Stop the World -- I Want To Get Off

March 9 - April 3, 2011
Book, Music and Lyrics by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley
Produced for the Broadway Stage by David Merrick in association with Bernard Delfont
Directed by Judy Caruso Williamson

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Rated PG-13 (Mature Situations)

A thought-provoking tale about the fleeting nature of worldly success, Stop the World-I Want to Get Off is set against the backdrop of a circus. It focuses on Littlechap, whose first major step towards improving his lot is to marry his boss’ daughter. Saddled with the responsibilities of a family, he allows his growing dissatisfaction to lead him into the arms of various women as he searches for something better than he has, only to realize in the twilight of his life, that what he always had, the love of his wife, was more than enough to sustain him.

This show is very unusual in it’s original concept. For it’s time, musically, it was very sophisticated. Some of the music has an English music hall feel, some of it Gilbert and Sullivan patter, and there is a fugue that is reminiscent of the complexity to which Stephen Sondheim has exposed us. There are also great musical theatre standards that emerged from the score. “What Kind of Fool Am I”, the huge hit ballad from the show, was recorded by almost every famous pop singer as a torch song. In the show, the song has a totally different feel. It is a realization from the character Littlechap that he has made a total mess of his life and about his incapacity to love. Other hits from the show include “Gonna Build a Mountain,” and “Once in a Lifetime’” which was a big hit for Tony Bennett. The music is very easy on the ears, but like all good theatre music, captures the emotions of the moment, and carries the story along. We learn things about the characters through the music that we don’t know about them from the dialogue. This action takes place in a circus tent, being basically about two characters and their relationship, and also about how the character of Littlechap, as a sort of everyman, relates to women in general and his constant struggle to find himself. Anthony Newley wrote and starred in the show in London and New York. With his writing parter, Leslie Bricusse, he also wrote THE ROAR OF THE GREASEPAINT, THE SMELL OF THE CROWD, and the score for the original film version of DOCTOR DOLITTLE, which starred Rex Harrison and Anthony Newley.

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