''Expresso Bongo'' is a 1958 West End musical and a satire of the music industry. It was first produced on the stage at the Saville Theatre, London, on 23 April 1958. Its book was written by Wolf Mankowitz and Julian More, with music by

David Heneker David William Heneker (31 March 1906 – 30 January 2001) was a writer and composer of British popular music and musicals, best known for creating the music and lyrics for '' Half a Sixpence''. Life and career Heneker was born in Southsea, Eng ...

and

Monty Norman Monty Norman ( Noserovitch; 4 April 1928 – 11 July 2022) was a British film score composer and singer. A contributor to West End theatre, West End musicals in the 1950s and 1960s, he is best known for composing the "James Bond Theme", first ...

, also the co-lyricist with Julian More. The production starred

Paul Scofield David Paul Scofield (21 January 1922 – 19 March 2008) was an English actor. During a six-decade career, Scofield achieved the Triple Crown of Acting, winning an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Tony Award for his work. Scofield ...

with Hy Hazell, Millicent Martin and James Kenney. Musical director was Burt Rhodes and director William Chappell.

Film version

The subsequent ''Expresso Bongo'' 1959 film version was directed by

Val Guest Val Guest (born Valmond Maurice Grossman; 11 December 1911 – 10 May 2006) was an English film director and screenwriter. Beginning as a writer (and later director) of comedy films, he is best known for his work for Hammer Film Productions, ...

and starred

Laurence Harvey Laurence Harvey (born Zvi Mosheh Skikne; 1 October 192825 November 1973) was a Lithuanian-born British actor and film director. He was born to Lithuanian Jewish parents and emigrated to Union of South Africa, South Africa at an early age, before ...

and

Cliff Richard Sir Cliff Richard (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is a British singer and actor. He has total sales of over 21.5 million singles in the United Kingdom and, as of 2012, was the third-top-selling artist in UK Singles Chart histo ...

, the latter's second musical film, after '' Serious Charge''.

Plot

Paul Scofield played Johnny, a slimy, small-time music promoter and talent scout who notices teenage girls going crazy for the singing and bongo playing of talentless and seemingly idiotic Herbert Rudge (played by James Kenney). Johnny rechristens Rudge as "Bongo Herbert" and signs him to a contract that gives Johnny a 50% share of the profits. With Johnny's help, Bongo rockets to stardom. Bongo's success attracts a host of sleazy music industry types intent on exploiting him. Johnny quickly finds himself outclassed in the sleaze department as Bongo turns out to be the slipperiest slime of them all.

Music

The writers of the 1958 musical were inspired by songwriters such as

Noël Coward Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 189926 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what ''Time (magazine), Time'' called "a sense of personal style, a combination of c ...

. (David Heneker said his musical career was inspired by reading the score of Noel ''Coward's Bitter Sweet''). Their lyrics were clever, wordy and allusive: "The Gravy Train", for example, has Johnny quoting an apt line from Shakespeare's ''Troilus and Cressida'', (Act 5, Scene X), while the unrepentant shopaholics in "We Bought It" describe themselves as "two eccentric socialites, dissipated sybarites". The tunes modulate all over the place and parody rock, Latin jazz, skiffle and trad. Music historian John Snelsen writes, ''Expresso Bongo'' opened in the West End in the same year as ''

My Fair Lady ''My Fair Lady'' is a musical theatre, musical with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The story, based on George Bernard Shaw's 1913 play ''Pygmalion (play), Pygmalion'' and on the Pygmalion (1938 film), 1938 film ...

''. It did not run as long and has hardly been seen since, but its gritty cynicism, contemporary setting and pop score gained it many fans. It was voted Best British Musical of the Year in a Variety annual survey of shows on the London stage, with a ballot result far ahead of ''My Fair Lady'', and was referred to in general as 'the other musical' to distinguish it from

Lerner and Loewe Lerner and Loewe is the partnership between lyricist and librettist Alan Jay Lerner and composer Frederick Loewe. Spanning three decades and nine musicals from 1942 to 1960 and again from 1970 to 1972, the pair are known for being behind the cr ...

's work.

List of tracks

The 1958 Original Cast RecordingAEI-CD 020, The Council for Musical Theatre, c. AEI Records, 1979 lists the following songs and singers: #Overture: Orchestra #Don't Sell Me Down the River: James Kenney #Expresso Party: James Kenney #Nausea: Meier Tzelniker #Spoil the Child: Millicent Martin #Seriously: Millicent Martin #I Never Had It So Good: Paul Scofield #There's Nothing Wrong With British Youth Today: Ensemble #The Shrine on the Second Floor #He's Got Something for the Public: Hy Hazell & Principals #I Am: Millicent Martin #Nothing is for Nothing: Meier Tzelniker, Hy Hazell & Paul Scofield #We Bought It: Hy Hazel & Elizabeth Ashley #Time: Hy Hazell #The Gravy Train: Paul Scofield #Finale: The Company

References

{{reflist

External links

*http://www.doollee.com/PlaywrightsN/norman-monty.php Monty Norman plays 1958 musicals British musicals West End musicals