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SALAD DAYS Book and Lyrics by Dorothy Reynolds and Julian Slade Music by Julian Slade Produced at the Vaudeville Theatre, London, August 5, 1954 (2283 perfs) Barbizon Plaza, New York - November 10, 1958 (80 perfs) SALAD DAYS started its life in June 1954 at the Theatre Royal, Bristol. Dorothy Reynolds and I had been commissioned to write an endof-season summer show for the Bristol Old Vic Company and it was scheduled to run just three weeks. But Fate - and a London Management - intervened. On August 5th. 1954 we opened with the same production at the Vaudeville Theatre, London, and stayed there for five and a half years, becoming (for then) the longest running musical in the history of the British Theatre. (J.S.) It has been playing somewhere in the world ever since. STORY Newly acquired BA gowns hang heavy on the shoulders of Jane and Timothy. Having got this far, what on earth do they do next? They could get married, of course (so they do), but how can they make a living? In a London park one breathlessly warm summer day they encounter a tramp who trundles round a mobile mini-piano. Even tramps need a holiday now and then, and he invites the young graduates to look after his business interests for a month at £7 per week plus whatever they can collect. The piano is not just any old mobile mini; those who hear it find themselves dancing, even against their better judgment. On this gentle thread of story is strung a series of revue-type scenes providing rich opportunities for versatile comedy players who can also sing and dance. The story of Salad Days begins in the precincts of a University, where a Tramp is trying out a new melody on a battered old street piano. (Opening Music), His musings are soon interrupted by the arrival of a gaggle of Dons who have come to bid farewell to two departing graduates, Jane and Timothy. (The Things That Are Done By a Done). The young couple are sad to leave the University, but determined to face uptothe future. (We Said We Wouldn't Look Back). Their future, however, is uncertain, as both are being harassed by their parents, she to find a suitable husband, he a suitable job, following in the footsteps of one of his influential uncles. His troubles usually begin at breakfast. (Find Yourself Something To Do). The pair arrange to meet in a London park. As usual, Jane is on time, Timothy is not. (I Sit In the Sun). They discuss their future and decide it would simplify life to marry each other and take the first job that comes along. This proves easy, for the Tramp arrives wheeling the old piano, and offers them seven pounds a week to look after it for a month. On hearing the Tramp play it, they discover to their amazement that the piano produces in them an irresistable urge to dance. (Oh, Look at Me!). Timothy temporarily appeases his parents by going to the Foreign Office to see his Uncle Clam (Hush-Hush), but he is soon back in the park with Jane and the piano (now christened 'Minnie'), eager to discover if it will make everyone else dance too. Indeed it does - from street urchins to policemen to Bishops! (Oh, Look at Me: Reprise). It is not long before the park is full of people exhausted from dancing to Minnie's tune. (Out of Breath). An admirer of Jane's, Nigel, not knowing that she is now secretly married, invites her to a night-club called 'The Cleopatra' where they witness a somewhat unusual cabaret (Cleopatra and Sand In My Eyes). On leaving

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