Stephen Ward

By Andrew Lloyd Webber, Christopher Hampton, Don Black

Stephen Ward the Musical is a musical with a book and lyrics by Don Black and Christopher Hampton, with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber.[1] Based on the real life events behind the 1963 Profumo Affair,[2] the musical will make its West End and world premiere in 2013.

Run

Dates	Type & Version	Theatre
Dec 19, 2013 – 29 Mar, 2014	Musical, Original	Aldwych Theatre, London, UK

Plot

The musical centres on involvement with the young and beautiful Christine Keeler and Stephen Ward their chance meeting in a West End night club, which led to one of the biggest political scandals and most famous trials of the 20th century.

The Musical deals with the victim of the Profumo Affair – not, as is widely supposed, John ‘Jack’ Profumo himself, the disgraced Minister for War, nor even the fatally wounded Conservative government of Harold Macmillan, but the society osteopath whose private libertarian experiments blew up in his own and everyone else’s face.

In a trial as emblematic to the twentieth century as Oscar Wilde’s was to the nineteenth – from which he was the only protagonist to emerge with some dignity and honour – Ward became the targeted scapegoat of a furiously self-righteous Establishment.

By no means a hero, he was a reluctant martyr, thanks to an unholy alliance between Press and police of a kind we can all too readily recognise today; inadvertently, he was the hinge between two worlds and the harbinger of a revolution in manners, music and morals when the ordered, stuffy, respectful universe of the fifties gave way to the classless, truculent, unstoppable sixties.

Background

In February 2012, Webber first revealed in an interview with Chris Evans that he was considering working on a show based on the Profumo Affair.^[3] A first reading of the musical^[4] was held in London in early 2013,^[5] with its first public outing coming in March,^[6] with Milos Karadaglic^[7] performing the title song from the show on an ITV special Andrew Lloyd Webber: 40 Musical Years. The track was later released as a digital download.^[6]

Officially confirmed on 28 June 2013, producers announced that the show would play the Aldwych Theatre,^[8] with tickets going on sale immediately.^[9] The show has a book with lyrics by Don Black and Christopher Hampton^[10] and is directed by Richard Eyre,^[11] with choreography by Stephen Mear, set design by Rob Howell, lighting design by Peter Mumford and sound by Paul Groothuis.^[12]

Music and Lyrics

Music – Andrew Lloyd Webber

(b March 22, 1948), is a British composer and impresario of musical theatre.

Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of variations, two film scores, and a Latin Requiem Mass. He has also gained a number of honours, including a knighthood in 1992, followed by a peerage from Queen Elizabeth II for services to Music, seven Tony Awards, three Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, fourteen Ivor Novello Awards, seven Olivier Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and the Kennedy Center Honors in 2006. Several of his songs have been widely recorded and were hits outside of their parent musicals, notably “The Music of the Night” from The Phantom of the Opera, “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” from Jesus Christ Superstar, “Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina” and “You Must Love Me” from Evita, “Any Dream Will Do” from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and “Memory” from Cats.

Book and Lyrics – Christopher Hampton

(b 26 January 1946) is a British playwright, screen writer and film director. He is best known for his play based on the novel Les Liaisons dangereuses and the film version Dangerous Liaisons (1988) and also more recently for writing the nominated screenplay for the film adaptation of Ian McEwan’s Atonement.

Hampton’s translation into English of Michael Kunze and Sylvester Levay’s Austrian musical Rebecca, based on Daphne du Maurier’s book, was supposed to premiere on Broadway in 2012 but has been put on hold due to backers. Hampton’s Musicals include 1993-Sunset Boulevard, 2001/4 Dracula the Musical, 2012 Rebecca, 2012 Stephen Ward.

Book and Lyrics -Don Black

(b 21 June 1938) is an English lyricist. His works have included numerous musicals, movie themes and hit songs. He has provided lyrics for John Barry, Charles Strouse, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Quincy Jones, Lulu, Jule Styne, Henry Mancini, Michael Jackson, Elmer Bernstein, Michel Legrand, Hayley Westenra, A. R. Rahman, Marvin Hamlisch and Debbie Wiseman.

Black’s stage credits include the musicals Billy (music: John Barry), Bar Mitzvah Boy (music: Jule Styne), Dear Anyone (music: Geoff Stephens), Budgie (music: Mort Shuman) and several Andrew Lloyd Webber shows: the 1979 song-cycle, Tell Me on a Sunday, which was performed by Marti Webb (whom Black also managed for a time); Aspects of Love, which propelled Michael Ball to stardom; and, together with Christopher Hampton, the musical adaptation of the Billy Wilder film Sunset Boulevard. The latter brought Black and Hampton a Tony Award for Best Book.

