50 Favourite Musicals: 18: CITY OF ANGELS (1989) (Cy Coleman / David Zippel)

The 50 shows that have stood out down the years and, as we get up among the paint cards, the shows that have become the cast recording of my life:

First performed: 1989, Virginia Theatre, NY

First seen by me: 1993, Prince of Wales Theatre, London

Productions seen: three

Score: Cy Coleman / David Zippel
Book: Larry Gelbart
Plot:  1940s Hollywood: the crime novelist Stine is trying to adapt his novel "City of Angels" for dictatorial film producer Buddy Fiddler but fact and fiction feed off each other and Stine soon discovers his worst critic is his fictional private eye hero Stone...

Five memorable numbers: WITH EVERY BREATH I TAKE, LOST AND FOUND, YOU CAN ALWAYS COUNT ON ME, FUNNY,  IT NEEDS WORK

By the time Michael Blakemore's production of the musical CITY OF ANGELS opened in the West End in 1993. after playing two years on Broadway, I was word perfect with Cy Coleman and David Zippel's score having bought the Original Cast Recording cd soon after it was released.  I immediately loved Coleman's mix of lush film noir music and snappy 1940s big-band jazz along with David Zippel's cynical and tart lyrics.  Blakemore's marvelously detailed production deftly handled the intricacies of Larry Gelbart's book, seamlessly moving from the black and white fictional world of private detective Stone who is hired by the glamorous Mrs Kingsley to find her wayward step-daughter, and the Technicolor world of 1940s Hollywood where we see the film script being written by the increasingly disenchanted screenwriter Stine.  A wonderful cast was headed by Roger Allam and the late Martin Smith as Stone and Stine, Henry Goodman stealing scenes as the egotistical producer Buddy Fiddler, and an array of fine West End actresses playing double roles : delicious Susannah Fellows as the seductive Alaura Kingsley and as Fiddler's actress wife Carla, Fiona Hendley as Stone's long-lost lover Bobbi and Stone's estranged wife Gabby, Haydn Gwynne as Stone's trusty secretary Oolie as well as Fiddler's secretary Donna, and Sarah Jane Hassell as the very-much alive missing step-daughter Mallory and the starlet Avril.  CITY OF ANGELS was seen as going toe-to-toe with Lloyd Webber's SUNSET BOULEVARD which opened a few months afterward which was, of course, also a film noir tale of the Los Angeles film world.  Sadly, despite it being a better show with better reviews, CITY OF ANGELS closed after eight months - it's closure started again the eternal debate about how do you get audiences in to a totally new show which requires a little work from them intellectually, opposed to a show that they know from a previous film.  There was some sort of revenge however when CITY OF ANGELS won the Olivier Award for Best Musical over SUNSET BOULEVARD.

You cannot keep a good show down though: I saw a Guildhall Drama School production 15 years later and then in 2014, it finally received another West End production at the Donmar in a production which suffered from the underwhelming performances of the three male leads and director Josie Rourke's sometimes sluggish pacing.  The show however was wonderfully designed and lit and starred a fine bunch of broads - Katherine Kelly (Alaura / Carla), Rosalie Craig (Bobbi / Gabby), Samantha Barks (Mallory / Avril) and the wonderful Rebecca Trehearn (Oolie / Donna) who stopped the show with the glorious "You Can Always Count On Me".   The show can be accused of having characters that are hard to like and it can be said that Gelbart's second act gets bogged down in the collision of plot lines (both onscreen and off) but owing to Coleman and Zippel's wonderful score it's a show I would love to see again.  And again.

I have chosen the following press-reel video for the original Broadway production of CITY OF ANGELS as it features two favourite songs, powerfully performed, "Lost And Found" and "You Can Always Count On Me" but it also serves to give you a flavour of Coleman and Zippel's standout score.