21

JACOB’S JOURNEY &

JOSEPH & THE AMAZING

TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT London run: Albery Theatre, February 17th,

(243 Performances)

Music: Andrew Lloyd Webber

Lyrics: Tim Rice

Director: Frank Dunlop

Choreographer: Christopher Bruce

Musical Director: Alan Doggett/Anthony Bowles Producer: Robert Stigwood

Cast: Gary Bond (Joseph), Alex McAvoy (Jacob),

Joan Heal (Potiphar’s Wife), Gordon Waller (Pharaoh),

Ian Trigger (Potiphar), Roy North (Baker), Peter Blake/Peter

Reeves/Maynard Williams (3 Narrators)

Notes: This was a revised and enlarged version of the production which opened at the Roundhouse on

November 16th, 1972 (43 Performances). In the earlier production it was preceded by “The Genesis Medieval

Mystery Plays”, here replaced with “Jacob’s Journey” with dialogue provided by Ray Galton and Alan

Simpson. The cast was considerably enlarged (to include the Brothers) but Richard Kane, Riggs O’Hara, Julia

McCarthy from the original cast did not appear in this enlarged version.

TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA London run: Phoenix Theatre, April 26th (237 Performances)

Music: Galt MacDermot

Book: John Guare & Mel Shapiro

Director: Mel Shapiro

Choreographer: Denis Nahat

Music Director: Ian MacPherson Producer: Michael White & Robert Stigwood

Cast: Samuel E Wright (Valentine), Ray C. Davis (Proteus), Brenda Arnau (Silvia),

Jean Gilbert (Julia), Derek Griffiths (Thurio), Michael Staniforth (Speed),

Benny Lee (Launce),

Songs: Love in Bloom, Summer Summer, Love is that You?, Night Letter, Who is

Silvia?, Bring all the Boys Back Home, Eglamour

Story: The story of two friends in the city of

Verona, the noble Valentine, and the very ignoble

Proteus. On a trip to Milan their lives become

very complicated because of two girls - Julia

(who loves Proteus) and Silvia (who loves

Valentine)

Notes: Originally it was intended to present

Shakespeare’s original play for a series of free

productions in Central Park, as part of the New

York Shakespeare Festival. The director, Mel

Shapiro, suggested adding a rock score to give the

show some contemporary relevance, and

gradually the project was transformed into a

combination of anachronistic colloquialisms,

ethnic references and some of Shakespeare’s

original dialogue. Its success in the open-air

theatre led to a Broadway production and a

London transfer.

1973

Brenda Arnau, Samuel E. Wright & Ray C. Davis

Photo by Laurie Asprey

Gary Bond

Photo by Laurie Asprey

22

NO NO NANETTE (2nd Revival) London run: Drury Lane, May 15th (277 Performances)

Music: Vincent Youmans

Lyrics: Irving Caesar & Otto Harbach

Book: Otto Harbach & Frank Mandel

Director: Burt Shevelove

Choreographer: Donald Saddler

Musical Director: Grant Hossack Producer: H. M. Tennent, Ltd

Cast: Tony Britton (Jimmy Smith), Anna Neagle (Sue Smith),

Anne Rogers (Lucille Early), Teddy Green (Billy Early), Thora Hird (Pauline),

Barbara Brown (Nanette), Anita Graham, Elaine Holland, Jenny Wren, Peter Gale

Songs: Too Many Rings Around Rosie, The Call of the Sea, I Want to Be Happy, Tea for Two, You Can

Dance With Any Girl at All, Where Has My Hubby Gone Blues?, Take a Little One Step

Story: Jimmy Smith, a married New York Bible manufacturer and

the guardian of Nannette, has most innocently been giving financial

support to help the careers of three different girls in three different

cities. Jimmy, his wife and ward, together with family friends Lucille

and Billy Early all gather for a holiday at Jimmy’s Chickadee Cottage

in Atlantic City. Totally unplanned, the cottage is also visited by the

three young ladies. This causes all manner of complications and

misunderstandings, not helped by the presence of the Smith’s family

maid, Pauline.

Notes: The original production was stuck on a USA provincial tour

undergoing re-writes and re-casting, when a facsimile production

opened at London’s Palace Theatre in March 1925 starring Ginnie

Hale and George Grosssmith. The London run lasted 665

performances – twice the New York run when the show finally made

it to Broadway six months after the London premiere. The first

London revival was at the Hippodrome in 1936 with Barbara Vernon

and Shaun Glenville.

