eBook - PDF
And This Is My Friend Sandy
Sandy Wilson's The Boy Friend, London Theatre and Gay Culture
- 256 pages
- English
- PDF
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF
And This Is My Friend Sandy
Sandy Wilson's The Boy Friend, London Theatre and Gay Culture
About this book
This book situates the production of The Boy Friend and the Players' Theatre in the context of a post-war London and reads The Boy Friend, and Wilson's later work, as exercises in contemporary camp. It argues for Wilson as a significant and transitional figure both for musical theatre and for modes of homosexuality in the context of the pre-Wolfenden 1950s.
Sandy Wilson's The Boy Friend is one of the most successful British musicals ever written. First produced at the Players' Theatre Club in London in 1953 it transferred to the West End and Broadway, making a star out of Julie Andrews and gave Twiggy a leading role in Ken Russell's 1971 film adaptation.
Despite this success, little is known about Wilson, a gay writer working in Britain in the 1950s at a time when homosexuality was illegal.
Drawing on original research assembled from the Wilson archives at the Harry Ransom Center, this is the first critical study of Wilson as a key figure of 1950s British theatre. Beginning with the often overlooked context of the Players' Theatre Club through to Wilson's relationship to industry figures such as Binkie Beaumont, Noƫl Coward and Ivor Novello, this study explores the work in the broader history of Soho gay culture. As well as a critical perspective on The Boy Friend, later works such as Divorce Me, Darling!, The Buccaneer and Valmouth are examined as well as uncompleted musical versions of Pygmalion and Goodbye to Berlin to give a comprehensive and original perspective on one of British theatre's most celebrated yet overlooked talents.
Sandy Wilson's The Boy Friend is one of the most successful British musicals ever written. First produced at the Players' Theatre Club in London in 1953 it transferred to the West End and Broadway, making a star out of Julie Andrews and gave Twiggy a leading role in Ken Russell's 1971 film adaptation.
Despite this success, little is known about Wilson, a gay writer working in Britain in the 1950s at a time when homosexuality was illegal.
Drawing on original research assembled from the Wilson archives at the Harry Ransom Center, this is the first critical study of Wilson as a key figure of 1950s British theatre. Beginning with the often overlooked context of the Players' Theatre Club through to Wilson's relationship to industry figures such as Binkie Beaumont, Noƫl Coward and Ivor Novello, this study explores the work in the broader history of Soho gay culture. As well as a critical perspective on The Boy Friend, later works such as Divorce Me, Darling!, The Buccaneer and Valmouth are examined as well as uncompleted musical versions of Pygmalion and Goodbye to Berlin to give a comprehensive and original perspective on one of British theatre's most celebrated yet overlooked talents.
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Yes, you can access And This Is My Friend Sandy by Deborah Philips in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Media & Performing Arts & Theatre. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
Table of contents
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication Page
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgements
- Chapter 1: And this is my friend Sandy . . .
- Chapter 2: Mapping theatreland: Soho, the West End and homosexual law reform
- Chapter 3: The Ivy League: Binkie Beaumont, Noƫl Coward, Ivor Novello and Terence Rattigan
- Chapter 4: āOh! The Fairiesā:The Playersā Theatre Club
- Chapter 5: āThat certain thing called The Boy Friendā: The 1953 production of The Boy Friend
- Chapter 6: What next?ā: After The Boy Friend
- Chapter 7: Queer utopianism
- Chapter 8: āA walpurgisnacht of self-indulgenceā: The Ken Russell film of The Boy Friend, His Monkey Wife, The Clapham Wonder and Aladdin
- Conclusion
- Afterword
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index