twelve, this was effectively a vanity production – nearly all the work of one man, David Reeves. The classic Oscar Wilde story of a man who stays young and beautiful while his portrait shows the signs of his age and decadence was intended as a study of the distance between appearance and truth. This adaptation lacked any subtlety, depth or wit and was unanimously damned as a dreadful waste of time. It lasted just one week.

MADDIE London run: Lyric Theatre, September 29th (48 Performances) Music: Stephen Keeling Lyrics: Shaun McKenna Book: Shaun McKenna and Steven Dexter Director: Martin Connor Choreographer: David Toguri and Jenny Arnold Musical Director: Caroline Humphris Cast: Graham Bickley (Nick), Summer Rognlie (Jan/Maddie), Lynda Baron (Cordelia van Arc), Kevin Colson (Al), Beth Tuckey, Jon Rumney, Russell Wilcox, Michael A Elliott, Paddy Glynn, Louise Davidson, Nicola Filshie, Martin Parr.

Songs: From Now On, I’m Not Afraid, I’ll Have My Way, If Not for Me, The Time of My Life, I’ll Be a Star

Story: It is 1981 and Nick and Jan move into a dilapidated San Francisco apartment and discover it is haunted by a 1920s chorus girl named Madeleine Marsh. Maddie died before she could fulfil her ambitions to become a star, so her ghost decides to take psychic possession of Jan, and seduce Nick. Every time Jan is allowed to return to herself, she finds her marriage disintegrating. Maddie is hell-bent on reaching stardom in her restored life and takes over Jan’s body not just for a romp with Nick, but chiefly to attend casting calls and auditions for TV commercials before disappearing back into the spirit world – on one occasion leaving Jan dressed up as a tomato. “She can’t keep popping in and out like this” says Jan in desperation, “I’m not a Holiday Inn!”. The plot is complicated by the presence of Cordelia van Arc, a randy old widow, and by the Cheyneys’ landlord, Al, now an old man, but back in the 20s, he happened to be Maddie’s boyfriend. Ultimately Al appeals to Maddie’s better self, and, being a good sport, she departs for good, leaving Nick and Jan to make a go of their marriage after all.

Notes: Based on the novel “Marion’s Wall” by Jack Finney, and its film adaptation, “Maxie” with Glenn Close. The production was first staged at the Salisbury Playhouse, but it failed to find backing for a London transfer until the Daily Telegraph covered the story and more than a hundred of its readers became individual “angels”, raising some £150,000. It ran for six weeks and lost over half a million pounds.

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KAT AND THE KINGS London run: Tricycle, October 2nd – November 8th Repeated: February 28th – March 14th 1998 Transferred to Vaudeville Theatre, March 23rd (152 Performances) Music & Lyrics: David Kramer & Taliep Petersen Director: David Kramer Choreographer: Loukmaan Adams & Jody Abrahams Musical Director: Taliep Petersen (Kevin Robinson for the repeat & transfer) Cast: Salie Daniels (Kat Diamond), Jody Abrahams (Young Kat Diamond), Loukmaan Adams (Bingo), Junaid Booysen (Ballie), Mandisa Bardill (Lucy Dixon), Alistair Izobell (Magoo) Second Cast: Salie Daniels (Kat Diamond), Jody Abrahams (Young Kat Diamond), Loukmaan Adams (Bingo),

Junaid Booysen (Ballie), Kim Louis (Lucy Dixon), Ricardo Buchenroder (Magoo)

Songs: Lonely Girl, Mavis, Lagunya, Only If You Have a Dream, Happy to be Nineteen

Story: An elderly shoeshine boy, Kat Diamond, looks back on his life. In flashback, we learn that in 1957 he and his boisterous mates spend their time hanging out, harmonising and fantasising about girls until Lucy, the musically minded sister of the boyish Magoo shapes them into a well-dressed, well-pitched group. They become the Cavalla Kings, an amazing close-harmony doo-wop group which achieved fame on South African radio in the late 50s before anyone discovered that – shock horror – they were not white. Their showbiz story of how they were introduced by a white manager with the words “If they weren’t onstage they’d be outside breaking into your cars” and of how they were allowed to sing in hotel cabaret by night only if they carried guests’ baggage by day was terrifyingly true. However, the group eventually broke up, and Kat himself becomes an elderly shoeshine boy. Notes: With some amazing singing and tap-dancing, this was a South African import which delighted everyone with its exuberance. It was repeated with the some cast changes for a further two week run in February of the following year, and then transferred to the Vaudeville where it ran till the end of July.

