London School of Musical Theatre – Lock Up Your Daughters

Picture: Scott Rylander

Lock Up Your Daughters, performed by London School of Musical Theatre students at the Bridewell Theatre, London.

Star rating: four stars ★★★★☆

It was a courageuos move by the LSMT to follow a full-proof show like A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum, with Lock Up Your Daughters, for although it had been an instant success back in 1959 at the Mermaid Theatre, and again at Her Majesty’s Theatre in 1962, little has been heard of it since.

The show was freely adapted from Henry Fielding’s comedy Rape Upon Rape (1730) by Bernard Miles and maybe it says something about the title of the original play, that in the 1950s, it was deemed too near the mark for mainstream audiences, so it became Lock Up Your Daughters.

The music and lyrics were by two burgeoning talents of the day, Laurie Johnson and Lionel Bart, and their contribution, a happy combination of good tunes and slick (if seldom) witty rhymes, fitted Miles’ light-hearted treatment.

Now Adrian Jeckells, LSMD’s principal and course producer, has returned to the source material, and, in the wake of the recurrent coverage of ‘fake news’ and sexual harassment, judical and police injustice, he has toughened up the original adaptation to bring home just how cheap and perilous life was for so many in early Georgian London.

The extended prologue with The Town Crier’s ironical call of ‘All’s Well’ is somewhat overplayed in the Hogarthian scene of debauchery, but once the narrative takes hold, this production more than validates a presence on the stage in 2018.

I wondered how the more purposeful telling of the story would impact on the score which is something of a period piece, very much carved out of the light music tradition of the late 1950s. Audiences back then will have relished the ensemble ‘There’s a Plot Afoot (la la la)’ set to the rhythm of the Cha-cha-cha, the Latin dance that was all the rage.

Although the musical adaptation, by the show’s musical director, Mark Crossland and Andrew Hilton, marks a shift in tone from the original big band scoring to something grittier, there’s still an affectionate nod to the jazz element in numbers like ‘When Does The Ravishing Begin?’

The production design of darkened streets, with shadows concealing the chorus to dramatic effect, incorporates prison, pub, coffee house, bedroom, shifting effortlessly from one to the other with the furnishings employed for some deft choreography and athletic dancing notably from Messers Matthew Facchino, Peter Kingston and Larry Clark in the brilliantly executed title song.

Kiran Patel is hilarious as the libidinous Squeezum. I was reminded more than once in his performance of that much-loved actor, often cast as bounder and cad, Terry-Thomas. The show’s most demanding number, the vocal tour de force that is Mrs Squeezum’s ‘When Does The Ravishing Begin?’, sung by Maisie Sellwood, is spot on, the mimed top note at the conclusion, executed to a tee.

The high standard of the chorus and ensemble is a fine testament to the 21 students who make up the company on this occasion. They exhibit a maturity beyond their years in their performance and it is their belief in this musical shared by their director’s insight into the text that turns this evening into a hit.

Adrian Edwards

Readers may also be interested in:

A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum – London School of Musical Theatre – Bridewell Theatre, London – Review