SINGIN' IN THE RAIN A Musical in 2 Acts, 17 Scenes. Adaptation (book) by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. Based on their screenplay for the MGM film of the same name. Music by Nacio Herb Brown. Lyrics by Arthur Freed. London Palladium, June 30, 1983 (894 perfs) Gershwin Theatre, Broadway, July 2, 1985 (367 perfs) The classic MGM musical about Hollywood in the 20s when silent pictures were giving way to the "talkies". This light-hearted spoof of frantic Hollywood as the advent of sound changes all the movie making rules and Monumental Studios prepares its romantic epic The Duelling Cavalier includes some of the best-loved comedy routines, dance numbers and love ballads ever written. With a vintage score and book - and that torrential dance number - Singin' In the Rain is 24 carat classic entertainment. SYNOPSIS Act 1 The show opens in 1927 outside Graumann's Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard at the opening night of Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont's new movie, a silent swashbuckler, The Royal Rascal. Fans press forward eagerly as Don gives gossip columnist Dora Baily a highly fictionalised account of his early life. The audience is let into the secret of the The filmThe Royal Rascal is a wild success. It is after the movie's premier that we learn why Don would not let his leading lady make a speech the the movie theatre audience - Linda has a voice like a buzz-saw. Eager to escape from Lina who is beginning to believe the studio publicity department's story of the romance between them, Don sends his friend and ex dancing partner Cosmo Brown to the studio party with Lina. Don goes for a walk and to escape from fans he pretends to be with a girl who is sitting on a bench. The girl, Kathy Selden, wants to be a serious actress and is wholly unimpressed by the screen idol that is Don Lockwood. Don, however, is smitten. Later, at his party studio boss R.F. Simpson gives a demonstration of the new talking pictures. Then a huge cake is wheeled on and out pops Kathy who, much to her embarrassment comes face to face with none other than Don Lockwood. Don immediately makes fun of the fact that , having claimed to be a serious actress, she is working as a dancer. Kathy throws a cake at him, misses and hits Lina. On stage at Monumental Pictures, Don is getting ready to shoot his new movie. All the while he is brooding about Kathy who, as a result of the fracas at the party and at the insistence of star Lina, has lost her job. Cosmo tries to cheer him up. The director of the movie, the larger-than-life Rosco Dexter, arrives to begin shooting The Duelling Cavalier. Don and Lina begin their love scene but when Don discovers that Lina got Kathy fired, the love scene degenerates into a row. Then R.F. closes the picture down - he has decided to shoot the movie as a talkie! Kathy gets a job in Monumental's first musical. Spotted in the chorus, she sings for R.F. and Cosmo who has been appointed head of the musical department. Don hears her too. Kathy is put under contract - on condition that the news is kept from Lina. It is on the now deserted sound stage that Don uses the stage machinery to create the right romantic mood to declare his love for Kathy. Preparing for their first talkie, Don and Lina are having elocution lessons. Lina's is going badly but Don is doing well although Cosmo arrives to mock. Filming of The Duelling Cavalier hits problems as the sound men desperately try to find a place for the microphone. "It's in the bush", Rosco tells Lina - again and again- but she is hopeless. The preview of the movie is a disaster: the dialogue is trite, Lina's voice is awful and so is the sound quality. The audience is appalled. The studio faces ruin if the film's problems cannot be fixed.
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