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The Boy Friend / 1970 Broadway Revival Cast


Release Date: 06/28/2005 
Label:  Decca   Catalog #: 473602   Spars Code: n/a 
Composer:  Sandy Wilson
Performer:  Barbara Andres,  Lesley Secombe,  Marie Paxton,  Leon Shaw,   ... 
Number of Discs: 1 
Recorded in: Stereo 
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Notes and Editorial Reviews

Composer/Lyricist: Sandy Wilson .
Original London Cast: Harvey Evans, Judy Carne, Ronald Young, Jeanne Beauvais, Leon Shaw, Simon McQueen.
Recording information: New York, New York (04/26/1970).

The Boy Friend, Sandy Wilson's 1950s musical that pretended to be a 1920s musical, pretty much succeeded at that pretense, enjoying a five-year run in London and nearly 500 performances on Broadway the first time around, leading to other international productions and frequent revivals. The first Broadway revival occurred on April 14, 1970, and proved disappointing, with a run of only 111 performances. The top-lined star was Judy Carne, a comedienne known for her tenure on the popular TV series Rowan & Martin's Read more Laugh-In and her tag line, "Sock it to me!" Second-billed was Sandy Duncan, who actually went on to a more prominent stage career in periodic revivals of Peter Pan. The production was closer to the British original than the first Broadway version, adding back the song "It's Nicer in Nice," which had been cut for the previous New York run. That helped make this cast recording longer than either the London one (originally released as a 10" LP) or the original Broadway one. Nevertheless, that earlier Broadway recording gets the nod over this one for a simple reason: it features a young Julie Andrews in her New York debut, and there's no way Carne can top her. Still, this is an efficient reading of the pastiche score, which was at first intended to send up the sound and style of the 1920s, although by 1970 even the real thing would have seemed campy (and did in the Broadway revival of an actual '20s show, No, No, Nanette, that appeared the following season).

-- William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
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Works on This Recording

1. The Boy Friend by Sandy Wilson
Performer:  Barbara Andres (Voice), Lesley Secombe (Voice), Marie Paxton (Voice),
Leon Shaw (Voice), Ronald Young (Voice), Judy Carne (Voice),
Sandy Duncan (Voice), Jeane Beauvais (Voice), Simon McQueen (Voice),
Harvey Evans (Voice), David Vaughn (Voice), Mary Zahn (Voice)
Period: 20th Century 
Written: USA 
 Date of Recording: 04/26/1970 
Venue:  New York, NY 

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