Catholic Transcript Online

remember enjoying, as a kid, a matinee of the original production during the show’s pre-Broadway tryout at the Colonial Theater in Boston. Then, the show’s main attraction was the personal charm of its leading man, the tow-headed English entertainer Tommy Steele, who played Kipps. That role will be played at Goodspeed by Jon J. Peterson.

In 1965, Mr. Steele was a favorite with the English teenage public, especially the rock and rollers of the era. With the success of "Half a Sixpence," he added adults to his fan base.

According to theatrical lore, "Half a Sixpence" arrived in London after what had been an unsatisfactory tryout tour of the provinces and in imperfect condition. The English producers intended to work on it after the opening, reworking and restaging the show. But there, as happened later in the United States, the popular reaction to the show was so favorable that they decided to let it remain as it was.

The libretto to "Half a Sixpence" was written by the late English playwright Beverley Cross, who is also co-translator of the current New York comedy hit "Boeing Boeing."

Mr. Cross’ book sticks pretty close to Mr. Wells’ novel. We first meet Arthur Kipps as one of the young apprentices in a Dickensian-like London draper’s shop.

The musical carries young Kipps through some of the rigors of grim apprenticeship in song – music and lyrics are by David Henker, and dance – at Goodspeed the choreography will be by Patti Columbo and the direction by Gordon Greenberg.

It soon turns out that Kipps is being sought out by lawyers because he has inherited some money. This introduces our young hero to wealth, and he quickly gives up his modest ladies maid girlfriend, to whom he had given a "Half a Sixpence" as a token of his affection, and becomes engaged to a society girl. This being a musical, by the final curtain, Kipps finds his head and heart and returns to his first, true love.

All the story and songs of "Half a Sixpence" suggest not the ’60s era in which it was written, but rather the musical comedies of the 1920s; and some of the songs in this evergreen entertainment, like, "If the Rains Got to Fall," are modestly melodious, and should heartily entertain Goodspeed’s faithful audiences.

Two notes on the original Broadway production: John Cleese, who was to go on to "Monty Python" fame, played the small-but-plot-relevant role of young Walsingham, who embezzles Kipps’s fortune. "Half a Sixpence" was also noteworthy as the last London musical to transfer successfully to New York before Andrew Lloyd Webber started to subvert the American musical a decade later.

Bernard Carragher lives in New York and covers the arts and entertainment.