A MODEL GIRL - ABOUT THE SHOW
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| Front of the flyer for the Greenwich show |
A Model Girl is a musical written by Richard Alexander and myself, which was produced at the Greenwich Theatre in Jan-Feb 2007, and presented by the theatre itself in association with Incidental Colman, Hilary Williams, Tulchin/Bartner Productions and the Ambassador Theatre Group. It was directed by Ruth Carney.
The plot centred on the infamous affair between a government minister, John Profumo, and a beautiful good-time girl, Christine Keeler, which ultimately resulted in Tory Prime Minister Harold Macmillan’s resignation in 1963.
There was sadly no upside to the end, as most major participants on the scandal either died or ended up with their careers on the compost heap.
However, in an attempt to somewhat leaven the bleakness, Richard and I had Christine singing a song of hope at the end of the show (‘When The Morning Comes’). This hope was sadly not realised in real life, as Christine was treated very shabbily not only by the media, but by several subsequent employers, and, indeed, by the world in general from then onwards.
The role of Christine was performed in ‘A Model Girl’ by the captivating Emma Williams, who was originally going to share the role of Maria in ‘Sound Of Music’ in 2006, but withdrew when the Connie Fisher phenomenon exploded into the now customary TV audition public hysteria. Richard and I were very lucky that this ‘disappointment’ left Emma available to be our lead.
The cast were all delightful (and put up with my turning up almost every night and plonking myself somewhere near the front with a stupid grin on my face). As well as Emma, these heroes included Lorraine Bruce, James Clyde, Dale Rapley, Graham Bryan, Jenii Hicks, Victoria Kruger, Stuart Nurse, Mark Oxtoby, Lee Reynolds, David Ricardo-Pearce and Laura Selwood.
Some music supervision and direction credits: thanks a million to Cameron Mackintosh’s worldwide music supervisor, Stephen Brooker, who, as a personal favour, worked enthusiastic and creative wonders as ‘A Model Girl’’s music supervisor, and to the one and only Steve Hill, who was our permanently upbeat musical director and orchestrator, and played keyboards at all the performances.
And, last but never least, thanks to the rest of our band, who played with no little skill and much love: Jim, Dan, Hannah, John and Ally.
