May 2007: Moby Dick! The Musical

Imperial Productions Presents

Moby Dick! The Musical

Thursday 31st May - Saturday 2nd June 2007, 8pm
Saturday 2nd June 2007, 4pm

at The Cockpit Theatre

Reviews

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"Fifteen years ago Moby Dick! The Musical opened at the Piccadilly Theatre. It was an outstanding show, full of craziness, humour and catchy foot-tapping songs. Sadly audiences, perhaps deterred from spending a lot of money on what didn’t sound like a very promising storyline, failed to materialise and, after a few short months, Moby Dick was consigned to the Davy Jones's locker of sunken musicals. However, the whale of a tale has refused to die, and has an ever-increasing cult following.

"The story is about a private school for girls, more St. Trinians than St. Helens, which, finding itself strapped for cash, decides to stage a musical version of Herman Melville’s heavy male-dominated novel about New Bedford whalers in the early nineteenth century. Following the tradition of the great Alistair Sim, the Headmistress in drag takes on the role of Captain Ahab. If you think that sounds like a premise to make Melville turn in his grave, you are probably correct!

"Imperial Productions staged their version of this musical at the tiny Cockpit Theatre, just a stone’s throw away from the Regent’s Canal in Marylebone. It featured no famous names, just a cast of wonderfully talented singers and actors and a great five-piece band. Performed in the round, almost within reach of the front row of the audience, it was an intimate and at times surreal experience. Above all it was superbly entertaining, full of humour and terrific songs, especially the operatic 'Pequod' and the gutsy 'Heave Away'. I had wondered how this amateur production would compare with the lavish West End version that I saw three times, but was left convinced that this was how the musical should be seen." - Frank Long

"Loved it! So filthy but so funny. Only a few soloists failed to measure up to the generally high benchmark. The ensemble part singing entranced. The best legs you'll see in many a show were on view but I was too busy laughing at the doubles entendres and the treatment handed out to the Great American novel to look. After guffawing all night I am taking my fiancee and my son." - John Lanigan-O'Keeffe

Show photography by Ralph Rapley at XMO4.com

About the Show

Book, Lyrics and Music by Robert Longden; Music and Additional Lyrics by Hereward Kaye

Moby Dick! was a cult-favourite in the West End in the nineties. The show is inspired in tone by the 1954 film The Belles of St. Trinians, with Alistair Sims as the headmistress. In order to save their bankrupt school, the girls of St. Godley's Academy for Young Ladies decide to put on a musical version of Moby Dick. The highly comic, satirical romp through this age-old mariner's tale that ensues proves to be a world of endless, funny double entendres and wonderful, pastiche-y company numbers.

The music in Moby Dick! is a lovely mix of musical styles and genres. The overall feel and sound of the piece is what one would expect of a 1980's rock musical (i.e. heavily synthesised), though the show is punctuated with a wealth of pastiche-y numbers including homages to fifties doo-wop, gospel, sea chantey, Gilbert & Sullivan, and the modern boy-band ballad.

Tickets £10 (Students £8 at the Saturday 4pm performance)

The Cockpit Theatre is within easy walking distance of Marylebone and Edgware Road tube stations. Click here for a map of how to find us!

Synopsis

Act One opens on a scene of general chaos - Ishmael (all of the characters are referred to by the names they play in the story of Moby Dick), sits at the piano composing a song. Pip, the school's security guard, has been gagged and tied to a chair as other students play netball and throw paper airplanes. Fred, the caretaker, enters and asks Ishmael to start choir practice. Ishmael plays as the school's headmistress enters. After a rousing rendition of the School Hymn, she informs her students that due to bankruptcy, the school will close at the end of the term. The girls, determined not to return to their horrible, boring lives outside St. Godley's, vow to save it. They decide they need to throw a "big fat fundraiser" and Ishmael offers her newly penned musical version of Moby Dick. The girls quickly get on board with the idea and the Headmistress passes out parts, making herself Captain Ahab.

By the end of this, we find ourselves at the performance of the show. A nervous Ishmael takes the stage and opens the musical. She sings of her passion for the sea, the magic of the water, and her love of adventure. Packing a shirt into her carpet bag, Ishmael fights her way out of oppressive 1850's New York City. She lands In Old Nantucket where we meet the crew of the Pequod, a whaling ship recently returned from a hunting trip gone bad as its Captain lost his leg to a savage whale. Finally, Ishmael, who's been looking for affordable lodgings for the evening finds an available bed at the Spouter Inn.

Meanwhile, Esta, Ahab's wife, waits fretfully for her husband's safe return. He arrives, accompanied by Pip the cabin boy and a chest overflowing with gold, and breaks the bad news to her - not only has he lost his leg to the rogue whale Moby Dick, but his manhood as well. He will not be able to father her children. Esta inappropriately giggles when he reveals his ivory stump and the other guests at Ahab's homecoming follow suit. Humiliated, Ahab denounces Esta (who immediately jumps out a window to a watery grave) and returns to the safety of his cabin aboard the Pequod. Later that evening, Pip attends a very drunk Ahab. While he pledges his devotion to the Captain, Ahab only dreams of Esta. In his dream, she tells him he belongs to the sea, and Ahab awakens with a start - determined to kill the rogue whale, Moby Dick.

