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The original stage version, which opened in 1937 at London’s Victoria Palace Theatre, was specifically commissioned and written for Lupino “Nipper” Lane (he was 5ft 3in) to highlight his comic talents. It was the sequel to TWENTY TO ONE, a musical from the previous year, in w hich Lupino Lane first appeared as Bill Snibson. It was Lane’s own idea to throw Bill into the midst of the aristocracy, having exhausted the theme of the gambling cockney layabout “on his own pitch” in the previous show. Lane was so certain that the show would be a winner, he backed the venture himself. This was at considerable risk to himself as it involved all his savings. Jack Eggar was brought in to assist with the production, Douglas Furber to work on the book and lyrics and Noel Gay to write the music. The most difficult part to cast was that of Sally. In the end the part went to Teddie St Denis, who just happened to be married to Jack Eggar!! The Saville Theatre in the West End, was to be the opening venue, but this arrangement fell through while the show was on its pre London tour. George Graves threatened to leave the show and the rest of the cast were despondent, as they believed they were in a flop musical. The only theatre available to the show was the Victoria Palace which had been doing such bad business that its lease was up for sale. It was catch 22 for Lupino Lane. He either took the offer of this theatre and risked everything, or closed the show and lost his investment. He chose to take the lease.
The production opened on 16 December 1937 and received good notices, but did not attract sufficient audiences to be financially viable. Then Lane managed, in a last minute desperate bid, to get an excerpt of th e show broadcast on radio. Initially the BBC schedules were booked weeks in advance and by then the show was sure to have closed, but luckily for Lane, Jack Payne had to cancel a broadcast and an excerpt from the show was hurriedly prepared for radio. The audience reaction to the “Lambeth Walk” number during the broadcast brought immediate activity to the box office - to the extent that the show started to break box office records. “Lambeth Walk” also crossed the Atlantic and became the biggest international dance craze of the era. It became the finale to the 1938 Royal Command Performance and for the first couple of years of World War II, was almost a national anthem. King George VI and Queen Elizabeth saw the show 3 times.
ME AND MY GIRL also holds the honour of being the first musical ever to be televised. The 852nd performance was broadcast in its entirety. Attending the performance that night were the King and Queen. However, because their permission had not been sought beforehand, it was not possible to show their Majesties in the Royal Box. Meanwhile, Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret watched the first act on television.
The show ran for 1646 performances. When war was declared and all the theatres shut as a precaution, the show was the first one to reopen with afternoon performances. It returned to the London Coliseum in 1941 and again to the Victoria Palace in 1945. It’s last showing, with Lupino Lane still heading the cast was at the Winter Garden in 1949. Altogether Lupino lane played more than 5000 performances in the role of Bill Snibson.
The show was turned into a film in 1939 under the title LAMBETH WALK, but then fell into obscurity, performed by only by dedicated amateur groups after its release to amateurs in the 1950s. Eventually even they lost interest in the show, viewing it as old fashioned and passe. There the story might have ended. However, in 1982, prod ucer Richard Armitage (the son of the show’s composer, the pseudonymous Noel Gay) discovered a pre rehearsal script in the British Museum after a long search. This was very different to the much revised and altered version available at the time to amateurs. Armitage updated the script into a workable musical comedy for a modern audience. He also found that the original score was not enough to fill the needs of the modern musical comedy. His father’s vast song catalogue would have to be used to augment the score. Armitage then chose David Aukin as executive producer. As Aukin was the director of the Haymarket Theatre in Leicester it was agreed to stage the show there in a pre London try out. Mike Okrent was chosen as director, and Stephen Fry revised the book. Their task was to update the script to get rid of the period references and jokes that would mean nothing to a modern audience, update the humour, and strengthen the roles of the central characters.
There was one problem. Who could p lay the Lupino Lane role of Bill Snibson? The final choice, Robert Lindsay, was best known for his TV work and classical theatre roles, but proved superb at the slapstick comedy that the role demanded. The casting of Sally was not an obvious choice either. Emma Thompson was just building her career, and as she had appeared with the Cambridge Footlights, as had Stephen Fry, it was he who knew of her comic, singing and dancing talents.
The modern revival of ME AND MY GIRL opened on November 23rd 1984 in Leicester, where it broke box office records. It opened at the Adelphi Theatre in the West End on 12th February 1985, where it ran and ran, and ran, finally closing on 16th January 1993 after a mammoth run of 3,303 performances. In the 1985 Lawrence Olivier Awards it won Best Musical and Robert Lindsay won best actor in a musical.
Finally, the show got its Broadway premiere, where it opened at the Marquis Theatre on 10th August 1986, running until 31st December 1989 and clocking up 1420 performances. Robert Lindsay went with the show to New York and won a Tony Award for Best Actor. The show also won Best Actress and Best Choreography.
It has since been seen all over the world, most remarkably in Japan where it was performed by an all female cast. It toured Britain repeatedly, but finally in 1997, the new version was released to the amateur market. Societies fell over themselves to gain permission to present the show, and in the first few months of 1997 there were hundreds of productions across the country. Interest was so great, that a potential audience member didn’t have to travel far to see a production and the rights holders had to strictly ration which groups could present it and where and when. Naturally the bigger groups playing in larger venues, got the first bite of the ripe cherry, followed by the smaller groups a short while later. The show remains popular, and has since toured again professionally.
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