ME AND MY GIRL

Directed by: Lynda Clarkson
Choreography by: Pat Sumner
Musical Director: Nic Parker
Production Design: Phil Sykes

Cast:
Bill Snibson: Oliver Ashworth
Sally Smith: Lucie Sumner
Lady Jacqueline Carstone: Stephanie Darkins
Gerald Bolingbroke: Mike Kerr
The Duchess: Caroline Gaunt
Sir John Tremayne: Charles Mallinson
Lord Battersby: Joanna Piancastelli
Lady Battersby: Philip Raymond
Sir Jasper Tring: Jonathan Cooper
Parchester: Ken Carter
Charles the Butler: Ahmed Hassan
Mrs. Anastasia Brown: Elin Jones
Bob Barking: Dominic Stirling

Waleed Arshad, Nicola Boan, Hannah Brayne, Laure Brayne, Craig Campbell, Steven Clarkson, Sophie Cronin, Rachel Dangerfield, Sarah Dickie, Sophie Evans, Kerhys Farley, James Fisher, Abby Hesketh, Natalie Horridge, Becky Hoyle, Sarah Keith, Lisa Kerr, Isobel Mackenzie, Charlotte Mathews, Caitlin McMillan, Felicity Morgan, Greg Padden, Tessa Perryman, Joseph Phillips, Helen Rouse, Lesley Rowlings, Tom Rutherford, Hannah Shelstone, Jenny Strachan, Rachel Strachan, Jamie Sumner, Noel Turner, Aimee Whelan, Emily Wignall

Performed at Lowther Pavilion, Lytham
November 2004

“Me and My Girl” is a popular British stage musical, with book and lyrics by Douglas Furber and L. Arthur Rose and music by Noel Gay.

It was originally performed at the Victoria Palace Theatre in London, in 1937, and went on to run for a phenomenal 1,646 performances.

The show's showstopper, "The Lambeth Walk", has the distinction of being the only popular song to be the subject of a headline in The Times. In October 1938, one of its headlines read, "While dictator’s rage and statesmen talk, all Europe dances - to The Lambeth Walk."

Me and My Girl was revived in 1984, with a revised script by Stephen Fry and contributions by Mike Ockrent at the Leicester Haymarket theatre, from where it transferred to London's West End for a successful eight year run at the Adelphi Theatre, later going on tour throughout Britain, and transferring to New York's Broadway at the Marquis Theatre in 1986. Mike Ockrent directed the 1984 production.

A great experience for LATA, a show with so many recognisable songs, plus the first real comedy we’d done… we pride ourselves in the variations in the shows we choose to give the students the best experience possible!

Review – from the Lytham St. Annes Express

“Over the Past 10 years Lytham Academy of Theatre Arts has produced shows of consistent excellence.

Their version of “Me and My Girl”, based on the much-improved 1986 Broadway reworking of Noel Gay’s 1937 musical, matches previous high standards.

Any notion that this was just the Lambeth Walk show, was dispelled by Lynda Clarkson’s inventive production, full of deft comic touches, which made every scene witty and every song highly entertaining.

Oliver Ashworth as the irrepressible cockney who inherits an upper-class fortune was a comic song and dance man par excellence and gelled affectionately with Lucie Sumner’s feisty Sally.

If Stephanie Darkins took the singing honours as Lady Jacqueline, equal praise is due to Caroline Gaunt, a beautifully spoken Duchess, Charles Mallinson, the toffee-nosed Sir John and the delightfully twee Michael Kerr as Gerald.

All the principals seized their moment, none more so than Ken Carter whose Family Solicitor routine set a high standard from the outset.

The 36 singers and dancers of the chorus were superb in support, particularly in the slickly choreographed Lambeth Walk and The Sun Has Got His Hat On…
Set, costumes, lighting, sound and music were first class. To sustain both cockney and aristocratic accents over 17 scenes was a tribute to this cast’s professionalism and this show suggested to a delighted audience that the future of musical theatre in the Fylde is bright indeed!”