| Gay's the Word | |
|---|---|
| Music | Ivor Novello |
| Lyrics | Alan Melville |
| Book | Ivor Novello |
| Productions | 1951 West End |
Gay's the Word is a musical with book and music by Ivor Novello and lyrics by Alan Melville. The musical is a backstage comedy that parodies Novello's own swashbuckling Ruritanian romance plots. The story centres around Gay Daventry, a bankrupt operetta producer and stage star who opens attempts to bring a musical to London. Sadly, the musical is not a success, so Linda lends Gay some inherited money, and they open up a drama school at Gay's country house. This turns out to be a phenomenal success.
The musical premiered at the Palace Theatre, Manchester, England, on 17 October 1950. It transferred to the Saville Theatre in London, opening there on 16 February 1951, where it ran for 504 performances and starred Cicely Courtneidge, Lizbeth Webb and Thorley Walters. The musical is scheduled to be revived in February 2012 at the Finborough Theatre, London, with a book revised by Richard Stirling, and directed and choreographed by Stewart Nicholls.[1]
This was Ivor Novello's last musical, and it embraced the new style of musical theatre from America, but it did contain traditional British humour for Courtneidge and the glamorous soprano solos written for Webb.
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