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Music By Lionel Bart
Lyrics By Lionel Bart
Book/Libretto by: Lionel Bart & Joan Maitland
Directed by: Lionel Bart
Type of Musical: West End
Opened: May 8, 1962
Theatre: Adelphi Theatre, London
# of Performances: 568
Synopsis
The time is September 1940, London on the platform of the Bank Underground Station which the East Enders use as their nightly air raid shelter. Mrs Blitztein, the undisputed 'Queen of Petticoat Lane', and Alfie Locke a cockney 'fruit and veg' stallholder, welcome back their soldier sons Harry and Georgie, who are both home on embarkation leave. Mrs Blitztein's daughter Carol falls in love with Georgie. Mrs Blitztein strongly bridles at the very thought of her daughter marrying Georgie - not only because he is a gentile but also because she and Georgie's father are at daggers drawn. As ever, the course of true love is set not ton run smoothly!
The decision is made that the young children should be evacuated to the country. The blitz enters a very dark and difficult period. The East Enders return to their street to find their homes bombed and uninhabitable but their indomitable spirit carries them through these hard times. Nobody suffers more than Mr Blitztein who learns that her Harry has decided to desert from the army and whose daughter Carol loses her sight as the result of a bomb blast. The boys assemble at Victoria Station at the end of embarkation leave and Elsie and the girls promise to keep things going at home while they are away. Mrs Blitztein arrives, still hoping Harry has changed his mind but he fails to turn up, and she says goodbye to Georgie, not telling him that Carol has been hurt.
Six months later at the Sunday morning market in Petticoat Lane, Mrs Blitztein is wheeling her pickled herring stall into position and all is bustle and cheerfulness. Harry is till on the run in London and his married girlfriend Joyce arrives in search of him. Excitement mounts as the children return from the country and everyone joins in an East End 'knees-up'. The scene is set for a dramatic turn of events as Georgie returns after being invalided out of the army. He learns of Carol's blindness, and to Mrs Blitstein's delight, still asks her to marry him.
Carol and Georgie are married, much to the annoyance of Alfie, Harry returns after a call of duty, signs back up for the army and is marched off for his next posting. Mrs Blitztein, left alone to relax and put her feet up as wedding guests leave and the reception winds down, only to be blown up, when a bomb is dropped very close to the hotel the reception was held at. Alfie, an ARP Warden as well as green grocer, scrabbles amongst the rubble and debris of the collapsing hotel, looking for survivors and finds he has to pull out his own arch enemy from the jaws of death. When she comes round, Mrs Blitztein realises who saved her and after years of bickering and name calling finally decides to bury the hatchet and start afresh with Alfie.
Above all, this is a chirpy story of good old fashioned British 'stiff upper lipness' of Mrs Blitztein, a Jewish Momma and her refusal to be beaten. The show, played mostly through her eyes, shows how the blitz, the nastiest part of the war subjected on Londoners progressed and shows how her hopes, fears, despair, joy and sadness got her some of the darkest and hardest times in London history. A monument to the Second World War.
Song List
ACT I
- Opening/Prologue
- Our Hotel
- Tell Him, Tell Her
- I Want To Whisper Something
- The Day After Tomorrow
- We're Going To The Country
- Another Morning
- Who's this Geezer Hitler?
- Be What You Wanna Be
- As Long As This Is England
- Opposites
- Magic Doorway
- Bake A Cake
- Leave It To The Ladies
- The Day After Tomorrow (reprise)
ACT II
- Entr'acte
- Far Away
- Petticoat Lane
- Down The Lane
- So Tell Me
- Mums And Dads
- Who Wants To Settle Back
- Is This Gonna Be A Wedding?
- Duty Calls
- Finale
Cast List
Amelia Bayntun, Bob Grant, Grazina Frame, Graham James, Thomas Kempinski, Toni Palmer & Edward Caddick
(6 votes)
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Added: Tue May 03 2005
Last Modified: Wed Nov 15 2006