Director

Richard Eyre

(b 28 March 1943) is a film, theatre, television and opera director. Richard Eyre was Director of the National Theatre from 1988 – 1997. Subsequently he has directed productions including The Crucible on Broadway, Mary Poppins and Private Lives both in the West End and on Broadway, Quartermaine’s Terms in the West Endand The Pajama Game for Chichester Festival Theatre. Eyre will direct his own adaptation of Ghosts later this year for the Almeida Theatre where he last directed The Dark Earth and the Light Sky. On television his credits include Changing Stages, the BAFTA awardwinning Tumbledown and Henry IV Parts 1 and II for the BBC’s 2012 Shakespeare Season. His film credits include Iris, Stage Beauty and Notes on a Scandal. As well as being awarded many times for his film and theatre work, Eyre was knighted in 1997.

Video

Cast

Stephen Ward

Alexander Hanson (born 28 April 1961) is a British stage actor who has appeared in numerous plays and musicals in the West End, and Broadway. Alexander was last on stage as Pilate in the UK Arena Tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s Jesus Christ Superstar. Previously he appeared as Fredrik Egerman in A Little Night Music, which after its run at the Menier Chocolate Factory, transferred to the West End and then to Broadway. His many other music theatre credits include Captain Georg von Trapp in The Sound of Music at the London Palladium, We Will Rock You at the Dominion Theatre, Candide for the National Theatre and Sunset Boulevard at the Adelphi Theatre.

Charlotte Spencer

Charlotte was directed by Richard Eyre as Jane Banks in the original West End production of Mary Poppins. Previously she was seen on stage in Olivier! at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. Most recently she has been seen on screen in Les Misérables. Her other screen credits include Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows and Wild Bill directed by Dexter Fletcher. Her television credits include Mr Selfridge, Hotel Babylon and Five Days. Spencer voiced the title role in the animation Angelina Ballerina.

Charlotte Blackledge

Charlotte trained at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Charlotte most recently took part in the The Woman in White workshop, playing Laura, with Maria Friedman and Andrew Lloyd Webber. Credits whilst training include; Mrs Scragg/Pinweed in The Wish, Sally Bowles in Cabaret, Martha in Spring Awakening, Richard II in Richard II, Bakers Wife in Into The Woods and Angel City 4 in City of Angels. Charlotte is delighted to be making her West End debut in Stephen Ward.

Anthony Calf

(b 4 May 1959) is a actor, born in Hammersmith, London UK. His Theatre credits include productions of The Madness of King George III with the National Theatre and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The false servant Royal National Theatre and Rock’n Roll Duke of York’s Theatre. He has been nominated as best actor in the Irish Times Theatre Awards 2008 for his work in Uncle Vanya Gate Theatre. Also Private Lives (Chichester Festival Theatre and West End), My Fair Lady (Sheffield Crucible), Death and the Maiden (Harold Pinter), Les Parents Terribles and The Hotel in Amsterdam (Donmar Warehouse), The White Guard, The Power of Yes, Gethsemane.

Also Starring

Martin Callaghan
Ricardo Coke-Thomas
Ian Conningham
Kate Coysten
Jason Denton
Daniel Flynn
Julian Forsyth
Amy Griffiths
Christopher Howell
Paul Kemble
Emma Kate Nelson
Joanna Riding
Wayne Robinson
Carl Sanderson
Emily Squigg
John Stacey
Helen Ternent
Tim Walton

Creative

Music by	Andrew Lloyd Webber
Book & Lyrics	Christopher Hampton
Book & Lyrics	Don Black
Directed by	Richard Eyre
Set & Costume Design by	Rod Howell
Lighting by	Peter Mumford
Sound by	Paul Groothuis
Video & Projection by	Jon Driscoll
Musical Supervisor	Graham Hurman
Choreography	Stephen Mear

References

“Andrew Lloyd Webber presents Profumo scandal, the West End musical”. telegraph.co.uk. The Telegraph. 17 January 2013. Retrieved 28 June 2013.
“Lloyd Webber turns political scandal into musical”. http://abclocal.go.com. ABC News. 28 June 2013. Retrieved 28 June 2013.
“Andrew Lloyd Webber working on Profumo musical”. guardian.co.uk. The Guardian. 27 February 2012. Retrieved 28 June 2013.
“Andrew Lloyd Webber presents Profumo scandal, the West End musical”. telegraph.co.uk. The Telegraph. 17 January 2013. Retrieved 28 June 2013.
“Andrew Lloyd Webber Will Present Reading of His New Musical, About Stephen Ward and British Sex Scandal, in London”. playbill.com. Playbill. 16 January 2013. Retrieved 28 June 2013.
“Theme for Stephen Ward,” the First Music from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s New Show, to Be Released March 31″. playbill.com. Playbill. 26 March 2013. Retrieved 28 June 2013.
“Andrew Lloyd Webber: ‘My greatest regret’”. telegraph.co.uk. The Telegraph. 26 March 2013. Retrieved 28 June 2013.
Profumo musical set for West End”. belfasttelegraph.co.uk. The Belfast Telegraph. 28 June 2013. Retrieved 28 June 2013.
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Stephen Ward Will Premiere at West End’s Aldwych Theatre in December”. playbill.com. Playbill. 28 June 2013. Retrieved 28 June 2013.
“Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Stephen Ward to open at Aldwych Theatre in December”. thestage.co.uk. The Stage. 28 June 2013. Retrieved 28 June 2013.

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