A fascinating look at “the formative years of the British musical” by John Snelson, Reviewing The Situation: The British Musical from Noel Coward to Lionel Bart focuses on the period 1929-1960.
During that time, the British musical started with sentimental operetta and Ruritanian fantasies courtesy of Coward and his close contemporary Ivor Novello – wildly popular shows of the pre-war period.
Snelson takes the approach in Reviewing The Situation of highlighting one musical per chapter. So we begin with Bitter Sweet and end with Bart’s Oliver! noting on the way how composers captured the changing times as well as honouring past traditions.
Noel Gay’s Me And My Girl offered a comic, common touch in its crowd-pleasing melodies and rags to riches plot, while Sandy Wilson’s The Boy Friend gently sends up the flappers and fashions of the 1920s, while taking inspiration for its songs from writers of that period.
Expresso Bongo, by More-Henecker-Norman, is perhaps best known now for the film version with Cliff Richard, but in reading about the show it seems to have been a more cynical exploration of the youth culture in the late 50s.
AP Herbert and Vivian Ellis’s Bless The Bride, a 1947 piece of comic Victoriana with operatic roots, is almost forgotten by general theatregoers, but Snelson teases out the reasons it was important in its day.
With a detailed introduction and a style that demonstrates how all these diverse works fit together to present a historical canon that contemporary writers can be aware of, and musical theatre fans can explore.
As well as being an insightful book that gives these works their due, it has a lively and informal style with wide appeal. It certainly made me note a few titles mentioned in passing as well as seek out old favourites.
Reviewing The Situation is published by Bloomsbury’s Methuen Drama imprint and is available in stockists now.