Gosh you've walked with the gods, haven't you Stanley?

I have Cleo Laine on the only recording of Sandy Wilson's Valmouth with the Chichester Festival as Mrs Yajnavolka, the black masseuse, opening Act 1 with "I've got magic fingers" and closing it with "My big, best shoes (go knicker-knacker knock)".  Also Fenella Fielding singing of the days "When all the girls were pretty and all the men were strong."  And the Cardinal's tango about "The Cathedral of Clemenza" (the ritziest of them all.)

Now that's camp.

   Cleo Laine used to do her one woman show, "Spring Collection" at the QEH and her opening with 'It Might As Well Be Spring" was heartmelting and 'Bill' a very special encore.  The sheer range of her voice and musicality.  Also most appealing in "Colette" (1980) at the Comedy Theatre, although it wasn't a success.     Around 1976, she moved her concerts to RFH, then The Palladium; and annual performances at Carnegie Hall.       Showbiz and the dollar took precedence over her early work but those early concerts are in my memory lock'd.    Personally, always warm and endearing and entirely unstuffy.

Gosh, someone else who has actually heard of Wilson's Valmouth!

Beatrice Reading certainly did sing it: possibly in the premiere.

There's a shop in Seven Dials called Dress Circle, specialising in music from musicals, and I bought Valmouth there years ago.  Also a sequel to The Boyfriend called Divorce Me Darling.  Great fun.

And The Boyfriend is probably my all time favourite musical in any case.

 I haven't had time to browse through my vinyl collection for "Valmouth" but. in the 1950s, it was not unusual to have a cast recording at, say, Chichester; followed by a West End cast recording which would also include cast changes.    'Valmouth' transferred from Chichester to the Saville Theatre (now a triple cinema off Cambridge Circus - is it still there?)

The same thing happened to 'The Boy Friend' when it transferred to Broadway.   As I'm in name dropping mode - well, it is a holiday weekend - the great Dame Julie ALWAYS asked which recording of the show you have.  She favours the 1955 recording on RCA Victor in New York  and it also includes her enchanting Poor Little Pierrette omitted from the West End cast recording.   If we ever meet at an MB rendezvous do remind me about this as the Dame revels in bawdy humour - and how!

I've also been waylaid by a 1951 cast recording of "Girl Crazy" with Mary Martin.  The programme note with the CD infers that the practice of releasing a cast album didn't exist in the 30s or early 40s so Goddard Lieberson, head of A & R at Columbia Records got together with conductor Lehman Engel to produce a series of 'studio cast' albums which would revisit some glorious scores from the past and present them in new recordings, headed by well-known Broadway stars.    These recordings have now been remastered using 20 bit technology to maximize sound quality.    Such a sparkling score in a much revised book.   It was originally written for Bert Lahr (cowardly lion in 'The Wizard of Oz).

I'm expecting a visitor quite soon with technical proficiency and a degree of patience;  I will be pleased to learn how to download some attractive CD covers.

I have just realised another good reason for regarding 1955 as a good cut-of date.

The Sound of Music had its Broadway premiere in 1958.

It throws up (and some of you may wish to throw up at the mere mention) all sorts of issues about musical taste.  The movie was far more successful than the stage version, but it was the most successful movie of the 60s, the decade which was supposed to be so radical, right, and sexually liberated, les evenements, flower power and far out, and, well, you know, man...

But what most people wanted to see at the flicks was choruses of nuns and that nice Julie Andrews and wholesome kids singing clean songs.

The Sound of Music was the film my mother saw when she went for the first time to the cinema as a child. It was a great succes in the Netherlands. I believe it was a flop in Germany. The Germans preferred the German films about the Trapp family. They were directed by the controversial director Wolfgang Liebeneiner.

The Sound of Music is a musical without an overture. Mr Percy Faith explains it all:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZPVDZcTocQ

 

 I'm now looking at the Theatre World Annual  1958-59 re 'Valmouth'.     Like John Worthing,  "These volumes should have been my constant study".   Vida Hope (beloved director of 'The Boy Friend.) produced and took the show into The Saville Theatre after a 2 month run at Hammersmith.    Please, guys, can we honour her memory and use the name of BERTICE Reading.    Her pinnacle was recreating the role played on Broadway/ film by the great Ethel Waters (Cabin in the Sky) in Carson McCullers 'Member of the Wedding' at the Royal Court Theatre.    This same theatre also gave Cleo Laine the opportunity to take-over the role of Mrs Yajnavalkya from Bertice Reading!    I still have a Chichester connection with Cleo - perhaps a subsequent revival?   Back in due course as it is lovely and sunny out there.