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Quiz about My  Life on the NotSoWicked Stage
Quiz about My  Life on the NotSoWicked Stage

My Life on the Not-So-Wicked Stage Quiz


For many years I worked in theatre as an actor, stage manager, director. I'll give you a description of some of the shows on which I've worked, and you'll identify the show. Break a leg!

A multiple-choice quiz by Cymruambyth. Estimated time: 9 mins.
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Author
Cymruambyth
Time
9 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
284,983
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
20
Difficulty
Tough
Avg Score
10 / 20
Plays
2555
Awards
Top 20% Quiz
Question 1 of 20
1. I made my first stage appearance at the age of four as a baby bird in a pantomime at Birmingham's Theatre Royal (that's the Birmingham in the UK, by the way). The pantomime was about two children who were abandoned in the forest by their wicked uncle. What's the name of the fairy tale on which the panto was based? Hint


Question 2 of 20
2. When I was 12 I danced the part of the wicked fairy in the ballet 'The Sleeping Beauty' (it was a production in which all the dancers were children). Who was the mean creature who condemns Princess Aurora to prick her finger on a spinning wheel on her sixteenth birthday? Hint


Question 3 of 20
3. When I was 13, I appeared in one of Shakespeare's greatest hits. The play is a comedy set in Athens and it is about thwarted love, mistaken identity, a ducal wedding, a falling-out between the King of the Fairies and his missus, and a troop of artisans who decide to perform a play. I was the mischievous right-hand of the King of the Fairies and my name was - ? Hint


Question 4 of 20
4. At age 13, I also performed in another of Shakespeare's comedies. This play takes place on an island, and the lead characters are a magician and his daughter, a witch (who is never seen onstage) and her monster son, the obligatory handsome prince, and a sprite. I was the sprite. What was the name of my character? Hint


Question 5 of 20
5. When I was 17, I appeared in another Shakespearean comedy about a young woman who is shipwrecked, disguises herself as a boy and hires on as a page to the local duke. The duke is wooing a wealthy young woman and sends his 'pageboy' as his emissary to her. The young woman falls in love with the 'pageboy' instead! I played the maid to the wealthy young woman. What was my character's name? Hint


Question 6 of 20
6. When I was 19 I landed a leading role in 'The Boyfriend', the musical that made Julie Andrews famous (I was not in the same production as Ms Andrews!). The musical is set in the 1920s and deals with the goings on of young English girls at a finishing school on the Riviera in France. My character joins an old roue in a delightful duet called "It's Never Too Late to Fall in Love". What's the name of my character? Hint


Question 7 of 20
7. One of the best roles I ever had was that of a bedraggled secretary who "lives!" The role was created on Broadway by Peggy Cass, who also played the part in the film of the play starring Rosalind Russell in the title role of "Auntie Mame". What was the name of my character? Hint


Question 8 of 20
8. I met my husband when we were both serving as apprentices for one of Canada's leading theatres. He was assistant set designer and I was on the acting/stage management team. One of the actresses in one of our productions fell ill and I had to go on as her understudy. I played a whacko who kept presenting the leading man with cheese! The play is set in New York and tells the story of a playboy, the women in his life, and the playboy's eventual abandonment of his womanizing ways when he falls in love with a prim and proper young woman who lives with her parents! What's the play? Hint


Question 9 of 20
9. Shortly before my first baby was born I was in another Shakespearean comedy playing maid to the ingenue. The play leans on practical jokes, misrepresentation, a love affair gone awry, a marvellously malapropic constable, a jealous younger brother and a pair of antagonistic lovers. My character's name was Ursula. What was the play? Hint


Question 10 of 20
10. One of my favourite shows is a delightful little British musical created by students at the Bristol Old Vic School. The plot line centres on a magic piano that makes everyone dance. I played Rowena, a dress designer's assistant who is in love with a police constable named Lancelot Boot. What was the musical? Hint