The London 1973 production was a revised version which had

originally opened on Broadway starring Ruby Keeler. This time the

position was reversed: the New York show ran for 861

performances, but the London one managed just 277.

KINGDOM COMING London run: Roundhouse, May 21st (14 Performances)

Music: Bill Snyder

Lyrics: Stanley Baum

Book & Additional Lyrics: David Climie & Ronnie Cass

Director: Jon Acevski

Choreographer: Joanne Steuer

Musical Director: Ed Coleman

Cast: Antonia Ellis (Laura), Aubrey Morris (Julius), Michael Howe (Rahvi)

Story: A hippy takes over his father’s business empire and spreads largesse so effectively that the world gets

over-populated and everybody had to be put into deep-freeze until times can cope.

1973

Anna Neagle

Photo by Zoe Dominic

23

GYPSY London run: Piccadilly Theatre, May 29th (300 Performances)

Music: Jule Styne

Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim

Book: Arthur Laurents

Director: Arthur Laurents

Choreographer: Jerome Robbins, reproduced by Robert Tucker

Musical Director: Richard Leonard Producer: Donald Albery, Edgar Lansbury & H. M. Tennent Ltd

Cast: Angela Lansbury (Rose), Barrie Ingham (Herbie), Zan Charisse (Louise),

Debbie Bowen (June), Bonnie Langford (Baby June), Andrew Norman (Tulsa)

Songs: Let Me Entertain You, Some People, Small World, You’ll Never Get away From

Me, If Momma Was Married, All I Need is the Girl, Everything’s Coming Up Roses. Together Wherever We

Go, You Gotta Get a Gimmick, Rose’s Turn.

Story: Mama Rose is determined to escape the humdrum life by pushing the vaudeville career of her younger

daughter, Baby June. When theatre proprietors show no interest, she forms her own vaudeville troupe, aided

by long-suffering admirer, Herbie. But Baby June grows up and elopes with Tulsa, one of the boys in the

company. Rose, undeterred, focuses all her attention on Louise, her elder, less talented and reluctant daughter,

even forcing her to step into the suddenly vacant role of a burlesque stripper. As time goes by, Louise becomes

highly successful as Gypsy Rose Lee, the highest paid strip-tease performer of the time. Rose suffers a

breakdown (expressed through the shattering “Rose’s Turn”) when she realises that she is no longer needed in

her daughter’s career.

Notes: The 1959 Broadway production saw the greatest

performance of Ethel Merman’s career, and the show itself

is regarded by many as one of the most-perfect musicals

ever written. Music, songs and lyrics are superbly

integrated by two of the greatest craftsmen – Jule Styne and

Stephen Sondheim. The London production did not happen

until 1973, when Angela Lansbury gave the most powerful

performance and received the highest praise. Due to other

commitments she left the show after six months, and the

role was taken over by Dolores Gray. In spite of a decent

performance, it seems the magic of Lansbury was missing,

and the show closed a few months afterwards.

THE ME NOBODY KNOWS London run: Shaw Theatre , May 29th (45 Performances)

Music & Lyrics: Robert H. Livingstone & Herb Schapiro

Director: Michael Croft

Choreographer: Willian Sean-Hix

Cast: Peter Straker, Angela Bruce, Reginald Tsiboe, Oswald Lindsay, Lorenza Johnson, Andrew Bowen

Songs: Dream Babies, What Happens to Life, Flying Milk and Runaway Plates, If I Had a Million Dollars,

Fugue for Four Girls, Jail-Life Walk, Black, War Babies

Story: There is no plot, but the theme is of children in poor neighbourhoods of New York who are "complex,

introspective characters. Each is an authentic voice saying attention must be paid." The children are self-

assertive in the face of difficult lives. One story is about a 13-year old boy taking heroin for the first time.

Another involves a child shocked to hear a white boy order "milk and a nigger". A boy watches as a drunk

black man is taken away in an ambulance after an accident.

Notes: It began off-Broadway in 1970 and then transferred to Broadway itself. It received the Obie Award and

a Tony Award nomination for Best Musical. The dialogue is taken from actual writings of New York’s

underprivileged children.

