The Beautiful Game (musical)
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The Beautiful Game is also a term used to describe the game of football.
The Beautiful Game is a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Ben Elton about a group of teenagers growing up amid religious intolerance in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1969.
The title of the musical is taken from Pelé's autobiography "My Life and the Beautiful Game". The musical opened September 26, 2000 at the Cambridge Theatre in London and closed September 1, 2001, after a total run of slightly more than 11 months. The show never made the transfer to Broadway.
The plot, which is centered on a local football (soccer) team, focuses on the attempt to overcome religious intolerance and violence that has engulfed their community. The team is made up of Catholic and Protestant youths and the coach is a priest. The musical chronicles the ups and downs of the team players as the emerging political and religious violence overwhelms them. Some of the players become members of the IRA, one gets kneecapped.
The musical also chronicles the emotional change in the lead protagonist from political ambivalence to becoming an IRA terrorist. Highlights of the play include the dual singing of "God's Own Country" by two females, one Catholic, one Protestant; the rainy scene; the soccer match; the transformation of the football net into a prison.
The most successful song from the score was "Our Kind of Love."
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[edit] Other performances
- Shonagh Daly performed Let Us Love In Peace as the closing song at the memorial service for families of the September 11 attacks in October 2001[1]
- A selection of songs from the musical were performed for President George W. Bush and Tony Blair at a reception in Washington on 18 January 2001[2]
[edit] Critical acclaim
- Best Musical Award in the Critics' Circle Theatre Awards 2000
[edit] List of Songs:
ACT ONE
- Overture
- The Beautiful Game
- Clean the Kit
- Don't Like You
- God's Own Country
- God's Own Country - (Protestant March)
- Let Us Love in Peace
- The Final (A Game Of Two Halves)
- Off To The Party
- The Craic
- Don't Like You (reprise)
- Our Kind of Love
- Let Us Love In Peace (reprise)
ACT TWO
- The Happiest Day
- To Have And To Hold
- The First Time
- I'd Rather Die On My Feet Than Live On My Knees
- God's Own Country (reprise)
- The Selection
- Dead Zone
- If This Is What We're Fighting For
- All The Love I Have
- Finale
[edit] References
- ^ Music and prayer at Ground Zero from BBC News, Monday 29 October 2001
- ^ The Beautiful Game facts and figures from ReallyUseful.com, Andrew Lloyd Webber's production company
