Good Nights Out - A History of Popular British Theatre Since the Second World War

London's West End is a global success story, staging phenomenal hit shows that have delighted millions of spectators and generated billions of pounds in revenue. In Good Nights Out, Aleks Sierz provides a thematic survey of such popular theatre shows that were enormous commercial successes over the past 75 years. He argues that these outstanding hits have a lot to say about the collective cultural, social and political attitudes and aspirations of the country, and about how our national identity - and theatre's role in creating it - has evolved over the decades.

The book spans a range of work from almost forgotten plays, such as R. F. Delderfield's Worm's Eye View and Hugh Hastings's Seagulls Over Sorrento, to well-known mega-hits, such as The Mousetrap and The Phantom of the Opera. Such popular work has tended to be undervalued by some critics and commentators mainly because it has not been thought to be a suitable subject for inclusion in the canon of English Literature. By contrast, Sierz demonstrates that genres such as the British musical, light comedy, sex farce or murder mystery are worth appreciating not only for their intrinsic theatrical qualities, but also as examples of the dream life of the British people. The book challenges the idea that mega-hits are merely escapist entertainments and instead shows how they contribute to the creation of powerful myths about our national life. The analysis of such shows also points towards the possibility of creating an alternative history of postwar British theatre.

List of contents

Acknowledgements

A Note on Sources

Introduction

Chapter One
War: Comic, Tragic and Nostalgic
While the Sun Shines (1943)
Worm's Eye View (1945)
Seagulls Over Sorrento (1950)
Reluctant Heroes (1950)
War Horse (2007)

Chapter Two
Crime: Classical, Farcical and Postmodern
The Mousetrap (1952)
Simple Spymen (1958)
Sleuth (1970)
The Business of Murder (1981)

Chapter Three
Sex: Comic, Episodic and Ironic
There's a Girl in My Soup (1966)
Pyjama Tops (1969)
Oh! Calcutta! (1969)
No Sex, Please - We're British (1971)

Chapter Four
Family: Traditional, Redemptive and Fractured
'Sailor, Beware!' (1955)
Spring and Port Wine (1965)
The Man Most Likely To (1968)
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (2012)

Chapter Five
Class: Musical, Parodic and Political
Charlie Girl (1965)
Daisy Pulls It Off (1983)
Blood Brothers (1983)
Billy Elliot the Musical (2005)

Chapter Six
History: Gothic, Edwardian and Pastiche
The Phantom of the Opera (1986)
The Woman in Black (1987)
The 39 Steps (2006)
One Man, Two Guvnors (2011)

Chapter Seven
Fantasy: Whimsy, Camp and Sci-fi
Salad Days (1954)
The Rocky Horror Show (1973)
Return to the Forbidden Planet (1989)
Matilda the Musical (2010)

Conclusion - Dream Life of the British People

Appendix 1: List of new shows from 1940 until the end of 2015 with more than 1,000 performances (by run length)

Appendix 2: List of new shows from 1940 until the end of 2015 with more than 1,000 performances (by date)

Notes

Bibliography

Index

About the author

Aleks Sierz is the theatre critic of Tribune and a freelance theatre reviewer. He is a lecturer in modern British theatre whose seminal study, In-Yer-Face Theatre, defined a new generation of writers and their work. In 2006 Methuen Drama published his guide, The Theatre of Martin Crimp, which was followed up by 2012's Modern British Playwriting: the 1990s. Sierz's journalism has featured in the Sunday Times, the Daily Telegraph and the Independent. He is a widely read, highly regarded critic of modern British theatre.

Aleks Sierz FRSA is Visiting Professor at Rose Bruford College, London, UK, and author of In-Yer-Face Theatre: British Drama Today (Faber, 2001), John Osborne's Look Back in Anger (Continuum, 2008), Rewriting the Nation: British Theatre Today (Methuen Drama, 2011) and Modern British Playwriting: The 1990s (Methuen Drama 2012). He also
works as a journalist, broadcaster, lecturer and theatre critic.

Summary

London’s West End is a global success story, staging phenomenal hit shows that have delighted millions of spectators and generated billions of pounds in revenue. In Good Nights Out, Aleks Sierz provides a thematic survey of such popular theatre shows that were enormous commercial successes over the past 75 years. He argues that these outstanding hits have a lot to say about the collective cultural, social and political attitudes and aspirations of the country, and about how our national identity — and theatre’s role in creating it — has evolved over the decades.

The book spans a range of work from almost forgotten plays, such as R. F. Delderfield’s Worm’s Eye View and Hugh Hastings’s Seagulls Over Sorrento, to well-known mega-hits, such as The Mousetrap and The Phantom of the Opera. Such popular work has tended to be undervalued by some critics and commentators mainly because it has not been thought to be a suitable subject for inclusion in the canon of English Literature. By contrast, Sierz demonstrates that genres such as the British musical, light comedy, sex farce or murder mystery are worth appreciating not only for their intrinsic theatrical qualities, but also as examples of the dream life of the British people. The book challenges the idea that mega-hits are merely escapist entertainments and instead shows how they contribute to the creation of powerful myths about our national life. The analysis of such shows also points towards the possibility of creating an alternative history of postwar British theatre.

Foreword

An alternative history of postwar British theatre which charts and examines the plays and musicals that were enormous commercial successes, but which are often omitted from historical accounts in favour of more complex, but less popular work. Aleks Sierz argues that such shows express the dreamlife of the British people at various points in postwar history and are of both social and cultural significance.

Additional text

Sierz performs a deft, witty telling … [his] great strength … is to take the pulse of British dreaming as manifested in mega-hits.

Product details

• Authors: Aleks Sierz, Aleks (Author Sierz, Sierz Aleks
• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.12.2020
• EAN: 9781350200913
• ISBN: 978-1-350-20091-3
• No. of pages: 240
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > Theatre, ballet; PERFORMING ARTS / Theater / General, Theatre Studies