Anyone know anything about Me and My Girl? Margo, anyone?- Page 2

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 4/25/07 at 2:09pm

Fenchurch: the BBC broadcast was radio (not TV) and was out on one of the Noel Gay collection Lp's (maybe CD as well.) It amounts to about a 14-minute medley ending with "The Lambeth Walk." Even better was a 2-sided 78 RPM medley featuring Lupino Lane and Teddi St. Dennis (original London cast members.)

Eric: I guess because at least CRAZY FOR YOU threaded the Gershwin songs into essentially a new story while ME AND MY GIRL was clearly a revival of a much older show. (The Tony rules have since changed so if a show originated somewhere else but arrived on Broadway more than 3 years after its premiere it can be classed as a revival.)

Somewhere in my files I have a listing of the original tunestack for MAMG and will try and dig tat up for you. Also a fascinating article from the NY Times outlining the research that went into finding all the music and material for the revival. This was a short musical (the score was about 1/2 the current length) and was altered for later tours and stock productions.

The film (called LAMBETH WALK) was a sad story. By the time they located someone with the only remaining print, they discovered it had been destroyed just a few months before they made contact. So, we'll probably never see it unless another copy surfaces or if a negative exists. (Being a 1941 film, it would be on nitrate and would probably have decomposed by now.)

[Unknown User]

Posted: 4/25/07 at 10:42pm

Mark--I'd love to read that article.

However a few sources have mentioned in the 30s part of it was indeed aired on UK television--as a sort of test of tv in fact.

[Minafer]

Posted: 5/2/07 at 1:02pm

Actually, a French print of "The Lambeth Walk" has turned up and is in the collection of the British Film Institue in London. The print is in the original English with French subtitles. The film only includes two songs from the show, unfortunately.

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 5/2/07 at 2:18pm

I am am glad to hear that a print of the film has surfaced, even with subtitles. It would be an interesting curio.

Eric: The original London production had just nine songs:
1. Opening Chorus: A weekend in Hareford
2. Thinking of No One but Me
3. A Dometic Dicussion (renamed "An English Gentlem" in revival)
4. The Family Solicitor
5. I Would if I Could
6. Me and MY Girl
7. The Lambeth Walk
8. Take it on the Chin
9. Song of Hareford

Three songs cut prir to opening: Laugh and the World Laughs with You; Raspberries; That's That)

For the 1941 revival they added You Don't Have to Worry over Me.

To enlarge the score for amateur productions, the authors added several other Noel Gay hits including "Hold My Hand" (originally a hit record for singer Al Bowlly.)

The 1985 production added: Once You lose Your Heart; The Sun Has Got his Hat On; Love Makes the World Go 'Round, and Leaning on a Lamp-Post, and If Only You Had Cared for Me. (Also I Would if I Could became YOU would if YOU could.)

For the 1986 Broadway production/American premiere, Hold My Hand was added and If Only You Had Cared for Me was dropped.

Updated On: 5/2/07 at 02:18 PM

[Unknown User]

Posted: 5/2/07 at 5:29pm

Thanks for that! We musta followed the Broadway script then as Hold My hand was in and the other song dropped.

iw as looking thru my old theatre stuff and found an article from the local Victoria paper when I first did the show in High school I had forgotten about--Gay';s grandaughter actually lives in Victoria (since half our older population seem to be British it's not too surprising) and came to one of out rehearsals with some stories of the man and the musical she remembered. I don't think there was much of too much interest but she was a really nice and friendly woman

E

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 5/2/07 at 9:59pm

I belive the changes done for Broadway were later incorporated into the London production, and that script is the only version now available.

Surprisingly, none of the local community groups have done this show recently. The ONLY time I ever saw it was when the tour with Tim Curry played the O'Keefe centre in the summer of 1987 and quite enjoyed it, although itys not really a show you pine to see again and again.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 5/3/07 at 2:17am

Yeah I knwo for all of us performing it came as a happy surrpise--a show no one really expected to enjoy being in as much (and the reviews and audience reactions seemed to be the same--tho the older British population in Victoria BC prob helped there)

[alterego]

Posted: 5/3/07 at 3:32am

The mid 80's Australian production ( a replica of the then current London revival) used If Only You Had Cared For Me. However, when it was produced again in the early 90's it had been jetisoned, and Hold My Hand had been added. This was of course after the American production. The success of the show depends a lot on just how much mileage your Bill Snibson can get out of his stage business.