Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham :
transferred to Greenwich Theatre, December 1987:
director John Doyle
The run of The American Clock having ended, I struck lucky again in not having to wait for another job. I was to return to Cheltenham to take a couple of acting roles in a musical for John Doyle, and then go on to be in and write music for a Shakespeare play for Phyllida Lloyd.
The musical was Bells Are Ringing, a 1956 Broadway star vehicle for the actress Judy Holliday, who had also repeated the role on film in 1960. Her part was taken by the Scottish actress Lesley Mackie, who had won great praise when she played Judy Garland on stage in the West End in the biographical show Judy in 1986. The hope was, I guess, that Lesley’s stock would be high enough to take Bells Are Ringing to London. The production got as far as Greenwich later in the year, but the West End transfer never materialised. It certainly wasn’t Lesley’s fault; she sang and danced and acted up a storm. Looking back, it may have been that the show simply needed more money spent on it. The piece was charming but paper-thin, and inevitably dated — faults from which our small-scale production, lacking a huge cast, massive sets and large orchestra — couldn’t distract audiences. So, after the Christmas run at Greenwich, the party (to slightly misquote the show’s most famous song) was over.
Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham :
transferred to Greenwich Theatre, December 1987:
director John Doyle.
