[Lanark]

I saw this at the St Martin's when it was first staged, indeed staged for the only time - one is very old - but, a couple of pieces of sheet music apart, that was it until the other day when I got the CD of the original cast - and what a bright little show it turned out to be. I had quite forgotten. Admittedly it is slight, but so was everything that Julian Slade composed - Trelawny is possibly an exception - but it is tuneful, and is a glorious time capsule of the way we were. Or the way some of us were. The Park, having given new life to The Boyfriend, might well look at this one - that fifties world could be about to become as fashionable as the 1920s did round about the time of Sandy Wilson's show - and this one came out at about the same time to its disadvantage. It also reminds one of really nice ladies who sang - like Daphne Anderson.

[Tintin]

Some of those orginal cast albums of British shows of the 50s are great fun to listen to. Particular favourites of mine are Free As Air, Wedding In Paris, Grab Me A Gondola, Expresso Bongo (not the film version though) and the revue Living For Pleasure, all of which have some glorious tunes. I have never heard of Twenty Minutes South and must look out for it. I also remember Daphne Anderson, who played Lucy in the film of The Beggars Opera and was also in a rather bizarre film called Laughing Anne. I always thought she was underrated.

[Lanark]

Some of those orginal cast albums of British shows of the 50s are great fun to listen to. Particular favourites of mine are Free As Air, Wedding In Paris, Grab Me A Gondola, Expresso Bongo (not the film version though) and the revue Living For Pleasure, all of which have some glorious tunes. I have never heard of Twenty Minutes South and must look out for it. I also remember Daphne Anderson, who played Lucy in the film of The Beggars Opera and was also in a rather bizarre film called Laughing Anne. I always thought she was underrated.

Peter Greenwell also composed House of Cards which was rather good and one about Soho, The Crooked Mile which, i think, had Elizabeth Welch in it and had some nice songs - I got the Twnty Minutes CD from Must Close Saturday Records - they're on the web. I last saw Daphne Anderson ages ago - she understudied Jean Simmons in Little Night Music at the Adelphi and the night I went Ms Simmons was indisposed. She was very good, one of those musical performers of the time who seemed to work a lot but never became a huge name. if you like Free As Air then Trelawny is probably Julian Slade's best score, and again a show that - it all depends on the estae that owns the rights I imagine - somewhere like ENO could revive for a summer run if it had the nous and the financial resources. It half flopped in the West End I have always believed because it transferred to the Prince of Wales which was the least sympathetic theatre that could have been selected for a play about the Wells. The difference between the show I saw in Islington and the one there was chalk to cheese.