A SAINT SHE AIN’T

Music by Denis King - Book and Lyrics by Dick Vosburgh 

Based on “Le Coco Imaginaire” by Moliere

Publisher: Josef Weinberger Ltd
Music Publisher: Eaton Music

Mayhem and madness, mistaken identities, crazy complications. A sophisticated and witty pastiche of the carefree, mindless, Hollywood morale-building feel-good musicals of the 1940s, featuring the icons of that glamorous era: Snavely T. Bogle, Faye Bogle, Ray Bagalucci, Anna Bagalucci, Danny O’Reilly, Trudy McCloy, Skip Watson & Willoughby Dittenfeffer (otherwise recognisable as W.C. Fields, Mae West, Jimmy Durante, Rita Hayworth, Gene Kelly, Ethel Merman, and Abbott & Costello).

PERFORMANCES

First performed at The King's Head Theatre, Islington, in association with Patricia MacNaughton, 20 April 1999; First performance Apollo Theatre, London 16 September 1999; Bright Halo Productions Ltd; American premiere at The Berkshire Theatre Festival, Stockbridge, Massachusetts, July 2002, co-produced by The Westport Country Playhouse, Westport, Connecticut.

CAST (6 M, 3 W)

Barry Cryer, Rae Baker, Pauline Daniels, Brian Greene, Gavin Lee, Jessica Martin, Vincent Marzello, Michael Roberts, Johnny Myers

MUSICAL NUMBERS:

Click on any track name in blue to listen to the track, use the controls on the right hand side to play, pause and stop the audio.

To purchase any of the tracks below, click here to visit the iTunes Store

• MR. MOLIERE
• START-THE-DAY TUNE
• THE NAVY’S IN TOWN
• MY ALL AMERICAN GAL
• A SAINT SHE AIN’T
• I LOVE TO HOLD ROSE WITH THE ROLLED HOSE
• I ONLY DIG THAT JIVE
• YOU’RE THE ONLY STAR IN MY HEAVEN
• MANITOWOC
• THERE OUGHTA BE A WAY...
• THE JOKE’S ON ME
• CAN’T HELP DANCING
• THE BANANA FOR MY PIE
• FINALETTO

OTHER MEDIA:

Original London Cast Recording, Angel Studios, London June 1999. Produced by Chris Walker & Denis King, David Hunt, engineer. Coordinated for First Night Records by John Craig www.firstnightrecords.com 

KINGS’ COMMENTS

Possibly the most fun I’ve ever had writing a musical. The joy of working with Dick Vosburgh was unparalleled. His loveable eccentricities and extraordinary powers of recall, not to mention his genius as a lyricist, provided the perfect platform for a show set in the 1940s and made the entire experience one big laugh, start to finish.

During the show’s West End run, one night, just as fellow pianist Chris Walker and I were about to take our places for the overture, the company manager came tearing backstage to say the curtain was being held and the auditorium cleared, due to a suspect package in the stalls. In other words, a bomb scare. The cast were scuttled out the stage door to wait in the alley.

Fifteen minutes later, the all-clear was sounded, and the show commenced after the suspect package turned out to be Dick’s battered old briefcase, which he’d set down in the stalls earlier after an understudy rehearsal and which, possibly for the only time in his life, he’d let out of his sight. Denis King