Wonderful Town

Thursday 21 December 6.30–7.45pm Barbican Hall

Bernstein (concert version)

Sir conductor Danielle de Niese Eileen ENCUE Alysha Umphress Ruth PROGRAMME NOTES ON YOUR SMARTPHONE OR TABLET Nathan Gunn Bob Baker Duncan Rock Wreck/Second Associate Editor We’re working with EnCue for this concert to bring you digital David Butt Philip Lonigan programme notes that are synced to the performance as it happens, Ashley Riches Guide/First Associate Editor/Frank giving you a real-time insight into the music and the musicians. Kevin Brewis Third Cop/First Man/Cadet/Villager EnCue is available as an app for both Apple and Android devices, Stephen John Davis First Cop/Chick Clark and can be used on a tablet if desired. Here’s how to get involved: Flora Dawson Violet Soophia Foroughi Second Woman 1 Connect to the ‘LSO Half Six Fix’ WiFi network in the Andrew Keelan Second Cop/Second Man Barbican Centre (no password). Jane Quinn First Woman 2 Search for ‘EnCue’ in the App Store or Google Play, Michael Baxter Fourth Cop and download the app (it’s free). Daniele Quilleri, Gary Brown casting consultants 3 Set your phone to silent. We also recommend turning off London Symphony Chorus auto screen lock and disabling push notifications. chorus director Simon Halsey 4 Open the EnCue app. David Lawrence assistant chorus director 5 You can sign in with Facebook or your email if you want to create London Symphony Orchestra an account. If you’d rather not create an account, select ‘Skip’.

elcome to Half Six Fix, a new way to experience great 6 Select ‘London’ from the list of available cities, and choose our concert. classical music from the LSO. Before the performance 7 Tap ‘Download Performance’ then ‘View Performance’. The notes begins, LSO Music Director Sir Simon Rattle will give you will start and advance automatically during the performance – an introduction to the music from the stage. To bring you closer to you can swipe left or right to browse content on your own, the action, we’ve got screens to showcase the performers up-close, and re-sync with the performance at any time by tapping the EnCue icon in the lower left corner of the screen. You will know and you can access digital programme notes through your Android you are in sync when the icon is completely blue. or Apple device. Grab a drink, take your seat and enjoy the concert! 8 To access the app’s user guide, tap the (?) icon in the top right of the screen. Please note that photography and filming are not permitted during the performance, and phones and devices are only to be used to access the EnCue app. We ask that customers set their phones to silent and turn notifications off. BERNSTEIN WONDERFUL TOWN LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ON STAGE

Performance given by permission of Leader Cellos Saxophones Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Limited Roman Simovic Tim Hugh Luke Annesley Alastair Blayden Claire McInerney Book by and First Violins Jennifer Brown Mike Davis Music by Carmine Lauri Noel Bradshaw Mark Crooks Lyrics by and Lennox Mackenzie Eve-Marie Caravassilis Jay Craig Based upon the play by Joseph Fields and Clare Duckworth Hilary Jones Jerome Chodorov and The Short Stories by Ruth McKenney Nigel Broadbent Bassoon Ginette Decuyper Double Basses Rachel Gough 1 Overture Gerald Gregory Colin Paris 2 Christopher Street Maxine Kwok-Adams Patrick Laurence Trumpets 3 Ohio Claire Parfitt Matthew Gibson David Elton 4 Conquering Harriet Rayfield Joe Melvin Russell Bennett 5 One Hundred Easy Ways to Lose a Man Sylvain Vasseur Jani Pensola Gerald Ruddock 6 What a Waste Rhys Watkins Niall Keatley 7 A Little Bit in Love Flutes Paul Mayes 8 Pass the Football Second Violins Gareth Davies 9 Conversation Piece David Alberman Alex Jakeman Trombones 10 A Quiet Girl Miya Väisänen Peter Moore 11 Conga David Ballesteros Piccolo James Maynard 12 Entr’acte Matthew Gardner Sharon Williams 13 My Darlin’ Eileen Julian Gil Rodriguez Bass Trombone 14 Swing Naoko Keatley Oboes Paul Milner 15 Quiet Incidental Belinda McFarlane Olivier Stankiewicz 16 Ohio (Reprise) Iwona Muszynska Timpani 17 It’s Love Andrew Pollock Cor Anglais Nigel Thomas 18 Ballet at the Village Vortex Paul Robson Christine Pendrill 19 The Wrong-Note Rag Percussion 20 It’s Love (Reprise) Violas Clarinets Neil Percy No interval Edward Vanderspar Andrew Marriner David Jackson Gillianne Haddow Chris Richards itting between (1943) and (1957), Malcolm Johnston Drum Kit Wonderful Town (1953) is the second of three musicals Anna Bastow E-Flat Clarinet Matthew Skelton by Leonard Bernstein in which itself plays Julia O’Riordan Chi-Yu Mo a lead role. It is based on the 1940 play My Sister Eileen by Joseph Robert Turner Piano Fields and Jerome Chodorov, which in turn had been adapted from Heather Wallington Bass Clarinet Bruno Heinen a book of short autobiographical stories by Ruth McKenney. Jonathan Welch Christelle Pochet Michelle Bruil The plot follows sisters Ruth and Eileen Sherwood, freshly arrived in the Big City from Columbia, Ohio, and eager to make their mark: Ruth as a writer, Eileen as an actress. The 1930s setting (one which the book writers initially wanted to update to the 1950s) allowed Bernstein to reference not only the style of musicals by Cole Porter, Jerome Kern and Irving Berlin but also to incorporate the recent jazz craze.

Bernstein, Comden and Green, who had together written On the Town, were tasked by director to produce the music and MORE HALF SIX FIX IN 2018 lyrics for Wonderful Town at short notice, after the contributions of the existing composer/lyricist team were deemed unsuitable. Wednesday 28 March 2018 6.30–7.30pm Cooped up in Bernstein’s 57th Street apartment the trio came up Barbican Hall with the music and song lyrics in just five weeks. STRAVINSKY & DEBUSSY The original production ran on Broadway for 559 performances, most of which featured the Hollywood actress as François Xavier-Roth conductor Ruth. The show won five in its first year, and it’s easy to see why. Although Wonderful Town doesn’t have the gritty edge of West Side Story, it effortlessly combines witty lyrics, a light- LET US KNOW WHAT YOU THOUGHT hearted plot and a sizzling, wide-ranging score in tracing Ruth and Eileen’s adventure in the Big Apple. We’d love to know what you thought! Give us your feedback by filling out a short online survey atgoo.gl/wV4JzG Introduction & EnCue programme notes by Edward Bhesania