Lady Christine FitzSimons (Maureen O’Hara) travels from Ireland to India to visit her daughter, only to discover than she has died. Blaming both her husband, Rashil Singh (Morley Meredith) and India in general, she immediately plans to return home. However she soon realises just how much Rashil loved his wife and takes on the role of matriarch of the family, whose job is to find Rashil another wife. But as she stays she starts to fall in love with Rashil...

Christine (1960) is a romantic musical with music by Sammy Fain and lyrics by Paul Francis Webster. The content of the show was a brave choice, given that most would feel that there was something odd about a man falling in love with his own mother-in-love. Thankfully, unlike failed attempts to simulate an English accent, no one in the show sports a fake India accent.

O’Hara was ably aided in the show by Janet Pavek (Sita), Nancy Andrews (auntie), Phil Leeds (uncle) and Jonathan Morris (nephew). Some of the concepts around marriage and women’s freedoms may seem anachronistic, possibly even offensive to some parts of a modern audience, but the show is a product of its time, a modern revival would require extensive rewrites.

Maureen O’Hara was a beautiful Irish actress, a natural for the title role, with a very good soprano voice, who brings a lot of class to the recording. Indeed her solo songs tend to be both the strongest and most memorable. She won four Awards for her part in the show all in the category of the year's best leading actress in a musical, including a Tony. The track listing is:

01 - 'Overture'
02 - 'Welcome Song / My Indian Family'
03 - 'A Doctor’s Soliloquy'
04 - 'UNICEF Song'
05 - 'My Little Lost Girl'
06 - 'I’m Just a Little Sparrow'
07 - 'How To Pick a Man a Wife'
08 - 'The Lovely Girls of Akbarabad'
09 - 'Room in My Heart'
10 - 'The Divali Festival'
11 - 'I Never Meant To Fall in Love'
12 - 'Freedom Can Be a Most Uncomfortable Thing'
13 - 'Ireland Was Never Like This'
14 - 'He Loves Her'
15 - 'Christine'
16 - 'I Love Him'
17 - 'Freedom Can Be a Most Uncomfortable Thing (reprise)'
18 - 'The Woman I Was Before / A Doctor’s Soliloquy (reprise)'
19 - 'I Never Meant To Fall in Love (reprise) / Finale'

So, dodgy concept aside, here we have a lost little gem and will be of especial interest to fans of Maureen O’Hara.

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Charles Packer