THE BOY FRIEND Book, Lyrics and Music by Sandy Wilson Produced at Wyndham's Theatre, London, January 14, 1954 (2084 perfs) Royale Theatre, New York - September 30, 1954 (485 perfs) SYNOPSIS Madame Dubonnet's finishing school, near Nice, could exist only in musical comedy. The charming young pupils burst into song at the least provocation, and forbidden boy friends are forever popping through the french windows to make up the numbers. Polly Browne is too rich to be allowed a boy friend. Tony, for whom she falls, turns out to be the Hon. Tony Brockhurst, which is very lucky, because Polly thought he was just a delivery boy. Written in the fifties as "a new musical of the twenties", this is still the most successful, tuneful and witty of the send-up musicals, which ape the style of earlier, lighterhearted and more disarming days. For the Chorus Originally intended for a small cast (half a dozen pupils, boy friends to match, and a handful of extras), it can be, and frequently has been, expanded very considerably without showing the slightest strain. Set firmly in Boop-a-Doop country the music makes an instant appeal to performers and audiences alike with attractive syncopations and a modicum of part singing. The chorus appear as pupils, boy friends and guests at a fancydress ball. Singing Principals • Polly Browne, Maisie, Dulcie, Fay and Nancy, pupils. • Madame Dubonnet. • Hortense, her maid. • Tony, Bobby, Marcel, Pierre and Alphonse, boy friends. • Percival Browne, Polly's father • Lord Brockhurst, Tony's father Straight Role • Lady Brockhurst. The Scenes • Drawing-room of the finishing school. • The Plage. • Terrasse of the Café Patoplon (One full-stage set for each Act, with an interval change) MUSICAL NUMBERS: 1. Perfect Young Ladies - Chorus of Girls with solo Hortense 2. The Boy Friend - Ensemble 3. Won't You Charleston? - Bobbie and Maisie 4. Fancy Forgetting - Mme Dubonnet and Percival 5. I Could be Happy with You. - Tony and Polly
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