The Show Must Go On ALW YouTube Channel

Alan Ayckbourn's memories of the original production were in the Guardian this weekend: www.theguardian.com/stage/2020/may/01/the-audience-booed-the-cast-fled-playwrights-relive-their-worst-flops

Interesting that in 2001, weeks after 9/11, the first musical to open on Broadway after the terrorist attacks was By Jeeves.

I had the pleasure of seeing it, in what turned out to be a very limited run - and it really was a fun night out - very light, funny (even for those of us who aren't necessarily into British humor) and for that time period, a welcome distraction. Hopefully it will prove the same now. I hadn't seen the video which featured the same cast that starred on Broadway (I don't think it was ever released here) - but have the CD (hows this for bizarre, I have 3 recordings of By Jeeves, the workshop that was recorded, the original London cast and the video - and yet we only have one Aspects of Love recording... but I digress)

My one sadness is that ALW tweaked with it again between the Video recording and Broadway and re-wrote the opening with a very catchy "Never Fear" that replaced "Wooster will entertain you." I at one time had a MP3 of it that someone kindly had shared, but that was a few hard drives ago. Shame - can still hum that tune in my head.

OK - now my A.D.D. and being locked in quarantine has me losing my mind.

I figured out where the tune for "Never Fear" was from - It's a recycle of the song from "The Likes of Us" - "You won't care about him anymore" - really an awesome tune (in the overture you hear it to great effect as well):

I'm not a huge British comedy fan or even a fan of Jeeves books - but when I saw it live, I found it highly enjoyable.  Completely different for ALW fans - and as a fellow American after more than enough rough news, a welcome diversion

You lasted 20 minutes more than me.

Ended up watching a documentary on Netflix about a Jewish couple who owned a gay porn shop in LA which was far more interesting.

After a rather unknown piece was broadcast this weekend, I still hope for the big final BANG next weekend: something like Unmasked from the Other Palace or from the Papermill Playhouse ...



... or at least "Song & Dance" with Sarah Brightman. I have a VHS that I could burn to DVD, but many fans would surely be happy.

Having watched By Jeeves last night (I came to this ALW piece not having listened to the score previously), whilst for me having some catchy songs, overall, I just felt that someone needed to get a big marker pen to the book and cut out some of the dialogue. It took too long to get to the next number and not a particular piece of musical theatre that I would probably go and watch again unless there had been some serious editing done to the piece.

As for the next ALW Friday night YT offering, I'd agree that surely CATS is next up unless ALW is going to pull a blinder and give us something brand new from his archive which I'd rather prefer rather than seeing CATS which is always doing the rounds on TV.

I didn't mind it. Definitely a play with music rather than a musical. Strange to see an ALW production filmed in a studio with an audience of extras.

It might work in a UK revival in the Union Theatre or a similar fringe venue, so long as they could find a Jeeves with suitable gravitas. I'm sure they could get the score down to one piano (and a banjo) without too much effort, or make this actor-musician.

I gave up after half an hour. I assume the leading man is American & I couldn't take his wildly varying attempts at RP any longer. I thought I'd like this as I like Wodehouse & I like quite a lot of ALW but it just seemed like a less amusing version of Perfect Nonsense and, at least for the first half-hour, is very similar. Yes, I know By Jeeves is a much older show, before anyone says anything, but I saw Perfect Nonsense first when it was in the West End a few years ago & saw it again touring in February so from my point of view this was like watching a less amusing copy.

Last night was the first time I got to see the filmed version of what was basically the cast that played on Broadway. ALW wasn't kidding when he said it was slow starting. The whole opening with the minister and the chair bit I was losing my mind.

Thinking back 19 years ago when it was on Broadway, about a month after 9/11, I remember the whole theater decked out in red white and blue bunting, the cast mixing with the audience members (in character) before the show actually started - so that vibe of it being Bertie Wooster's Banjo recital thing worked better live then it did on film... and God bless that cast, they were so in character, funny, improvisational that it worked (well it did for me, it only lasted 70 shows or so)  - I remember bringing a friend who was a huge "Jeeves/Wooster" fan having had read all the books who was hysterical throughout it and loved it.

For me, seeing it live, it was a fun night - and the ALW tunes were great. The film, once I got past that opening, I did enjoy it and watched the entire thing. The ending with the Wizard of Oz costumes was bizarre.

I also gave up (after about 10 minutes though) having cringed at his accent as soon as he started to speak. I couldn't stand it any longer...

It wasn’t a “show within a show”, just a straight telling of the story, which contained a few similar scenes but was on the whole very different. Some songs crossed over from one version to the other serving their original purpose. Other songs have been cut or repurposed. “Wooster Will Entertain You” came from “Jeeves Is Past His Peak”, and “The Hallo Song” was originally “Eulalie” which deals with one of the biggest differences between the shows, an axed character called Sir Roderick Spode, an Oswald Mosley-ish leader of the Black Shorts. Spode’s Anthem “S.P.O.D.E.” is my favourite ALW “fanfare”.

There were more songs than appear on the Jeeves cast recording, including “Literary Men” which eventually became “Unexpected Song”.