This year’s London Song Festival will close with a specially commissioned show featuring West End stars and the music of Ivor Novello and Noël Coward.
Set on the empty stage of Theatre Royal Drury Lane on 5 September 1939 when all theatres were closed due to the outbreak of the Second World War, Ghost Lights features Novello and his three leading ladies, Mary Ellis, Dorothy Dickson and Elisabeth Welch, as they reminisce about life in the theatre and voice their concerns about the future of theatre.
Written and directed by award-winning playwright David Slattery-Christy, the performance on 11 December 2020 at London’s Hinde Street Methodist Church will star Rosemary Ashe (The Boyfriend, The Phantom of the Opera) as Dickson, Melanie La Barrie (& Juliet, Wicked) as Welch, opera director and vocalist Rebecca Louise Dale as Ellis and Ben Stock (Noel and Gertie, Rags) as Novello.
Unveiling details of the production, musical director and pianist Nigel Foster said: “I am so excited by this – huge thanks to the wonderful cast, Rosemary Ashe, Melanie La Barrie, Rebecca Louise Dale and Ben Stock, and to Artist Digital who will stream it online and to David Slattery-Christy for writing this wonderful script.
“The London Song Festival’s theme this year is ‘Roads to Solace’; when I decided on that title back in January, little did I realise how horribly appropriate it would become just a few short months later. The London Song Festival’s aim is to show that music and beauty and poetry and their emotional impact cross all boundaries.
“Music and beauty and art can never die; they brought solace and inspiration in 1939 when everything seemed so bleak, and one of the very few things we can say of the present and predict for the future is that art and beauty and music will always be there to uplift, sometimes to challenge, but always to inspire and bring solace.”
Award-winning playwright Slattery-Christy added: “I was thrilled to get the commission to write this script for the London Song Festival and create a link from the present to the past theatre closures of 1939.
“During my career I was lucky to meet both Mary Ellis and Elisabeth Welch so to me they are not just characters from history. Novello and his work I know well after working on the Oscar and BAFTA-winning film Gosford Park as the Novello and music consultant, and more recently as script advisor and guest on the BBC Radio 3 Composer Of The Week dedicated to Novello and his work.”
The performance which will be choreographed by Aimee Leigh and will also include the winner of the competition to compose a new song to close Act I will be broadcast on 12 December.
Angela Thomas
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