Great West End Musicals

Sandy Wilson's 1953 "The Boy Friend," starring Anne Rogers. When it opened on Broadway the following year, it starred Julie Andrews in her American stage debut. Ken Russell's 1971 film version starred Twiggy. Talented ladies, all.

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So basically OLIVER! and THE BOYFRIEND.

STOP THE WORLD I WANT TO GET OFF and THE ROAR OF THE GREASEPAINT, THE SMELL OF THE CROWD both fall in the good-not-great category.

And, of course, pretty much anything by Gilbert & Sullivan, but their shows were called "operas" in their day.

Noel Coward and Ivor Novello wrote some lovely individual songs, but I haven't encountered a show by either that I would call "good", much less "great".

Oliver! has a horrible book. It is far from great.

If you like The Boyfriend, try Valmouth by the same writer- just as tuneful but with a wonderfully saucy and subversive book.

devonian.t said: "Oliver! has a horrible book. It is far from great.

If you like The Boyfriend, try Valmouth by the same writer- just as tuneful but with a wonderfully saucy and subversive book."

I've only seen OLIVER! once on stage, in London in 1979 (IIRC) with a couple of the stars from the film. I agree the book is problematic. As somebody pointed out in another thread recently, it doesn't always juggle the two moods (cute/light and dark) of the show successfully.

But we are talking musical books here. There are only a handful of great ones and mere dozens of good ones. I don't agree that the book to OLIVER! is "horrible". Especially not compared to almost every other attempt to musicalize Dickens.

I could say as much about THE BOY FRIEND, but it does have a nice sense of style along with catchy tunes. I'll check out VALMONT if it comes around...

In general and despite some strides in the past few decades, I don't think the "British musical" is one of the island's great contributions to world culture. For most of the 20th century, they had the gays, but lacked the Jews and African Americans.

Updated On: 2/10/19 at 09:00 AM

I have to put in a vote for Valmouth, as well. Brilliant campy fun, and unexpectedly moving...there is nothing like it. Both recordings are good, though I would opt for the Chichester revival. It has several of the original leading ladies, but caught 25 years later, when they have aged into their roles beautifully. And as much as I love Cleo Laine on the first recording, Bertice Reading is amazing on the newer one. There was also a BBC radio version floating around, which has a generous helping of the wicked dialogue.

My other serious contender for great West End musical is Robert and Elizabeth. Great story, and beautiful lush music, which is served beautifully by the original cast recording (in this case, avoid the Chichester revival recording...there are some fine things on it, but it doesn't outdo the original).

Agree with most of the suggestions so far, although i will never understand why The Boy Friend achieved such success, although I do admit to enjoying Ken Russell's movie in the early 70's, especially Glenda Jackson's hilarious almost-cameo as the injured star.

I would also add Half a Sixpence. Fifty-two years later, it remains one of the most joyous shows I have ever seen, in some part due to Tommy Steele's incredibly charismatic performance as Arthur Kipps. I have never understood why they eliminated the best number from the original production, The Party's on the House, when the revived it a few years back.

MichelleCraig said: "I really enjoyed Andrew Lloyd Webber's THE BEAUTIFUL GAME when I saw it in London. It had some great melodies (some of which ended up in other ALW shows or programs). I think the show was too UK-centric to catch on over here.

I also enjoyed SPEND SPEND SPEND (1999) with Barbara Dickson. It was a lot of fun, but the subject matter was too British; true story of Viv Nicholson...who won the pools. Nobody here knows about the pools...sort of a British lottery.

In 1994, a big, bombastic telling of the NAPOLEON story opened in Toronto and I thought the cast album was fantastic. In 2000, it opened in the West End but, to me, there was just no spark. Listening to the Toronto cast recording was a better experience than watching theLondon production of the show. Some truly gorgeous ballads..."

The Beautiful Game was about ‘the troubles’ in Northern Ireland and given Bill Clinton’s involvement in the peace process and the Irish diaspora I thought people would know about the war in Ireland.

Impossible2 said: "Gizmo6 said: "Also SIX: The Musical of the Six wives is one of the best nights at the theatre I have had in years and I go to a lot of theatre across the world.

It was a rollercoaster of emotions and while sometimes corny the feminist revision of ?herstory’ Was so uplifting. I loved it and the crowd ate it up!!!"

Agreed, it's just amazing and so wonderfully British!

Already booked to go back twice in the next 2 months."

Brilliant. Planning on booking soon again too. I see some of the cast are leaving for Oops I did it again writer musical &Juliet.

So that’ll be interesting. I just hope Anne of Cleaves will be still there she was amazing.