Remembering Leslie Bricusse (1931-2021) – A great man of the musical theatre



Michael Darvell looks back at the life of the talented composer, lyricist and playwright who has died at the age of 90.

It is difficult to know where to begin with the life of Leslie Bricusse. He contributed so much to the theatre as a composer, lyricist and playwright, creating many musical shows and songs that will be popular for ever. His theatre work includes Stop the World – I Want to Get Off, The Roar of the Greasepaint, the Smell of the Crowd, Pickwick, Scrooge, The Good Old Bad Old Days, Sherlock Holmes: The Musical and Doctor Dolittle among others.

But then he also contributed to the cinema too with such musical movies as Goodbye, Mr Chips, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Victor/Victoria and Babes in Toyland, not forgetting the title songs for two James Bond films, Goldfinger and You Only Live Twice, the lyrics of which were written by Bricusse and Newley to the music of John Barry. Bricusse was also a writer for television with a production of Peter Pan starring Mia Farrow, Danny Kaye and with John Gielgud as the narrator.

Of course what came out of all these shows and films are the songs, those everlasting tunes and those persistently popular lyrics. He wrote music and lyrics, although not all the time. When he worked with Anthony Newley they both wrote the music and lyrics between them. Their first two shows together were Stop the World – I Want to Get Off and The Roar of the Greasepaint, the Smell of the Crowd and they produced classic numbers such as ‘What Kind of Fool Am I?’, ‘Gonna Build a Mountain’, ‘Once in a Lifetime’, ‘Who Can I Turn To?’, ‘Feeling Good’, ‘Nothing Can Stop Me Now’ and ‘A Wonderful Day Like Today’, many of which went into the cabaret songbooks of celebrated performers including Sammy Davis Jr who also had a hit with ‘The Candy Man’, their song from Willy Wonka.

Leslie Bricusse with his writing partner Anthony Newley

Another song they wrote for Willy Wonka, which became an instant success, was ‘Pure Imagination’, a song that has been covered by famous singers including Lou Rawls, Kenny Loggins, Jamie Cullum, Mariah Carey, Josh Groban and Barbra Streisand among others. Although the stage musical of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory had music and lyrics by Marc Shaiman, ‘Pure Imagination’ was also included in the show. It also provided the title for Bricusse’s autobiography. Doctor Dolittle fielded ‘Talk to the Animals’ which, as sung by Rex Harrison in 1967, won the Academy Award for the Best Original Song and was used again when the film was remade in 1998 with Eddie Murphy.

Leslie Bricusse was born in south London but the family soon moved to Pinner in north west London where he was brought up. He was educated at University College School in Hampstead and attended Gonville & Caius College in Cambridge, becoming a member of the Footlights Dramatic Club. During this time he wrote and appeared in a number of revues and also worked with Beatrice Lillie in her West End show. Bricusse met Newley on a cruise liner and offered to write for his cabaret act. This was the beginning of a lifetime’s friendship.

Apart from Newley, Bricusse also worked with Cyril Ornadel on Pickwick, a show written for Harry Secombe who had a hit with the song ‘If I Ruled the World’ in 1963. Later on he wrote the book, the lyrics and the music for Sherlock Holmes: The Musical (1989), in which Ron Moody played the title role. With stage shows like those two, and Scrooge (1992) and Doctor Dolittle (1998), it is clear that Bricusse was aware of the popularity of certain subjects. And so too in the films of Scrooge (1970) with Albert Finney, Goodbye, Mr Chips (1969) with Peter O’Toole and Petula Clark, Willy Wonka (1971) with Gene Wilder, Victor/Victoria (1982) with Julie Andrews and Spielberg’s Hook (1991) with Robin Williams and Dustin Hoffman.

Bricusse was married to the actress Yvonne Romain and they have a son, Adam. Bricusse wrote popular musicals for the audiences he wanted to entertain. He will be forever remembered as a musical man of the people and his shows will be revived for as long as there are theatres to stage them.

Leslie Bricusse was born on 29 January 1931 and died on 19 October 2021.