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The Smallest Show On Earth | |
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Music | Thom Southerland and Paul Alexander |
Basis | The Smallest Show on Earth |
The Smallest Show on Earth is a 2015 musical based on the 1957 British film of the same name. The stage musical incorporates songs by Irving Berlin. It was the idea of director Thom Southerland, who wrote the script for the musical with Paul Alexander. The first production of the musical opened at The Mercury Theatre Colchester on 25 September 2015.
The original 1957 film is not a musical, so the principal difference between the film script by William Rose and John Eldridge, and the script for the musical is the addition of songs by Irving Berlin. The character of Matt Spenser, played in the movie by Bill Travers, is portrayed in the musical as a British screenwriter, and the character of Tom, played in the film by Bernard Miles, is a much younger character and becomes the son of Margaret Rutherford’s character in the film, Mrs Fazackalee. The character of Marlene in the film becomes the daughter of the rival cinema owner Albert Hardcastle, who also is given a wife in the musical. The plot of the musical follows the film in broad outline but with a number of changes, including a different ending to the story.
The songs by Irving Berlin that have been incorporated in the musical are:
The Smallest Show on Earth tells the story of young and upcoming British screenwriter Matt Spenser and his newly married wife Jean. Despite the surprise success of Matt's first film Crisis in Camberley, Matt and Jean are very short of money. They are pinning their hopes of financial stability on Matt's sequel Crisis in Cairo, and are nervously awaiting the script approval of the film's star Lance Duke.
But when a solicitor’s letter arrives informing Matt he has inherited from his Uncle Simon the ownership of a cinema in Sloughborough, the couple, unaware of the true nature of their good fortune, immediately set off to see their new "gold-mine".
Even before the local solicitor Robin Carter can introduce Matt and Jean to the Bijou and its staff, they are confronted by Albert and Ethel Hardcastle, the owners of the rival cinema in Sloughborough – The Grand. Robin hopes the Hardcastles will make Matt and Jean a good offer to purchase the Bijou, but instead they make a derisory one. Albert's daughter Marlene is suspicious of her stepmother Ethel's intentions.
Matt is convinced fate is on their side – "I'm a screenwriter who has inherited a cinema" – and persuades Jean they must revitalise the Bijou. Only then will the Hardcastles make them a proper offer. Once inside the Bijou, Matt and Jean discover the enormity of their task. Not only is the place extremely run-down, with very low audience numbers, Mr Quill, the projectionist and Mrs Fazackalee, the cashier, are at loggerheads. Mrs Fazackalee blames the hard-drinking Quill for the death of her beloved Simon. Her son Tom Fazackalee is too shy to stop their squabbling. Nonetheless, Matt and Jean convince the trio that with a good make-over the future can be bright, and with Robin's help they set about the refurbishment. The Hardcastles are surprised to receive an invitation to the Grand Re-Opening of the Bijou, and decide they must sabotage it. To her horror, Marlene discovers that her step-mother's plan is to acquire the Bijou cheaply and then demolish it, to make way for a new car park for the patrons of The Grand. Marlene storms out.
The disaster is made worse when Matt is called away to the set of Crisis in Cairo at Shepperton Studios – Lance Duke will not approve Matt's script. Jean begs him to stay, but Matt now believes their only chance of financial survival is to save his film. Jean is heartbroken, but her sorrow turns to anger when Marlene reveals that the reason no-one attended the Grand Re-Opening was because Ethel Hardcastle bribed the local newspaper, The Sloughborough Echo, to print a Cancellation. Jean and Mrs Fazackalee rally their troops and decide they will bring back the tradition of live musical entertainment during their films' intermissions. To their surprise they are joined by Marlene, whose blossoming relationship with Tom has led her to sever her links with her father and step-mother, and also Robin Carter who admits to a fascination with a career in show-biz. Mr Quill announces, in the best interests of The Bijou's future, he will never drink again.
However, the course to success for the Bijou is not plain sailing, as the Hardcastles try one trick after another to bring down the new palace of entertainment.
The initial production was a co-production between the Mercury Theatre, Colchester and producers Brian Eastman and Christabel Albery. It was directed by Thom Southerland. It was due to open on 25 September 2015 at the Mercury Theatre, Colchester, and then play at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, the Swan Theatre, High Wycombe, the Theatre Royal, Glasgow, the Theatre Royal, Plymouth, the Lyceum Theatre, Crewe, the Grand Theatre, Swansea and the Festival Theatre, Malvern.
Ethel Merman was an American actress and singer. Known for her distinctive, powerful voice, as well as her leading roles in musical theater, she has been called "the undisputed First Lady of the musical comedy stage." She performed on Broadway in Anything Goes, Annie Get Your Gun, Gypsy, and Hello, Dolly!
Annie Get Your Gun is a musical with lyrics and music by Irving Berlin and a book by Dorothy Fields and her brother Herbert Fields. The story is a fictionalized version of the life of Annie Oakley (1860–1926), a sharpshooter who starred in Buffalo Bill's Wild West, and her romance with sharpshooter Frank E. Butler (1847–1926).
