Moby Dick (musical)

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Poster for the original Old Fire Station production
Poster for the original Old Fire Station production

Moby Dick is a musical with a book by Robert Longden, and music and lyrics by Longden and Hereward Kaye.

A mixture of high camp, music hall-style smut, and wild anachronism overflowing with double entendres, the show focuses on the anarchic and nubile girls of St. Godley’s Academy for Young Ladies who, determined to save the institution from bankruptcy, decide to stage Herman Melville's classic novel in the school's swimming pool.

Having become involved with the restoration of Oxford's Old Fire Station Theatre, producer Cameron Mackintosh sought a new musical to inaugurate its re-opening. Impressed by an audio tape sent him by Longden, Mackintosh offered him £25,000 to stage what was then called Moby Dick: A Whale of a Tale. Originally an intimate piece with a cast of twelve performing with an upright piano, it became a greatly expanded version featuring a troupe of thirty and a six-piece band. The end result was a madcap romp, with veteran cabaret star Tony Monopoly playing the headmistress/Captain Ahab in drag, that immediately developed a cult following among the university students.

Against the advice of his staff, Mackintosh decided the show was suited for a full-fledged West End production, and in July 1992 he transferred it to the cavernous Piccadilly Theatre, where it opened to scathing reviews and quickly closed.

Over the years, the show, alternately titled Moby Dick! The Musical or Moby!, has proven to be a popular choice with regional theatre groups. In 2003 an Americanized version deleted all the unfamiliar British references and played down many of the burlesque aspects. No matter where it's produced, the tradition of having the headmistress portrayed by a male continues to be upheld.

Contents

[edit] Original song list

Act I
  • Hymn
  • Parent's Day
  • Forbidden Seas
  • In Old Nantucket
  • A Man Happens
  • Ahab's Curse
  • Gypsy Dancer
  • Love Will Always
  • Primitive
  • Punish Us
  • People Build Walls
  • Pequod
  • At Sea One Day
  • Building America
Act II
  • Living Shadows
  • Mr. Starbuck
  • Heave Away
  • Deck Dance
  • Can't Keep Out The Night
  • Ahab's Insomnia
  • A Whale Of Tale
  • Daily Massacre
  • Ship Ahoy
  • Shadows Of The Deep
  • Storm
  • Heave Away (Reprise)
  • The Whale's Revenge
  • Save The Whale

[edit] 2003 song list

Act I
  • Hymn
  • Moby Dick
  • I Live and Breathe
  • Old Nantucket Town
  • A Man Happens
  • Ahab's Homecoming
  • Love Will Always
  • Primitive
  • A Sinking Man
  • Jonah Fell
  • Pequod
  • At Sea One Day
  • Building America
Act II
  • Moby Dick (Reprise)
  • Deck Dance/Death to Moby/Heave Away
  • Can't Keep Out the Night
  • Whale of a Tale
  • Love Will Always (Reprise)
  • The Rachel/Shadows of the Deep
  • Bones
  • Heave 2
  • Ahab's Death
  • Finale (Ahab's Dead!)

[edit] Notable Performances

Besides the well known West End performance, Howard W. Blake High School performed this show as part of its 2005-2006 season and won recognition for its performance where it was selected as one of few plays from High Schools in Florida to perform at "Mainstage" for the International Thespian Society.[1] [2] [3]

[edit] References

Hey, Mr. Producer! The Musical World of Cameron Mackintosh by Sheridan Morley and Ruth Leon, published in the UK by Weidenfeld & Nicolson and in the US by Back Stage Books, 1998

Languages