At the Spouter Inn, however, things are a bit more jovial. Peter Coffin, the innkeeper, is introducing Ishmael to the crew of the Pequod. Things take a turn for the worse, however, when Ishmael learns he's to lodge the night with Queequeg, their cannibalistic crewmate who's off selling shrunken heads. But Queequeg turns out to be a good guy and he and Ishmael become fast friends. Next morning, Ishmael and Queequeg go to hear Father Mapple deliver his Sunday sermon and to seek blessings before their voyage. They then set off in search of a ship that will engage them as crew. Queequeg tells Ishmael that he will know the right ship "in his bones." Ishmael picks the Pequod. They are interviewed by the first mate, Starbuck, and eventually are invited to sign up. As they are about to, Elijah, the crazy one-armed lackey, tells them Ahab and his ship is cursed. Undeterred by his foreboding warnings, Ishmael and Queequeg find Starbuck and sign up anyway and they set sail on Christmas Day.

Act Two opens and the Pequod has successfully weathered a winter of storms. Pip and the crew are relaxed and lively as the boat approaches the equator. They have been at sea exactly a year, and finally, a crazed Ahab appears from his cabin. He proffers a gold dubloon saying it belongs to the crewman who spots Moby Dick. Ishmael climbs into the crow's nest and instead spies a herd of black whale. Ahab decides they may as well hunt while they're waiting for Moby Dick to appear, all the while keeping a sideward glance for the great prize. Growing weary of Ahab's increasing delusions, Starbuck confronts the captain in his cabin saying he came on the ship to hunt, not be a pawn to Ahab's vengeance. Ahab tells him he's aware of his obsession, but can't help succumbing to it. Back in the crew's quarters, Starbuck tries to rally the men to mutiny against their insane Captain and vows to kill him; but at the last minute, Starbuck can't bring himself to do it.

Haunted by the voices of Moby Dick and his deceased, slightly decomposed wife Esta, Ahab sleepwalks about his cabin convinced they are nearing the great whale. Starbuck appears from the shadows and tries to convince Ahab to turn his ship around and go home. At that moment, Ishmael spots an English whaling ship. Captain Gardiner boards the Pequod saying he's been hot on the trail of a great white whale and has lost his crew (including his twelve year old son) in the process. Gardiner retreats to his ship as crew braces for a storm at sea. Although Starbuck considers the storm a bad omen and Pip is killed when he is blown overboard, Ahab presses madly on. The next morning, despite the calm seas, the crew is convinced the ship is cursed. Queequeg casts bones on the deck and prophesies his own death. When he goes into one of his usual trances Flask tries to steal all his money. Ishmael comes to Queequeg's defense and a fight ensues. Ahab emerges on deck to break things up and smells a strange odor - Dick. The crew madly harpoons the whale, but Moby Dick eludes them. At last the whale rams the ship; and as the crew swim for their lives, Ahab submits to Moby Dick. Only Ishmael, floating on Queequeg's coffin, survives to be picked up by The Rachel the next day.

The story over, the cast jumps off the set, joyfully congratulating each other on a job well done. The Headmistress enters in an outrageous gown with two suitcases bursting with cash. She proclaims the school saved, and everyone parties.

Musical Numbers

• School Hymn (Girls)
• Mob Dick (Ishmael, Queequeg, Stubb, Starbuck, Esta, Head, Pip & Girls)
• I Live and Breath (Ishmael & Company)
• In Old Nantucket (Queequeg, Stubb, Starbuck, Flask, Tashtego, Ahab, Pip, Elijah, Coffin & Company)
• A Man Happens (Esta & 3 Girls)
• Ahab's Homecoming (Esta, Ahab & Guests)
• Love Will Always (Ahab & Pip)
• Spouter Inn (Instrumental)
• Primitive (Ishmael, Queequeg & Shrunken Heads)
• A Sinking Man (Starbuck, Ahab, Pip & Ghosts)
• Pequod (Ishmael, Queequeg, Ahab & Crew)
• At Sea One Day (Ishmael, Elijah & Crew)
• Building America (Ishmael, Stubb, Starbuck, Esta, Flask, Mary, Pip, Elijah, Wife 1, Wife 2 & Crew)

INTERVAL

• Moby Dick - reprise (All)
• Deck Dance (Ishmael, Stubb, Starbuck, Ahab, Pip & Crew)
• Heave Away (Stubb, Starbuck & Crew)
• Can't Keep Out the Night (Starbuck & Ahab)
• Whale of a Tale (Starbuck & Crew)
• Love Will Always - reprise (Starbuck, Esta, Ahab, Moby Dick & Company)
• The Rachel (Ishmael, Ahab, Gardiner & Crew)
• Storm (Instrumental)
• Shadows of the Deep (Ishmael, Queequeg, Stubb, Starbuck, Tashtigo, Coffin, Daggoo, Pierre & Crew)
• Bones (Queequeg & Crew)
• Fight (Instrumental)
• Heave Two (Ishmael, Ahab & Crew)
• Ahab's Death (Ahab & Crew)
• Moby Dick - finale (All)