Written by Anthony Drewe
The evolution of JUST SO, and the animal characters therein, may have caused even Charles Darwin to raise a quizzical eyebrow.
It all started in 1984 when George and I were reading Rudyard Kipling’s “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi” to George’s young niece and nephew. Kipling’s style of storytelling, his idiosyncratic use of language, and play on words, led me to revisit some of his other works and amongst them I rediscovered “The Just So Stories”.
I suggested the idea of a musical version to George and, not realising how hard it was going to be to link several unrelated short stories into one narrative, in January 1985, we started writing.
We had completed three songs (“Just So”, “There’s No Harm in Asking”, and a rather naff
song for the Giraffe called “Walk Tall”) when we heard that the Performing Rights Society was
launching The Vivian Ellis Prize, a competition for young (as we then were) musical writers.
We duly submitted the entry requirements of a synopsis and two songs and were thrilled when, in April 1985, we won the competition. We were also thrilled to be sitting in front of one of my heroes, Alan Jay Lerner, who told us that he thought the right show had won!
The judges included Vivian Ellis, David Heneker, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Tim Rice, Don Black, Mike Batt and a young (as he then was) producer called Cameron Mackintosh.
So began our 20-year friendship with Cameron, and a journey that is even longer and more winding than the great grey-green greasy Limpopo River.
The show was first staged as a semi-professional production at the Barbican Theatre in Plymouth over Christmas 1985. George and I were very unhappy with the result, but Cameron was most encouraging - telling
us that 60% of the show was good, and suggesting that we had a holiday and then revisit the musical. In truth, maybe 10% of the show was good, but Cameron knew that the truth may have been too painful for two young upstarts to absorb.
Four years and several rewrites later, Cameron co-produced JUST SO in May 1989 at the
Watermill Theatre, Newbury, directed by Julia McKenzie. The show was popular, but it still
wasn’t right. We were delighted when Stephen Sondheim came to see the production and, at
dinner afterwards, he gave us his notes. He felt the show needed more of a point of view,
and that he “got it” when the Elephant’s Child sang THERE’S NO HARM IN ASKING, but that
this song happened too late in Act One.
Another year, and a couple of rewrites later, Cameron co-produced JUST SO in December 1990 at the Tricycle Theatre in Kilburn, directed by Mike Ockrent. This time we had given the show too much of a point of view - even where there was no view in need of pointing.
The show was popular, but still wasn’t right. We even embarked on a cast album –
Martin Koch orchestrated feverishly over Christmas and New Year to add strings, brass and
woodwind to the 4-piece Tricycle band, but somehow (through no fault of Martin’s) the score
seemed to get “lost in translation” and a halt was called before the cast got to put their
vocals on the recording.
Maybe George and I would have called it quits at that juncture, but not long after the show had ended its run in Kilburn, Cameron called us to say he had sold the animation rights to Steven Spielberg. It didn’t take too much persuasion for us to get our pens out again!
Sadly the animation never came to fruition, but it did lead us to look at the show
in a fresh light and to make some interesting new changes, including
the introduction of Pau Amma the Crab as a menace that
threatened the existence of all the other animal characters.
George and I decided we needed a new project to work on
and, using many of the lessons we had learned with
JUST SO, we wrote HONK! in 1993 very quickly over
a 6 month period.
I needed some time to reflect on JUST SO, and to absorb the advice of what had now
become a rather distinguished alumni of mentors. In 1994 I went to New York on my own and
completely rewrote the book for JUST SO. On my flight back to London I flicked through my
new version and decided it was probably no better than anything we had written previously -
different, but no better.When I got home I wouldn’t show it to George or Cameron.
A year or so later, Cameron asked us to go to his place in Somerset to talk about the
possibility of us working on MARY POPPINS as a stage musical, as well as to brainstorm
JUST SO again. I took along my New York notes, and both Cameron and George loved the new
material - so with renewed vigour we continued with the rewrites.
In November 1998, JUST SO was mounted at the Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut.
It was very successful and we really felt we were very close to getting the writing right.
The show was orchestrated at Goodspeed by two very hip young musicians, Christopher
Jahnke and John Clancy - who made George and I feel even older than we then were -
but who became very important collaborators.
A couple of new songs later, and riding on the success of HONK!, I was asked to direct JUST SO myself at the North Shore Music Theatre in Massachusetts in June 2001.
The producers at NSMT allowed me to bring my own team from the UK, hence
choreographer Stephen Mear and designer Peter McKintosh joined the creative team.
In November 2003 I directed a student production of JUST SO at Arts
Educational School in West London, which gave us the chance to hone
and re-Anglicize the script.
Finally, in July 2004 we were asked to remount the NSMT production at the Chichester Festival Theatre with the same creative team. The production was such a success, both critically and with audiences, that Cameron decided, along with John Craig at First Night Records, that we should record the CD.
In October of 2004 we went into Whitfield Street Studios and, over two and half thrilling days, the show was captured from the wild. However, this being JUST SO, the story didn’t end there!
George, Cameron and I were all working on MARY POPPINS at the time, and we had no time to fully mix and edit the recording while moving Mary from Bristol to London and recording that cast album in January and February 2005.
Once we returned
to JUST SO, we all felt that there was just one “final” set of changes to be made. We
decided to ditch the opening number “Go Forth” and replace it with the song that had always
opened the show – the title song – “Just So”.
By the time we came to record the new opening, in November 2005, many of the
Chichester cast were no longer available. But we were lucky enough to find an old friend, the
wonderful John Barrowman, who threw himself with gay abandon into conjuring up the Eldest
Magician - and I took little persuasion to be fired up as the Cooking Stove.
I don’t know who it was who coined the expression “musicals are not written they are
rewritten” but it is certainly true in the case of JUST SO. If it hadn’t been for Cameron’s
support and belief in the show, and in us as burgeoning writers, I am sure we would have
given up years ago. However, I think we have finally reached a point where we are
happy with our safari through Kipling’s jungle, and despite the long gestation
period, JUST SO will always be a favourite with George and I as I think, apart
from anything else, it represents our own development as writers.
Anthony Drewe – March 2006
Take a sneaky peak and listen |
