CDs: A Room in Bloomsbury
Sandy Wilson's affectionate recreation of the musicals of the cloche-wearing, charleston-dancing flapper era of the 1920s, The Boy Friend had its world premiere as a one-hour piece at the off-West End Players Theatre in London in April, 1953. Expanded to a full evening, it reopened at the Players in October, then transferred for a holiday run to the Embassy Theatre in suburban London.
With book, music, and lyrics by Wilson, The Boy Friend garnered raves in all of its incarnations, so it was inevitable that it would finally make it to the West End, where it opened on January 14, 1954, at Wyndham's Theatre. It proved a blockbuster, playing for five years 2,084 performances.
Naturally, Broadway came calling, in the persons of successful producers Cy Feuer and Ernest Martin Guys and Dolls, Can-Can, Where's Charley?. With Julie Andrews hired to play the central role of Polly that had been created in London by Anne Rogers, the Broadway version opened at the Royale Theatre in the fall of 1954 under a cloud of acrimony, with Wilson and English director Vida Hope barred from rehearsal, and with the direction more or less assumed by Feuer. What Feuer did was make the show more overtly a spoof; the London original had been a loving, mostly straightforward attempt at a new '20s musical, while the New York mounting became a tongue-in-cheek burlesque of the form.
Whatever Feuer did worked, at least for the New York critics, who praised the Broadway Boy Friend and Andrews in particular. Her success led directly to her engagement two years later in My Fair Lady. The Broadway Boy Friend lasted 485 performances. But the next step was an unusual one: With the London production still playing, The Boy Friend in 1958 got a New York revival off-Broadway, first at the Downtown Theatre then at the Cherry Lane Theatre. With accompaniment by piano, banjo, and drums, the off-Broadway Boy Friend was much more along the lines of the London production than the bigger, brassier Broadway mounting. The off-Broadway Boy Friend played for two years 763 performances.
The Boy Friend has had two major West End revivals, the first, for a year's run, at the Comedy Theatre in 1967, with Cheryl Kennedy as Polly. Kennedy would inherit Andrews' role of Eliza in My Fair Lady on the early-'80s national tour that marked Rex Harrison's return to the role of Higgins. Produced by Cameron Mackintosh, the second London revival played about five months, first at the Old Vic, then at the Albery.
In 1972, there was a bizarre film version of The Boy Friend directed by Ken Russell. Featuring Twiggy, Christopher Gable, Tommy Tune, and Glenda Jackson, the movie was about a down-at-heel provincial rep company putting on The Boy Friend, and a Hollywood producer who comes to check out the production.
Since the '54 original, The Boy Friend has had one Broadway revival, opening at the Ambassador Theatre on April 14, 1970 for a short run of 119 performances. It was built around the Polly of Judy Carne, at the time well-known from TV's "Laugh-In." Stealing the show from Carne by playing madcap Maisie was an adorable Sandy Duncan, with Harvey Evans dancing opposite Duncan. Repeating their roles of Madame Dubonnet and Percival Browne from the '58 off-Broadway production were Jeanne Beauvais and Leon Shaw. Also held over from the off-Broadway revival were director Gus Schirmer and choreography Buddy Schwab. Schwab had also played the role of Alphonse in the first Broadway production.
In 1965, Wilson wrote a sequel to The Boy Friend called Divorce Me, Darling! Bringing the same characters into the 1930s, the new show was a West End failure, but it possessed an even better score than The Boy Friend.
Recently, Julie Andrews made her debut as a director by staging a revival of The Boy Friend at Bay Street Theatre. Next month, Andrews' Boy Friend will be restaged at the Goodspeed Opera House, after which it's scheduled to tour the U.S. and Canada.
Wilson's score for The Boy Friend is filled with delights, from the irresistible title song to the snappy "Won't You Charleston with Me?," the romantic charmers "A Room in Bloomsbury" and "I Could Be Happy with You," and the rousing "Safety in Numbers." In fact, there's not a single weak number in the score.
