In late 1970, noted British theatre composer Sandy Wilson was commissioned to write a new musical for the Hampstead Theatre Club's 1971/1972 Christmas Season. The subject Wilson chose was John Collier's novel His Monkey Wife (or, Married to a Chimp) and the new musical His Monkey Wife opened on December 20th 1971, running for 28 performances. Writing book, music and lyrics, Wilson's adaptation remained faithful to the Collier novel telling the story of Alfred Fatigay, an English schoolteacher who returns to England from the Upper Congo with Emily, a chimpanzee who resolves to educate herself and become a rival for Fatigay's hand from his pretentious fiancee Fern Flint. The cast included June Ritchie, Robert Swann and Bridget Armstrong.

Following the limited season at the Hampstead Theatre Club, His Monkey Wife was considered for both a West End and Broadway transfer (producer David Merrick expressed a keen interest) but neither materialised.

So, after all these years we can hear it again. Stage Door, the UK's premier label for preserving lost musicals, have released the original 1971 London Cast album of His Monkey Wife on CD, accompanied with selections from Sandy Wilson's Aladdin, a production which was commissioned by the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith in 1979, and conceived by Wilson as a musical adaptation of the classic Arabian Nights Tale. The musical featured an all-star cast including Elisabeth Welch, Christine McKenna, Belinda Lang, Joe Melia and Aubrey Woods.

To say this is a strange recording would be somewhat of an understatement. I've listened to it a few times, in the real hope that I would understand what was going on. The music is distinctively British - there can be no doubting that. The melodies are simple, but surprisingly unmemorable. Everything is performed very well and the basic orchestrations work well, but to me, it has little appeal. I quite enjoyed 'Who Is She' - probably the most 'main stream' track on the recording, although 'A Girl Like You' also has some appeal too. Recording quality was ok, but it's clear that the original masters weren't available (or weren't in the best of condition) - nothing too bad, but some distortion was evident on the louder vocal moments.

Strangely, the Aladdin tracks were a much more rewarding experience. We are all used to the Cole Porter version, so it made a nice change to hear Wilson's version. The recording quality is also noticeably better than for His Monkey's Wife - I'm guessing the masters were available' or the source material in better condition. It was nice to hear the wonderful Elisabeth Welch on this recording - her voice is unmistakable.

As usual, the packaging and inlay booklet are of a high standard, which is what we have come to expect from Stage Door. Whilst we only get "selections" from Aladdin, it still runs to an impressive 13 tracks, making the album a total of 29 tracks - certainly value for money, and was probably enough material for 2 CDs (which would have pleased the collectors amongst us, who are now beating themselves up about where to file this in their alphabetic collections). Whatever the appeal, it’s still admirable that Stage Door carry on releasing these smaller shows, so that they aren’t lost for ever.

I think I'll file mine in the 'interesting' section', although not sure how many times I'll go a-looking for it.

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Ian Gude