Image: First Night original, not an official production poster
Musical
Stephen Ward
A well-connected osteopath becomes the convenient scapegoat for a scandal that shakes the British establishment.
First Night is a theatre diary for logging the shows you've seen and discovering what to see next.
The story
Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical, with book and lyrics by Christopher Hampton and Don Black, retells the 1963 Profumo affair through Stephen Ward, a society osteopath who introduced Christine Keeler to War Secretary John Profumo. Keeler's connection to Soviet naval attaché Yevgeny Ivanov turns private relationships into a national crisis. The musical presents Ward as the figure sacrificed when the scandal begins to engulf those around him.
In the room
Told in flashback, with Ward introduced in a waxworks chamber of horrors, the show mixes courtroom drama, social satire and tragedy. It gives Ward a sympathetic voice without hiding his manipulative streak.
Good fit if you like
darker musicals, political scandals and stories of influential people shifting blame.
Details
- From 19 Dec 2013
Running time not recorded.
Recent logs
Cast & crew
No cast or crew recorded yet.