The Boy Friend
In the 1950s musical theatre was dominated by the big American
shows. Alongside this was the growth of small-scale British
musicals. Sandy Wilson’s The Boy Friend in 1953
was a
pastiche of 1920s musical comedy.
It was a huge success in London and transferred to Broadway
where it made a star of its leading lady, Julie Andrews. In
complete contrast to the original, Ken Russell’s 1971
film, starring Twiggy, was a huge extravaganza paying tribute
to Busby Berkeley musical films of the 1930s.
Salad Days
Even more successful and eventually out-running Oklahoma!,
was Julian Slade and Dorothy Reynolds’ Salad Days.
This was a fantasy about a magic piano that makes people
dance.
It was originally devised at the Bristol Old Vic where
Slade was resident composer. Salad
Days reputedly fuelled the theatrical ambition of a
young man called
Cameron Mackintosh,
now international producer of such musicals as Miss Saigon
and Les Misérables.
Joan Littlewood and Theatre Workshop
Musicals began to reflect the new trends towards
realism in the theatre of the 1950s. In 1959 Joan
Littlewood, had a huge
hit with Lionel Bart’s low-life musical Fings Ain’t Wot They Used T’Be at the Theatre Workshop in Stratford
East. This was peopled with prostitutes, bent police and small-time
crooks and featured a promising actress called Barbara Windsor.
Like The Beggar’s Opera in the 18th century, West End audiences revelled in
the low-life ambience.
Lionel Bart’s biggest success came in 1960 with Oliver!
based on Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist. A major
feature of the show were Sean Kenny’s sets evoking Victorian
London. Bart had been a successful songwriter before creating
musicals, writing hits for Cliff Richard, Tommy Steele and Anthony
Newley. He then wrote Blitz, again with sets by Sean
Kenny - four huge mobile units representing London’s East
End streets and a massive platform which opened out to reveal
an underground station. Blitz heralded a new era in
spectacular design musicals, where, as one critic put it, the
audience came out whistling the sets.
1930s and 1940s
