Robert Tanitch reviews The Boy Friend at Menier Chocolate Factory Theatre, London SE1
Sandy Wilson’s The Boy Friend, one of Britain’s most successful musicals, began its life in 1953 as a one-acter at The Players Theatre – the Victorian musical hall theatre underneath the arches at Charing Cross.
Enlarged to three acts, the musical transferred to The Embassy in Swiss Cottage, and then to Wyndham’s where it ran for 2,084 performances. It was produced on Broadway and made Julie Andrews a star. It was filmed in 1972 with Twiggy and directed by Ken Russell who turned it into a Busby Berkeley spoof, a travesty of the original.
Janie Dee in The Boy Friend
Wilson, who loathed both the Broadway production and the film, described his witty new-1920s musical as “a loving salute to those far off days of the cloche hat and the short skirt, a valentine from one post-war period to another.”
The story is faux naïve: a millionaire’s daughter at a finishing school on the French Riviera in 1926 falls in love with a penniless messenger boy, who is, of course, a lord in disguise and a millionaire.
The delightful tuneful songs, which include A Room in Bloomsbury, I Could Be Happy with You and Won’t You Charleston with Me?, directly imitate the style of Jerome Kern, Noel Coward and Rodgers and Hammerstein.
Vida Hope’s 1953 production was affectionate pastiche, which never descended to parody and burlesque. The postures, gestures and groupings were based on photographs in Play Pictorial, the major theatre magazine of the 1920’s.
“It is not a musical comedy of the twenties,” wrote Harold Hobson in The Sunday Times of the original production. “It is the musical comedy of the twenties, the epitome, the essence of them all.”
Matthew White’s very enjoyable production, attractively costumed by Paul Farnsworth in pastel shades, is dance-driven. The choreographer is Bill Deamer, who choreographed The Boy Friend when it was revived in Regent’s Park in 2008. It could be argued that there is too much dancing; practically every number has a built-in reprise. The lively high-kicking cast have a lot of fun. Jack Butterworth stands out among the boys. Tiffany Graves stands out among the girls.
There are two major re-thinks. Madame Dubonnet, the headmistress of the boarding school, is usually played by comediennes and Poor Little Pierrot is usually sung for comedy. Janie Dee sings it absolutely sincerely and she is charming.
The only mistake is the recasting of It’s Never Too Late To Fall in Love and making it into a showcase for the elderly roué’s wife rather than for the flapper.
I shall be very surprised if The Boy Friend doesn’t get a West End transfer.
It would be great to see Sandy Wilson’s Valmouth, his musical version of Ronald Firbank’s outré novel, which premiered at the Lyric, Hammersmith in 1958. It has only been revived once since then, in Chichester in 1982. It needs a small theatre.
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