Maggie May: a musical. [Typescript "First draft copy of book only"]

Lionel Bart & Alun Owen

Published by [London]: Lionel Bart Ltd

About this Item

Copy typescript, undated but c1964, "Typed & printed by: SUPATYPE", 157pp. clipped into covers. Edges a little spotted, some rusting of clips. Inscribed by the authors on the title-page, "All my love Alun Owen" and "Best wishes & love. Lionel Bart"; pencilled notes, alterations and deletions on some 70pp. The book reproduces everything but the songs, for which it leaves blank spaces. "The language the majority of the people speak is the dialect of Liverpool. The accent, according to one definition, is part Irish, part Welsh, and part catarrh." Maggie May, the book by Alun Owen, music by Lionel Bart, takes as its inspiration the old ballad of "Maggie May", about a Liverpool prostitute. It opened in Manchester, at the Palace Theatre, on 17 August 1964, transferring to the Adelphi Theatre in London on 22 September, and, despite a rather haughty review in The Times next day, ran for 501 performances. "The story is not strikingly original," reported The Times's anonymous correspondent. "If [it] sounds almost uncomfortably old fashioned and sentimental, last night's audience received it with an enthusiasm even more deafening than Mr. Ray Jones's most vigorous orchestrations, and, in point of fact, there is a good deal to be rapturous about. Mr. Sean Kenny's sets - streets, warehouses, docks, a ferryboat and New Brighton fairground - are a show in themselves; there are places in Liverpool which he does not put on the stage, but he covers a wide area with constructions that are toughly, accurately, and overpoweringly atmospheric . . . Mr. Owen's dialogue, as we expect, is made of the tough derision that is Liverpool's natural speech, a disguise for its innate sentimentality. Miss Rachel Roberts [as Maggie May] and Mr. Kenneth Haigh [her sweetheart] find opportunities for subtleties of acting rarely suggested by their lines or the simple characterizations they are given, and while Mr. Haigh sings acceptably, Miss Roberts proves that she can belt out a number with the best of them . . . Mr. Bart's ultimate destination is, of course, a sort of folk opera with its music created from the eclectic anthology of styles in which he works. In the amount of music he has composed for Maggie May he is probably nearer to his aim than in any earlier show.".

Seller Inventory # 22M100018

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Maggie May: a musical. [Typescript "First draft copy of book only"]
• Publisher: [London]: Lionel Bart Ltd
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: Very Good
• Signed: Inscribed by Author(s)