| Gay's the Word | |
|---|---|
&sq=&lang=&file=File:Gay%27s_the_Word_original_poster.jpg) Original West End poster | |
| Music | Ivor Novello |
| Lyrics | Alan Melville |
| Book | Ivor Novello |
| Productions | 1951 West End |
Gay's the Word is a musical with book and music by Ivor Novello and lyrics by Alan Melville. The musical is a backstage comedy that parodies Novello's own swashbuckling Ruritanian romance plots.[1] The story centres on Gay Daventry, a bankrupt operetta producer who opens a drama school at her country house. This also turns out to be unsuccessful, but it leads to a theatrical comeback for Gay.
The musical premiered at the Palace Theatre, Manchester, England on 17 October 1950. It transferred to the Saville Theatre in London, opening there on 16 February 1951, where it ran for 504 performances and starred Cicely Courtneidge as Gay, Lizbeth Webb as Linda, and Thorley Walters. While it embraced the new style of musical theatre from America, it also contained traditional British humour for Courtneidge and glamorous soprano solos for Webb. The British Theatre Guide concludes: "The musical was never that good and without [Courtneidge] it would most certainly have failed. But with her, thanks to her indefatigable vitality, the show was a hit."[2] This was Ivor Novello's last musical, and he died a month after it opened, aged 58.[2]
The musical was revived in 2012 at the Finborough Theatre, London, with a book revised by Richard Stirling, directed and choreographed by Stewart Nicholls.[2][3]
- ^ Simon Callow (3 August 2012). "Ivor Novello, master of the musical". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 August 2012.
- ^ a b c Tanitch, Robert. Gay's the Word, The British Theatre Guide, April 9, 2012
- ^ "Spring Season: Gay's the Word", Finborough Theatre, accessed November 9, 2011