NOEL & GERTIE (3rd Revival) London run: Jermyn Street Theatre, October 14th – November 8th Music & Lyrics: Noel Coward Book: Sheridan Morley Director: Sheridan Morley Choreographer: Irving Davies Musical Director: Michael Law Cast: Peter Land (Noel Coward), Elizabeth Counsell (Gertrude Lawrence) Original production King’s Head 1983 First revival : Comedy Theatre, December 1989 Second revival: Duke of York’s, December 1991

1997

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TALES MY LOVER TOLD ME London run: King’s Head. October 24th – November 4th Music: Sarah Travis Book & Lyrics: Chris Burgess Director: Chris Burgess Choreographer: Mitch Sebastian Musical Director: Sarah Travis

Cast: Susie Blake (Lesley), Sue Kelvin (Jean), Lindsey Dancer (Laura), Mark Adams (David), James Pickering (Perry), James Staddon (Steve).

Songs: What do Women Want?, Blue Shadow Eyes, What’s the Game? I Hate That Dog, Unsuitable Men, Terrified

Notes: The story of three middle-aged, middle-class women and their erratic – but not very erotic – romances. Thrice-married Lesley works in an advertising agency and is romancing David, a smooth travel writer; Jean’s boyfriend is an old university friend called Perry, a gauche northerner

obsessed with his pet dog; and Laura, a former groupie who can’t quite kick the self-destructive habits of her youth, is enamoured of a charmless, drunken, violent biker called Steve. Wittily exploring the chattering classes’ fixation on relationships, it was described as a Sondheim-style metropolitan cocktail with a twist of Woody Allen. The 19 songs and cast of six were praised, along with the show itself, though the general reaction was the material itself was too lightweight to have much of an after-life.

STEPPING OUT – THE MUSICAL London run: Albery Theatre, October 28 (142 Performances) Music: Denis King Lyrics: Mary Stewart-David Book: Richard Harris Director: Julia McKenzie Choreographer: Tudor Davies Musical Director: Stephen Hill Producer: Bill Kenwright

Cast: Liz Robertson (Mavis), Colin Wakefield (Geoffrey), Helen Bennett (Sylvia), Sharon D Clarke (Rose), Rachel Spry (Lynne), Carolyn Pickles (Vera), Barbara Young (Maxine), Helen Cotterill (Dorothy), Gwendolyn Watts (Mrs Fraser)

Songs: One Night a Week, Quite, Don’t Ask Me, Love To, What Do Men Think? Too Much, Never Feel the Same Again, Definitely You, What I Want, Once More, Loving Him.

Story: Richard Harris’s original play becomes in this version, a play with songs, rather than a full-scale musical. Mavis teaches tap-dancing to an amateur evening class of seven women and one man. All the women, including Mavis, have their troubles, and most of their troubles are to do with men. The mixed bunch includes Sylvia, the tarty Essex girl;

Rose the lugubrious black mother; Lynne, the young vulnerable nurse; Vera, posh, nosey and house-proud; the brassy Jewish Maxine; the twee put-upon Dorothy with the invalid mother; and finally the battered Andy, who seeks refuge in the ineffectual arms of the widower, Geoffrey. There is much in their lives to pull them apart, but the tap-dancing classes actually pull them together. As in the original play, the final chorus-line of misfit tappers is a joy to behold.

Notes: The critic, Sheridan Morley, described it as the perfect British antidote to “A Chorus Line”. Where the Broadway show was all about the desperation to succeed at all showbiz costs, the British version is about the quieter pleasures of failure and inefficiency, and the joys of pulling together.

