Salad Days 1954 Piano Selection

Dr. Pitt-Payne in London UK - 08 Jan 2003

Salad Days
Music by Julian Slade
Lyrics by Dorothy Reynolds
and Julian Slade

Produced at
The Vaudeville Theatre, London,
August Fifth,
Nineteen FiftyFour
Two Thousand
Two Hundred and Eighty Three
Performances
and
The Barbizon Plaza, New York
November Tenth,
Nineteen FiftyEight
Eighty Performances

SALAD DAYS started its life in
June Nineteeen FiftyFour at
The Theatre Royal, Bristol.
Dorothy Reynolds and I had been
commissioned to write
an endofseason summer show
for the Bristol Old Vic Company
and it was scheduled to run just
three weeks. But Fate and
a London Management intervened.
On August Fifth, that year
we opened with the same production at
The Vaudeville Theatre, London,
and stayed there for five and a half years,
becoming (for then)
the longest running musical
in the history of the British Theatre.
(Julian Slade)

It has been playing somewhere
in the world ever since.

Newly acquired BA gowns hang heavy
on the shoulders of Jane and Timothy.
Having got this far, what on earth
do they do next? They could get
married, of course (so they do),
but how can they make a living?
In a London park one breathlessly
warm summer day they encounter
a tramp who trundles round
a mobile minipiano.
Even tramps need a holiday now
and then, and he invites
the young graduates to look after
his business interests for a month
at Seven Pounds per week plus
whatever they can collect.
The piano is not just any old mobile mini;
those who hear it find themselves dancing,
even against their better judgment.
On this gentle thread of story
is strung a series of revuetype scenes
providing rich opportunities
for versatile comedy players
who can also sing and dance.

The story of Salad Days begins
in the precincts of a University,
where a Tramp is trying out
a new melody on a battered old
street piano. (Opening Music),
His musings are soon interrupted
by the arrival of a gaggle of Dons
who have come to bid farewell to
two departing graduates,
Jane and Timothy.
(The Things That Are Done By a Don).
The young couple are sad to leave
the University, but determined to
face up to the future.
(We Said We Wouldn't Look Back).
Their future, however, is uncertain,
as both are being harassed by
their parents, she to find
a suitable husband, he a suitable job,
following in the footsteps
of one of his influential uncles.
His troubles usually begin at breakfast.
(Find Yourself Something To Do).

The pair arrange to meet in
a London park. As usual, Jane
is on time, Timothy is not.
(I Sit In the Sun).
They discuss their future and decide
it would simplify life to marry
each other and take the first job
that comes along. This proves easy,
for the Tramp arrives wheeling
the old piano, and offers them
seven pounds a week to look after
it for a month. On hearing the
Tramp play it, they discover to
their amazement that the piano
produces in them an irresistable
urge to dance. (Oh, Look at Me!).

Timothy temporarily appeases his
parents by going to the Foreign Office
to see his Uncle Clam (HushHush),
but he is soon back in the park
with Jane and the piano
(now christened 'Minnie'),
eager to discover if it will make
everyone else dance too. Indeed it
does from street urchins to policemen
to Bishops! (Oh, Look at Me: Reprise).
It is not long before the park is
full of people exhausted from dancing
to Minnie's tune. (Out of Breath).

An admirer of Jane's, Nigel, not
knowing that she is now secretly married,
invites her to a nightclub called
'The Cleopatra' where they witness
a somewhat unusual cabaret
(Cleopatra and Sand In My Eyes).
On leaving the club they meet up with Tim,
and he and Jane persuade a reluctant
Nigel to try out his singing voice.
(It's Easy To Sing).

News of the piano's irregular activities
reaches the ears of the funhating
Minister of Pleasure and Pastime
who threatens to suppress it.
Tim and Jane decide to hide Minnie,
but find to their dismay she is
really lost. (We're Looking For a Piano).

Jane meets the Tramp again, who does
not seem at all perturbed by the
disappearance of the piano, and she
is able to relax for a while
to enjoy the summer and sunshine.
(The Time of My Life). She and
Timothy receive unexpected help
in their search from Tim's Uncle Zed,
a zany scientist who conveniently
descends in his flying saucer
and whisks them off for a bird'seye
view... (The Saucer Song).

Meanwhile their anxious mothers lament
that they never know what their
children are up to.
(We Don't Understand Our Children).