1973 Photo by John Haynes

Angela Lansbury

24

THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW London run: Theatre Upstairs (Royal Court), June 19th

Transferred to Classic Cinema, Chelsea August 14th

Transferred to King’s Road Theatre, November 3rd

Transferred to Comedy Theatre, April 6th, 1979

Total: 2,960 Performances

Music & Lyrics: Richard O’Brien

Director: Jim Sharman

Musical Director: Richard Hartley Producer: Michael White

Original Cast: Jonathan Adams (Narrator),

Tim Curry (Frank-n-Furter).

Rayner Bourton (Rocky Horror),

Christopher Malcolm (Brad), Belinda Sinclair (Janet),

Richard O’Brien (Riff-Raff), Patricia Quinn (Magenta),

Little Nell (Columbia), Paddy O’Hagan (Eddie/Dr Scott)

Songs: Science Fiction Double Feature, Over at the Frankenstein Place, Sweet

Transvestite, In Just Seven Days I Can Make You a Man, Time Warp, I’m

Going Home

Story: It is a dark and stormy night. Brad and Janet are stranded when their car

breaks down, so they seek refuge in a nearby castle owned by Dr

Frank’n’Furter, a sweet transvestite from Transylvania and staffed by his strange

butler, Riff-Raff, and the very odd Magenta and Columbia. Frank has collected

the appropriate body-parts to make himself the perfect muscle man to serve his

wicked way – a wicked way he also achieves with both Brad and Janet. (Frank’s

previous attempt at making a perfect man is kept in the deep-freeze, since Eddie

turned out to be damaged goods!) Rescue appears in the form of Dr Scott, the

wheelchair-bound former college tutor of Brad and Janet. He gets to the bottom

of the set-up: the inhabitants of the castle are really aliens from the planet Trans-

sexual, controlled by Riff-Raff. Frank has over-stepped the mark and is

exterminated before the others take off in their spaceship. Brad, Janet and Dr

Scott are left behind, having developed a taste for wearing basque, suspenders and fishnets.

Notes: With its first run lasting from August 14th 1973 to September 13th 1980, this was a seven year success story

– starting in a tiny studio theatre, moving to converted cinemas, and finally making it to the West End – where it

received a large cult following on the back of the 1976 film version. Curiously the 1975 Broadway production was

a flop, running just 45 performances – but pre-dating the film. The film version would later become a bigger USA

cult than the British one. The show would then have an amazingly successful UK touring production from 1983 to

1989 in the legendary Kenneth More Theatre/Theatre Royal Hanley production, followed by the same production

touring Europe for six months. Richard O’Brien was finally able to retrieve the rights and re-launch the show in

the West End, where it has had many revivals.

1973 Photos by John Haynes

25

GREASE London run: New London Theatre, June 26th (236 Performances)

Music & Lyrics: Jim Jacobs & Warren Casey

Director: Tom Moore

Choreographer: Patricia Birch

Musical Director: Barry Booth Producer: Paul Elliott & Duncan Weldon

Cast: Richard Gere (Danny Zuko), Stacey Gregg (Sandy),

Jacquie-Ann Carr (Rizzo), Peter Armitage (Kenickie),

Stephen Alder (Teen Angel), Derek James (Doody)

Songs: Summer Nights, Freddy My Love, Greased Lightning, Mooning, Look at

Me I’m Sandra Dee, We Go Together, It’s Raining on Prom Night, Beauty

School Drop Out, There are Worse Things I Could Do

Story: The setting is Rydell High School where the greaser Danny Zuko is attracted to the prim and proper

Sandy Dumbrowski, who eventually learns that in 1950s Chicago there is no fun in being virtuous. The show

is a satirical, bang-on-target look at the dress, manners, morals and music of teenagers at the beginning of the

rock’n’roll era, where kids had little on their minds except hanging out and making out. Underneath it all, the

show mocks individuality and champions eventual conformity with the real world of 1950s America.

Notes: Originally an off-

Broadway show, it

m o v e d i n t o t h e

mainstream for an 8 year

r u n w i t h 3 , 3 8 8

performances. For some

unknown reason the

London production did

not take off and only

managed a mere 236

performances. During

the run Elaine Paige took

over the role of Sandy.

The film version in 1978

made a great difference

as far as London was

concerned, and future

revivals of “Grease”

have been hugely

successful.