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Felicity Gordon & Carolyn Pickles

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FAME (1st Revival) London run: Victoria Palace, November 10th – January 17th (Limited season) Music: Steve Margoshes Lyrics: Jacques Levy Book: David de Silva & Jose Fernandez Director: Karen Bruce

Choreographer: Musical Director: Producer: Paul Elliot & Adam Spiegel

Cast: Lucy Williamson, Kev Orkian All other details unknown.

Original London Production: Cambridge Theatre , June 1995

CHICAGO (1st Revival) London run: Adelphi Theatre, November 18th Transferred to Cambridge Theatre, April 24th, 2006 (Still running 2011) Music: John Kander Lyrics: Fred Ebb Book: Fred Ebb & Bob Fosse Director: Walter Bobbie Choreographer: Ann Reinking Musical Director: Gareth Valentine

Cast: Ruthie Henshall (Roxie Hart), Ute Lemper (Velma Kelly), Nigel Planer (Amos Hart), Meg Johnson (Momma Morton),

Henry Goodman (Billy Flynn), C. Shirvell (Mary Sunshine)

Notes: This revival originated as part of the New York Encores musicals programme – staged simply with the orchestra on stage, no scenery and no costume changes. In November 1996 it transferred to Broadway, still more or less in this stark almost “concert” form and was a huge success, winning six Tony Awards. It was re-created in London, again in the same cut-down form and repeated that success, winning two Olivier Awards.

Original London run: Cambridge Theatre, April 1979

THE SOUND OF MUSIC (3rd Revival) London run: BAC Main, December 4th – January 10th (Limited season) Music: Richard Rodgers Lyrics: Oscar Hammerstein II Book: Howard Lindsay & Russel Crouse Director: Phil Willmott Choreographer: Jack Gunn Musical Director: Annemarie Lewis Thomas

Cast: Penny-Belle Fowler (Maria), Tim Berrington (Captain von Trapp), Roz McCutcheon (Mother Abbess), Charlotte Bicknell (Elsa), Phil Willmott (Max Detweiler), Katey Crawford Kastin (Liesl), Mark Powell (Rolf).

This was a cut-down production, accompanied by just two pianos, but with a cast of 40. It was extremely well received by the critics and public, and acclaimed as a triumphant example of how a fringe, shoe-string production could work just as well as the grandest of stagings.

Notes: See Original London production, 1961; 1st London revival, August 1981; 2nd revival, June 1992

1997

Ute Lemper & Ruthie Henshall

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SATURDAY NIGHT London run: Bridewell, December 17th – January 24th Music & Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim Book: Julius & Philip Epstein Director: Carol Metcalfe & Clive Paget Choreographer: Tim Flavin Musical Director: Peter Corrigan Cast: Sam Newman (Gene), Anna Francolini (Helen), Jeremy David (Artie), Simon Greiff (Ray), Mark Haddigan (Hank), James Millard (Bobby), Maurice Yeoman (Dino), Tracie Bennett (Celeste), Ashleigh Sendin (Mildred), Rae Baker, Paul Brereton, Gavin Lee Songs: Marry Me a Little, Class, Love’s a Bond, In The Movies, One Wonderful Day, It’s That Kind of Neighbourhood, What More Do I Need?, A Moment With You

Story: In pre- Wall Street Crash New York, Gene and his friends dream of dating available women every Saturday night and then making a stock-market killing every Monday. While the others dream, Gene, passing himself as a young stockbroker, manages to gate-crash a society ball and meets the lovely, wealthy Southern belle, Helen. They fall in love – but Helen, herself, is in disguise. Instead of investing his buddies’ money, as promised, Gene has been using it to live the high life. When Helen finally persuades him that a loving home in Brooklyn is all they need, he happily faces his responsibilities, and hands himself in for a light jail sentence, his buddies’ lost savings having been recouped.

Notes: This was planned for Sondheim’s Broadway debut in the early 1950s, but prior to the opening Lemuel Ayers, the producer, suddenly died from leukaemia. His widow decided to abandon the project and refused to release the rights to anyone else. The show remained unproduced for more than 40 years. In 1995 permission was granted for a group of students at Birmingham University to present a concert version, and this led to Sondheim allowing the Bridewell to stage this world premiere – a production of enormous interest to critics, performers and musical enthusiasts alike. It was well received.

1997