There are six stage cast recordings of The Boy Friend. Decca Broadway has just issued the first CD of the 1970 Broadway revival. But let's first take a glance at the other five recordings.
Accompanied only by piano and drums, the 1954 London cast recording offers a charming, small-scale performance with an off-Broadway sound. Recently reissued on CD by Sepia, this first Boy Friend recording runs under a half-hour and lacks the songs "The You-Don't-Want-to-Play-With-Me Blues" and "Safety in Numbers." Polly Anne Rogers has been cut out of both the title song, heard as a chorus, and the duet "Poor Little Pierette," heard as a solo for Madame Dubonnet. Sweet soprano Rogers went on to replace Andrews in the London My Fair Lady, then to take leads in the London productions of She Loves Me, I Do! I Do! and the '70s revival of No, No, Nanette. She was to have played the grandmother in the current London hit Billy Elliot but departed prior to or during rehearsals.
By way of contrast, the 1954 Broadway recording on RCA boasts thirteen musicians and delightful orchestrations by Ted Royal and Charles L. Cooke. Its most obvious attraction is nineteen-year-old Andrews, who is the perfect Polly. Although it's played in the overture, the recording lacks the song "It's Nicer in Nice." Because the melody of the song "The Riviera" seemed too close to actual melodies of the '20s notably "The Varsity Drag" from Good News!, the melody was rewritten for the Broadway production. Not heard on the recording is the actress who played Lady Brockhurst, mother of the hero, in the Broadway production: It was Moyna MacGill, mother of Angela Lansbury.
The cast recording of the 1967 London revival is the first in stereo and the first to feature dialogue lead-ins to the songs, making it more theatrical than the previous discs. A frequent West End musical lead in this period, Cheryl Kennedy's Polly is excellent, as is her leading man, Tony Adams. Marion Grimaldi is the amusing Madame Dubonnet, and repeating his role of Lord Brockhurst "It's Never Too Late to Fall in Love" from the '54 Broadway production is Geoffrey Hibbert, father of Edward Hibbert. "The Riviera" is heard with the original London melody, rather than the Broadway rewrite.
The 1969 Australian revival cast recording offers a decent but unremarkable performance. Leading lady Kathy Read's pitch is sometimes questionable. And "The Riviera" features the original London tune.
The solid 1984, thirtieth-anniversary London revival cast recording is the most comprehensive, including the finale sequences of the second and third acts. Playing maid Hortense and scoring with "It's Nicer in Nice" is Rosemary Ashe, who would be rehired by producer Mackintosh for The Phantom of the Opera Ashe created the role of Carlotta, The Witches of Eastwick, and the current Mary Poppins. Jane Wellman, who doesn't seem to have gone on to much, is an attractive Polly, and Simon Green is excellent as Tony.
The '84 revival was stolen in the theatre by the very droll Anna Quayle Tony winner for Stop the World-I Want to Get Off as Madame Dubonnet. She's somewhat less effective on the recording. Supervised by Sandy Wilson, the '84 revival was directed by Christopher Hewett, with choreography by Goodspeed Opera House regular Dan Siretta. "The Riviera" is heard with the '54 Broadway melody.
Which brings us to Decca Broadway's new release, the 1970 Broadway revival recording. This set is entirely satisfactory; there's nothing terribly wrong with it, but there's also nothing especially distinctive about it. It's better than the Australian recording but inferior to the Broadway '54 and London '67 versions.
The '70 New York recording features the same orchestrations as the first Broadway version, along with the original Broadway melody of "The Riviera." Carne, who also played Sally Bowles in a stock package of Cabaret around the same time, has a very small singing voice. While Sandy Duncan sounds fine in "Won't You Charleston with Me?" and "Safety in Numbers," the recording can't convey how adorable she was, or how strong she was in the dance numbers. Ronald Young and Harvey Evans do nicely as Tony and Bobby, while Jeanne Beauvais is just right as Madame Dubonnet.