Shows like this, which feature the back catalogue of popular song writers either within a story or, as here, in a cabaret presentation, often surprise you with quite how many of their hits you know.For anyone under thirty the only song you'll probably recognise is the Oompa Loompa song from the movie, WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY if you saw it as a kid and perhaps the evening's title song, PURE IMAGINATION, which has been a staple of TV adverts for decades. It's also the only magical thing about the latest joyless, theme park attraction-like, stage version of the story currently playing at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane.
My generation sit somewhere in the middle. Mr. Bricusse was very helpful and kind to me when I directed the British premiere of VICTOR / VICTORIA a few years ago, for which he wrote the lyrics. His jollier songs have regularly cropped up in numerous pantomimes I've directed and amateur companies I was in as a kid revived a couple of Bricusse shows. Without the advantages of this insider knowledge, however, I suspect, if you're my age, you'll only recognise a handful of the hits; but what hits they were, defining an era of British easy listening.
They include the theme to the Bond film GOLD FINGER, the Cockney sing-a-long favourite MY OLD MAN'S A DUSTMAN and the genius that is FEELING GOOD. If Bricusse had only co-written these three songs it would justify his inclusion in the American Songwriter's Hall of Fame.
It's a very enjoyable evening of warm, cheery and catchy songs from a century ago that had me grinning from start to finish
Over the course of two hours a first class cast of five: musical theatre's national treasure, Dave Willets, the expressive Siobhan McCarhy, Les Mis poster boy, Niall Sheehy, popular leading lady Julie Atherton (who seems to get more beautiful every year) and the charasmatic, Giles Terera (who out Sammys Sammy Davies Junior) will introduce you to dozens more Bricusse related songs from forgotten films, musicals and recording artists; although it's a tribute to the staying power of Bricusse that a notable amount of the material has been and continues to be covered by contemporary artists.
It's a very enjoyable evening of warm, cheery and catchy songs from a century ago that had me grinning from start to finish.
Don't expect the heart stopping imagery of Oscar Hammerstein's lyrics, the wit and sophistication of Cole Porter and Sondhiem or the pain of Lorenz Hart, that's not what these songs are about.
It's a cosy back catalogue in which Paris is spring, London is summer and twinkling stars flutter like humming birds but for our parents and grandparents they made the world a cheerier place.
Embrace the cheesiness and let them work their magic on you.
"Bleak" and "devastating" are two words you wouldn't expect to use describing a great evening's theatre yet the opening production of the English National Opera's (ENO) new season is all three of those things.