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THE BUCCANEER |
Book, Music and Lyrics by Sandy Wilson
Monday, 16 June; Sunday, 22 June, Monday, 23 June; and Performances at 7.30pm Performance Length: Approximately 2 hours. Full booking
information here Our Celebrating British Music Theatre series continues
with a semi-staged score-in-hand production of the first production
in more than fifty years of The Buccaneer, the second musical by Sandy
Wilson, composer of The Boy Friend. Set around the publishing house of a children’s
comic newspaper, ‘The Buccaneer’, the show is a light
hearted look at the struggle of a failing English schoolboy comic
as it comes under pressure from an American buyer. As lines are drawn,
it comes down to the courage of an adventurous schoolboy to save the
day. Originally presented at the Watergate, a tiny theatre
off the Strand in 1953, The Buccaneer was staged at the Lyric, Hammersmith
in 1955, following the massive success of The Boy Friend, with a cast
including Kenneth Williams and Thelma Ruby. Running to full houses,
the production toured before finally transferring to the Apollo Theatre
in the West End. The show was inspired by a real-life event –
the invasion from America of so-called “Horror Comics”
which in the 1950’s threatened to corrupt innocent British children,
as well as threatening the survival of traditional boys’ magazines
such as The Buccaneer. Composer and Librettist Sandy Wilson (born 1924)
remains best known for his classic first musical, The Boy Friend,
which has been seen internationally, frequently revived, as well as
being filmed by Ken Russell. Award-winning Ocean Theatre Company’s Artistic
Director Andrew Miller directs. His past theatre productions in the
UK, the USA and in Australia have included a multi-award winning Singin’
in the Rain. Oliver!, Les Misérables, Jekyll and Hyde, Cosi,
Assassins – and Ocean Theatre’s hugely successful production
of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance on board The
Golden Hinde berthed at London Bridge. Previous Celebrating British Music Theatre productions
have included Florodora starring Olivier Award nominee Rosemary Ashe,
Lionel Monckton’s Our Miss Gibbs (both in their first professional
London revival in nearly a century), The Maid of the Mountains starring
Anita Louise Combe, A “Gilbert and Sullivan" Double Bill,
a unique double bill featuring a play and an operetta, both receiving
their first professional UK production in over a century – and
written by Gilbert without Sullivan, and Sullivan without Gilbert,
and starring Myra Sands and Donald Maxwell; and Dame Ethel Smyth’s
The Boatswain’s Mate starring Sian Jones. All the productions
have completely sold out and won much critical acclaim. The Buccaneer
will be followed in July by a revival of the record-breaking 1916
operetta, Chu Chin Chow. The Press on Florodora and Our Miss Gibbs The Press on Ocean Theatre Company’s The Pirates
of Penzance |
