Salad Days (musical)
Salad Days is a musical with music by Julian Slade, and with book and lyrics by Dorothy Reynolds and Julian Slade. The musical was initially performed in 1954 in the UK in Bristol and then in the West End, where it ran for 2,283 performances.
Salad Days
Julian Slade and Dorothy Reynolds
1954 Bristol
1954 West End
1958 New York
1976 West End revival
1996 West End revival
2009–12 Hammersmith (two revivals)
Background[edit]
Julian Slade and Dorothy Reynolds had been working together on writing musicals since 1952, writing the book, music and lyrics. Reynolds was also an actress.[1] They wrote Salad Days as a "summer musical for the Bristol Old Vic's resident company."[2]
The title is taken from William Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra: "My salad days, When I was green in judgment, cold in blood, To say as I said then!",[3] and the phrase has come to be used generally to refer to one's days of youthful inexperience. The musical's enduring popularity lies in its light-hearted innocence and apparent simplicity, in sharp contrast to the many "hard-nosed" American musicals of the era, and its bright score including the songs "We Said We Wouldn't Look Back", "I Sit in the Sun", and "We're Looking for a Piano".[4]
Synopsis[edit]
Jane and Timothy Dawes meet in a park, soon after their graduation, to plan their lives. They agree to get married, and do so in secret, but Timothy's parents have urged him to ask his various influential uncles—a minister, a Foreign Office official, a general, a scientist—to find him suitable employment. He and Jane, however, decide that he must take the first job that he is offered. A passing tramp offers them £7 a week to look after his mobile piano for a month, and, upon accepting, they discover that when the piano plays it gives everyone within earshot an irresistible desire to dance.
After attempts by the Minister of Pleasure and Pastime (Timothy's Ministerial uncle) to ban the disruptive music, the piano vanishes, and Timothy enlists his scientific Uncle Zed to take them in his flying saucer to retrieve it. When it is found, the tramp reappears to tell them that their month is up and the piano must be passed on to another couple. He also reveals that he is a hitherto unknown uncle of Timothy (whose parents had referred to as "the one we don't mention"). Timothy and Jane look forward to the future with confidence.
Recordings[edit]
The Original Cast recording (1954) was recorded by Oriole Records.[16] The Original Cast recording of the Duke of York's Theatre revival was released by That's Entertainment.[17] A 40th anniversary studio cast recording was produced by EMI in 1994, featuring Janie Dee.[18] and an Original Cast recording of the 40th anniversary production at the Vaudeville Theatre was released by First Night, consisting of four songs.[17]
It was filmed for Australian television in 1958. A recording of the 2013 Tête à Tête production is available from the website.[1]
Cultural impact[edit]
The musical was parodied, in a particularly bloody manner, by Monty Python in their sketch "Sam Peckinpah's Salad Days".
£7,000 from the Salad Days profits – a large sum in those days— was given to the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School towards the purchase and conversion of two large adjoining Victorian villas at 1 and 2 Downside Road in Clifton. In 1995 the enduring benefit to students of that donation was formally recognised when a new custom-built dance and movement studio in the School's back garden was named the Slade/Reynolds Studio.
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