The piano is found, but the month
of guardianship is over, and Minnie
must be handed on to the next young
couple Nigel and his newly found
girlfriend Fiona. Nigel finds,
to his surprised delight, he can
play as well as sing.
(Oh, Look at Me: Reprise).

It is hard for Tim and Jane to see
the piano go, but, having each other,
they are hopeful of a future as
happy as the past.
(We Said We Wouldn't Look Back: Reprise).

Julian Slade, London

For the chorus

Originally, nothing! The production
had a cast of twelve, plus a pianist,
who between them played fiftyfive roles
of assorted lengths the star of
one scene being required, perhaps,
to do no more than walk on in the next.
Needless to say, there is every
opportunity for an imaginative
producer to use a much larger cast.

Orchestration

There is no special arrangement for
two pianos. For productions accompanied
in this way, both pianists should play
from the published pianovocal score,
the second using it as the basis
for improvisation to give added depth
and colour. Scores for Double Bass
and Drums are available on hire.

~~~Julian Slade~~~

b. Twenty Eighth May
Nineteen Thirty,
London, England.
A composer, lyricist, librettist
and pianist, Slade began to write
when he was at Cambridge University,
and his first two musicals,
The Meringue and Lady May,
were presented by the
Cambridge Amateur Dramatic Club.

He then went to the
Bristol Old Vic Theatre School,
and in Nineteen FiftyTwo was
invited by Denis Carey to join
the company as a minor role actor
and musical director.
In the same year he composed
the music for a highly successful
version of Sheridan's The Duenna,
and it was at Bristol that he met
Dorothy Reynolds, a leading actress,
who collaborated with him
on libretto and lyrics.
Their long association began with
Christmas In King Street and
The Merry Gentlemen, written
for the Theatre Royal, Bristol,
and then, in Nineteen FiftyFour,
Salad Days, which transferred to
The Vaudeville Theatre in London.
It continued to delight audiences
until Nineteen Sixty, becoming
the longestrunning British musical
of its era. Slade played the piano
in the pit for the first eighteen
months, while onstage, a magic piano
in a London park caused passersby
to dance uncontrollably.
The piece was typical Slade a
simple plot and inconsequential humour,
accompanied by charming,
hummable songs,
such as "We Said We Wouldn't Look Back",
"I Sit In The Sun",
"It's Easy To Sing",
"The Time Of My Life"
and "Cleopatra". In Nineteen FiftySix,
The Comedy Of Errors,
a comic operetta adapted from
Shakespeare's play, for which Slade
wrote the music, played a season
at the Arts Theatre. It had originally
been performed on BBC Television
two years earlier. In
Nineteen FiftySeven, Slade
and Reynolds wrote Free As Air,
which lasted for over a year.
This was succeeded by
Follow That Girl,
Hooray For Daisy
and Wildest Dreams,
which even contained a "rock" number.
However, these shows seemed out of place
in the theatre of the "angry young men".
"Our shows went well out of town,
but London didn't seem to want them",
Slade recalled. Vanity Fair,
with lyrics by Roger Miller,
faded after Seventy performances
at the Queen's Theatre, and
lade's first solo effort,
Nutmeg And Ginger,
based on Francis Beaumont's comedy,
The Knight Of The Burning Pestle,
did not play the West End.
Neither did some of the others,
such as The Pursuit Of Love and
Out Of Bounds, although Trelawney
stayed at the Prince of Wales Theatre
for over six months.
Slade received his warmest reviews
for that show, the last time London
saw his work until
Nineteen NinetyOne,
when a revival of his Nutmeg And Ginger
opened to enthusiastic reviews
on the Fringe, at the Orange Tree Theatre
in Richmond, Surrey, England.

Soft karaoke
Words
treble clef 1
treble clef 2
lyric line
bass
*
© 2003 James Pitt-Payne London UK
for this performance only
sequence and information by
Dr. Pitt-Payne in London UK
on Wednesday 08 January 2003 at 16.51
in association with Doug Grierson
*

*
Salad Days 1954 Piano Selection
Music by Julian Slade
arrangement by Dudley E. Bayford
copyright 1954 by Francis, Day and Hunter Ltd.
*
Allegretto
'It's Easy To Sing'
'We Said We Wouldn't Look Back'
'Out Of Breath'
'I Sit In The Sun'
'Time Of My Life'
Piu Mosso
Listess Tempo
Allegro
'Looking For A Piano'
Moderato
'Oh, Look At Me' - Allegro
Moderato Con Moto
'Saucer Song'
Molto Allargando
Marcato
Moderato Con Moto
*