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Stage Door present an album of selections from the George
Posford and Eric Maschwitz London musicals 'Zip Goes A Million'
and 'Happy Holiday'.
'Zip Goes A Million', based on the 1902 novel 'Brewster's
Millions', was written as a vehicle for variety entertainer George
Formby
who would make his musical theatre debut in the production. Produced by
theatre impresario
Emile Littler, 'Zip Goes A Million' co-starred Sara Gregory
and Warde Donovan and opened at
London's Palace Theatre on October 20th 1951. The production
was an instant hit and garnered overwhelmingly positive notices from
both the critics and audiences. The writing team of Posford and Maschwitz and impresario Emile
Littler collaborated on a second London musical;
'Happy Holiday'. An adaptation of the Arnold Ridley play 'The Ghost
Train', 'Happy Holiday' opened at
London's Palace Theatre on December 22nd 1954. The
production reunited the creative team with
Reg Dixon who played the lead role of Charlie Purseglove in a cast that
also included
Janet Brown, Marie Burke and Austin Melford. Despite the
personnel involved, the production failed to emulate the success of
'Zip Goes A Million' and closed after just 31 performances.
This
collection compiles all the Original London Cast recordings from
both 'Zip Goes A Million'
and 'Happy Holiday' along with a number of pop covers and
instrumentals from each score performed by such artists as
Pearl Carr, Petula Clark, Ronnie Harris, Hutch and the Frank Barber
Orchestra. As a special bonus, the disc includes selections from a live
radio broadcast of
'Zip Goes A Million'.
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RELEASE
DATE: JUNE 26th, 2020
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