WEST SIDE STORY (1st Revival) London run: Collegiate Theatre, July 3rd

(Summer season)

Music: Leonard Bernstein

Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim

Book: Arthur Laurents

Director: Bill Kenwright

Choreographer: Robert Arditti

Musical Director: Ed Coleman Producer: Bill Kenwright (David Gordon Productions)

Cast: Jim Smilie (Tony), Rosamund Shelley (Maria),

Roger Finch (Riff), Michael Howe (Diesel),

Peter Daly (Bernardo), Clovissa Newcombe (Anita)

Notes: This production had come to the Collegiate (now known as the Bloomsbury

Theatre) following a long UK tour.. See Original London Production, Her

Majesty’s , December 1968 (See also Shaftesbury Theatre, December 1974)

Left: Elaine Paige & Paul Nicholas who took over from (Right) Richard Gere

1973

Credit Unknown

26

THE CARD London run: Queen’s Theatre, July 24th (130 Performances)

Music & Lyrics: Tony Hatch & Jackie Trent

Book: Keith Waterhouse & Willis Hall

Director: Val May

Choreographer: Gillian Lynne

Musical Director: Ray Holder Producer: Cameron Mackintosh & Jimmy Wax

Cast: Jim Dale (Denry Machin), Joan Hickson (Mrs Machin),

John Savident (Mr Duncalf), Eleanor Bron (Countess of Chell) ,

Millicent Martin (Ruth Earp), Marti Wenn (Nellie Cotterill)

Songs: Nine Till Five, Universal White Kid Gloves, Nobody Thought of It, Moving On, That's the Way the

Money Grows, Opposite Your Smile, Nothing Succeeds Like Success, The Right Man.

Story: Set in the Potteries, this is the story of Denry Machin, a

washer-woman’s mischievous son, who rises to the top of the tree

by luck, guile, initiative, and a fair bit of chutzpah. From his first

job with Mr Duncalf, Denry shows himself to be a bit of a “card,

when he manages to get into the firm’s annual dance and wangle a

dance with the beautiful Countess of Chell. He becomes a rent

collector and money lender, has a romantic entanglement with

Ruth, one of his tenants, and her friend Nellie, rescues some

sailors in a shipwreck in Llandudno and then becomes a lifeboat

owner, and a tour guide for visits to see the wrecked ship. His

other wheeler-dealer exploits include starting up the Five Towns

Universal Thrift Club, buying a local newspaper and boosting the

failing local football club by purchasing the rights to local boy,

Callear, the "greatest centre forward in England". At this point,

Ruth reappears in Denry's life, now the widow of a rich older man.

He considers renewing their relationship, but at the last moment,

realizes that Nellie is the one for him and marries her. His

crowning achievement comes when he is elected the youngest

ever Mayor of Bursley.

Notes: Adapted from the 1909 novel by Arnold Bennett.

THE WATER BABIES London run: Royalty Theatre, July 25th (62 Performances)

Music & Lyrics: John Cooper

Book: John Taylor & Willis Hall

Director-Choreographer: Ross Taylor

Musical Director: Phil Phillips Producer: Tom Arnold

Cast: Jessie Matthews (Mrs Doasyouwouldbedoneby), Richard Willis (Tom), Jacob Witkin (Mr Grimes),

Kim Williams (Ellie), Hope Jackman, Eleanor McCready, David Morton

Story: The tale of young Tom, apprentice to the unpleasant chimney-sweep Mr Grimes, and his underwater

journey to the End-Of-Nowhere is interspersed with delightful songs by John Cooper. The Water Babies and

underwater creatures were portrayed by a combination of puppets and small children.

Notes: Based on Charles Kingley’s book, this played twice-daily at the Royalty as a summer entertainment.

The large cast included what the Times described as “a mass turnout of the dancing tots of London’s theatre

academies” and the return of 1930s star, Jessie Matthews, now 66 years old.

1973

Millicent Martin & Jim Dale

Photo by Zoe Dpominic

27

DECAMERON ‘73 London run: Roundhouse, August 14th (14 Performances)

Roundhouse, September 25th (55 Performances)

Music & Lyrics: Joe Griffiths

Director: Peter Coe

Choreographer: Leo Kharibian

Cast: Raad Rawi, Miquel Brown, Kenneth Gardiner, Cheryl de Grunwald, Tim

Goodman, Susanna Hunt, David Yip

Story: An anthology of eight erotic stories including nine songs performed by a

cast of ten people. After its first short run it toured to Manchester where it

underwent some re-writing, and then returned to the Roundhouse with some new

songs and three more cast members.

