Moby Dick

I saw it twice... I thought it was great. Upbeat, refreshing, young cast, incredibly lively and catchy tunes. Looked good too but was worlds away from all the other Cam Mack stuff. It was very cheeky, with St Trinian type girlies, hunky boys and a cross dressing Headmistress, all spouting double entendres. The flyer even had a pop-up Moby Dick resembling a... well, dick at the point of ejaculation, although you might have been forgiven for thinking it was water! If it were running in the West End now, it's safe to assume the audience would be mostly male and drunken hen parties. Does that give you an idea? (Didn't our friend horton work on the show? His avatar shows it at the Piccadilly Theatre where I saw it. )

As a teenager in the early 90's I watched the Wogan special and fell in love it with it. I then ordered the CD from the Dress Circle and listened to it constantly for years. Dick helped me grow!

I would love to see it staged today

The score is good

Needless to say, I was there, before, during and after.

Long, long ago there was a desire to do a St Trinian's musical but the rights were utterly unavailable. Moby Dick was gradually developed by Hereward Kaye and Robert Longden and what opened in Oxford was a ramshackle but fun show.

Following his mega-hits, Cameron was looking to regain his youthful exuberance, I think- the show made him think he was avant-garde- so he pushed it into the West End. He was unwittingly probably the show's worst enemy because his brand made audiences expect another Les Mis or Cats. What they got was a sort of mad 'Salad Days' or 'Valmouth' with some Chippendales thrown in and an insane pregnant schoolgirl (drag) with a penchant for Judy Garland and Bette Davis impressions.

The set was beautifully layered junk and the audience gasped and cheered ever night when a group of umbrellas came together to create the massive whale (think Lion King He Lives in You moment).

There were puppet seals, step dance, an amazing line-up of talented young performers, but ultimately the management became flustered when the show wasn't immediately embraced by audiences and critics- it was not what they were used to. There were crisis meetings and attempts to re-work the show but what was the point? It was like saying "This Rocky Horror Show needs to make more sense".

The show's best legacy is the live recording, which shows how audiences who loved it REALLY loved it.

I'd like to tell you about the closing night- but I honestly can't remember much about it!!!

I LOVED it!! Saw it a few times during its brief run, including its final night. As others have said, it was not what people might gave expected Cameron to do. I have the 5 track disc they recorded. Was the full show ever fully recorded in the studio, or was it just those few songs? And of course the double cd, which was only recorded for cast, but later released.

The Wogan recording and the whole show at the Piccadilly is available on youtube, I was watching bits of it again recently, though it not the greatest recording. The security guards stripping at the end was not expected, but much appreciated

ON WITH CULTURE!!!!

I though Opera North spent too much money on it and it wasn't creative just a big prop ... Does anyone remember Pinocchio (BrumRep / Anthony Clark ) HUGE prop and a hydraulic stage - the audience clapped and gasped !

All that I remember of Moby Dick is that I missed it - IRA bomb scare the night I was going & the West End was shut down.
I remember being stuck in a bus in Regent Street for what seemed like hours.

Quite a few of us had heard of Tony Monopoly!

(musicallady, you might have heard of Gary Martin, who played a hunky guard... He was Caiaphas in Paul Nicholas' concert tour of Superstar, and he sings the role on the 1992 recording!)