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This Is the Army is a 1943 American wartime musical comedy film produced by Jack L. Warner and Hal B. Wallis and directed by Michael Curtiz, adapted from a wartime stage musical with the same name, designed to boost morale in the U.S. during World War II, directed by Ezra Stone. The screenplay by Casey Robinson and Claude Binyon was based on the 1942 Broadway musical written by James McColl and Irving Berlin, with music and lyrics by Berlin. Berlin composed the film's 19 song and singing one of them.
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Mack & Mabel is a musical with a book by Michael Stewart and music and lyrics by Jerry Herman. The plot involves the tumultuous romantic relationship between Hollywood director Mack Sennett and Mabel Normand, who became one of his biggest stars. In a series of flashbacks, Sennett relates the glory days of Keystone Studios from 1911, when he discovered Normand and cast her in dozens of his early "two-reelers", through his creation of Sennett's Bathing Beauties and the Keystone Cops to Mabel's death from tuberculosis in 1930.
The Smallest Show on Earth is a 1957 British comedy film, directed by Basil Dearden, and starring Bill Travers, Virginia McKenna, Peter Sellers and Margaret Rutherford. The supporting cast includes Bernard Miles, Leslie Phillips, Francis de Wolff, George Cross, June Cunningham and Sid James. The screenplay was written by William Rose and John Eldridge from an original story by William Rose.
"There's No Business Like Show Business" is an Irving Berlin song, written for the 1946 musical Annie Get Your Gun and orchestrated by Ted Royal. The song, a slightly tongue-in-cheek salute to the glamour and excitement of a life in show business, is sung in the musical by members of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show in an attempt to persuade Annie Oakley to join the production. It is reprised three times in the musical.
Irving Berlin's There's No Business Like Show Business is a 1954 American musical comedy-drama film directed by Walter Lang. It stars an ensemble cast, consisting of Ethel Merman, Donald O'Connor, Marilyn Monroe, Dan Dailey, Johnnie Ray, and Mitzi Gaynor.
Outrageous! is a 1977 Canadian comedy-drama film written and directed by Richard Benner. The film stars Craig Russell as female impersonator Robin Turner, and Hollis McLaren as Turner's schizophrenic roommate Liza Conners. The plot begins in Toronto, with later scenes in New York City.
Friedrich Hollaender was a German film composer and author.
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As Thousands Cheer is a revue with a book by Moss Hart and music and lyrics by Irving Berlin, first performed in 1933. The revue contained satirical sketches and witty or poignant musical numbers, several of which became standards, including "Heat Wave", "Easter Parade" and "Harlem on my Mind". The sketches were loosely based on the news and the lives and affairs of the rich and famous, as well as other prominent personalities of the day, such as Joan Crawford, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., Noël Coward, Josephine Baker, and Aimee Semple McPherson.
Alexander's Ragtime Band is a 1938 musical film released by 20th Century Fox that takes its name from the 1911 Irving Berlin song "Alexander's Ragtime Band" to tell a story of a society boy who scandalizes his family by pursuing a career in ragtime instead of "serious" music. The film generally traces the history of jazz music from the popularization of Ragtime in the early years of the 20th century to the acceptance of swing as an art form in the late 1930s using music composed by Berlin. The story spans more than two decades from the 1911 release of its name-sake song to some point in time after the 1933 release of "Heat Wave", presumably 1938.
Anything Goes is a 1936 American musical film directed by Lewis Milestone and starring Bing Crosby, Ethel Merman, Charles Ruggles and Ida Lupino. Based on the 1934 stage musical Anything Goes by Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse, the stage version contains songs by Cole Porter.
"Supper Time" is a popular song written by Irving Berlin for the 1933 musical As Thousands Cheer, where it was introduced by Ethel Waters. The song is about racial violence inspired by a newspaper headline about a lynching.
The Cocoanuts is a musical with music and lyrics by Irving Berlin and a book by George S. Kaufman, with additional text by Morrie Ryskind.
Call Me Madam is a 1953 American Technicolor musical film directed by Walter Lang, with songs by Irving Berlin, based on the 1950 stage musical of the same name.
"I Love a Piano" is a popular song with words and music by Irving Berlin. It was copyrighted on December 9, 1920 and introduced in the Broadway musical revue Stop! Look! Listen! when it was performed by Harry Fox and the ensemble. The song was given a tremendous boost in the show as the set for it consisted of an enormous keyboard running completely across the stage. In front of this were six pianos with six pianists playing the tune. Irving Berlin always regarded the song as one of his best efforts.
The Girl in Pink Tights is a musical comedy with music by Sigmund Romberg; lyrics by Leo Robin; and a musical book by Jerome Chodorov and Joseph Fields. The musical opened on Broadway on March 5, 1954 at the Mark Hellinger Theatre where it ran for a total of 115 performances until it closed on June 12, 1954.