THE KING AND I (Revival) London run: Adelphi, October 10th (260 Performances)

Music: Richard Rodgers

Lyrics: Oscar Hammerstein II

Director: Roger Redfarn

Choreographer: Sheila O’Neill

Musical Director: Reg Cole Producer: Harold Fielding, Paul Elliott, Duncan C. Weldon

Cast: Peter Wyngarde (King), Sally-Ann Howes (Anna), Moyna Cope (Lady Thiang),

Pauline Antony (Tuptim), Valentine Palmer (Lun Tha), Stephen Grover (Louis),

David Morris (Chululongkorn), David Davenport (The Kralahome)

Notes: See original London run, Drury Lane, October 1953

PIPPIN London run: Her Majesty’s, October 30th

(85 Performances)

Music & Lyrics: Stephen Schwartz

Book: Roger O. Hirson

Director-Choreographer: Bob Fosse

Musical Director: Ray Cook Producer: Robert Stigwood

Cast: Norman J. Calloway (Leading Player),

Paul Jones (Pippin), John Turner (Charlelemagne),

Bobby Bannerman (Lewis), Diane Langton (Fastrada),

Elisabeth Welch (Berthe)

Songs: Magic to Do, Corner of the Sky, Morning Glow,

Simple Joys, On the Right Track

Story: A modern free-wheeling account of the life of Charlemagne’s son, Pépin (Pippin)

who, yearning for glory, becomes involved with war, women and social causes. Throughout

his search for his own “corner of the sky” he is under pressure from rivalry with his brother,

Lewis, and his scheming stepmother, Fastrada. Above all, there is pressure from the

“Leading Player” who sometimes seems to be acting as a representative of Heaven and also

from Hell. Eventually after rejecting the final glory of self-immolation, he takes the advice

of his wise old grandmother, Berthe, and settles down to an ordinary life of domesticity with

his wife Catherine.

Notes: This was an anti-war story in a commedia-dell-arte style, reminiscent of the “flower

power” philosophy of the recent past, and was a great success on Broadway, running for

1,944 performances. The London production was an expensive flop.

1973 Photo by Philip Ingram

Photo by Reg Wilson

Paul Jones

28

ZORBA London run: Greenwich Theatre, November 27th (23 Performances)

Music: John Kander

Lyrics: Fred Ebb

Book: Joseph Stein

Director: Robin Phillips

Choreographer: David Toguri

Cast: Alfred Marks (Zorba), Miriam Karlin (Madame Hortense), Jim Smilie (Nikos),

Angela Richards (Widow), Peter Daly (Pavli)

Songs: Life Is, The First Time, The Top of the Hill, No Boom Boom, Only Love, Y’assou, I am Free

Story: The tale involves the ebullient Zorba and his love for the coquettish French girl, Hortense and the story

of Nikos, a studious young man who has inherited an abandoned mine on the island of Crete. In the course of

the show there are a series of tragic events, including the suicide of a young Cretan boy, Pavli, because of his

unrequited love for a young widow. This is followed by the vengeful murder of the widow by Pavli’s family,

the discovery that the mine is inoperable and the death of Hortense. However, despite it all, Zorba remains

optimistic and determined to live life to its fullest.

Notes: This was rather similar to “Fiddler on the Roof” with a larger-than-life ageing hero and a stage full of

earthy ethnic types, though the story was much darker and the people of Crete much colder and more

threatening than the colourful villagers of Anatevka. It was based on the 1964 film “Zorba the Greek” which

starred Anthony Quinn and Lila Kedrova. The original Broadway production managed just 305 performances.

The London production at Greenwich came off quickly, having failed to find a West End offer.

COCKIE London run: Vaudeville, December 12th (7 weeks)

Music: Anthology

Director: William Chappell

Choreographer: Sheila O’Neill & Lionel Blair

Musical Director: Alfred Ralston Producer: Peter Saunders

Cast: Avril Angers, Liz Charles, Jill Martin, Patricia Bredin, Eric Flynn,

Janet Mahoney, Max Wall, etc.

Notes: An anthology of scenes from the musical career of Charles B. Cochran, with

music and lyrics by Rodgers & Hammerstein, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, Noel Coward,

Irving Berlin, George & Ira Gershwin and others. The show closed within two months,

having been generally disliked by the critics.

1973