Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Doctor Death

Plus: Groundhog Day at the Old Vic will be a hit – but it only succeeds as spectacle, not as a musical

issue 27 August 2016

‘European premiere of classic American musical’ is a phrase that deeply alarms the experienced playgoer. As I tootled along to Southwark Playhouse I asked myself why this Rodgers and Hammerstein masterpiece had taken so long to plough its way across the ocean. In 1947 the Broadway prodigies decided to follow up their first two hits, Oklahoma! and Carousel, with a brand new storyline drawn entirely from their imaginations.

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