Question 11 of 20
11. By now you've no doubt discerned that my forte is comedy, but in one year I played two very straight roles - as a thirteen year old in 'The Potting Shed' and as a young, pregnant teenager abandoned by the father of her baby and by her mother, a woman of easy virtue who takes off with a rich lover. My character is cared for by a young gay art student who lets her share his apartment and cares for her during her pregnancy and the birth of her child. What was the play? Hint


Question 12 of 20
12. One of the strangest parts I ever had was that of the mother of three adult children in what had to be the most dysfunctional family of all time. The play was full of rambling conversations, none of which connected, and I had a heck of a time learning my lines because there was never any real reason to say any of them! The play was called 'Vegetable Inside' (I never figured why it was called that) and it was presented at the very first Winnipeg Fringe Festival in 1988. Which city hosts the longest-standing Fringe Festival in the world? Hint


Question 13 of 20
13. Back to the comedies! One of the musicals I most enjoyed playing in was 'A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum' with book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart and music by Stephen Sondheim. I played the mother of the boy who falls in love with the girl next door. What was the name of my character? Hint


Question 14 of 20
14. Another role I thoroughly enjoyed was that of The Wicked Witch of the West in 'The Wizard of Oz'. I don't have to explain the plot to you, do I? Can you remember who created the role of the Wicked Witch in the 1939 film starring Judy Garland? Hint


Question 15 of 20
15. While I'm not the biggest fan of Rogers and Hammerstein, I've appeared in more than one of their musicals. In which musical did I sing a solo entitled "When I Marry Mr. Snow"? Hint


Question 16 of 20
16. I played Ado Annie, the gal with an eye for the boys in Rogers and Hammerstein's 'Oklahoma!' Can you name the author of 'Green Grow the Lilacs', the book on which the show is based? Hint


Question 17 of 20
17. Another role I thoroughly enjoyed playing was Mrs. Squeezum in the bawdy musical comedy 'Lock Up Your Daughters', set in the 18th century (I got to sing a song called 'When Does the Ravishing Begin?'). The libretto was adapted by British actor Bernard Miles from a play by Henry Fielding. Which play? Hint


Question 18 of 20
18. Sad to say, only those who have seen a stage version of 'Oliver!' have enjoyed the song called 'That's Your Funeral' sung by Mr. and Mrs. Sowerberry (Mr. Sowerberry was the undertaker to whom Mr. Bumble the beadle sold Oliver Twist). I played their daughter Charlotte who was very mean to poor little Oliver. Do you know who played Mr. Sowerberry in the original London production of 'Oliver!' Hint


Question 19 of 20
19. Lerner and Loewe's 'Brigadoon' is a fantasy musical set in the Scottish highlands. My character sings 'On My Mother's Wedding Day'. Who did I play? Hint


Question 20 of 20
20. One of my favourite plays is Oscar Wilde's 'The Importance of Being Earnest'. I've performed in it twice, in two different roles - once as the aristocratic Lady Bracknell (I got to intone that famous line "In a handbag?") and once as the governess to the hero's ward. What was the governess' full name? Hint



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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. I made my first stage appearance at the age of four as a baby bird in a pantomime at Birmingham's Theatre Royal (that's the Birmingham in the UK, by the way). The pantomime was about two children who were abandoned in the forest by their wicked uncle. What's the name of the fairy tale on which the panto was based?

Answer: Babes in the Wood

The sad story of The Babes in the Wood was originally a 1595 ballad by Thomas Millington of Norwich which records the dismal fate of two little children left by their dying parents to the care of their uncle. Uncle covets the children's inheritance and hires two ruffians to do away with them, but the ruffians have a falling out, one kills the other and then abandons the children in the forest where they die of starvation. Randolph Caldecott (1846-1886), the most popular author and illustrator of children's books in his day, re-worked the story to make the wicked uncle's wife as avaricious as he, and they both conspire to abandon the little ones to their fate in the woods.

The children also die in Caldecott's version and, surprisingly in a Victorian telling of the tale, there is no moral and no come-uppance for the wicked uncle.

In 1932, Disney produced an animated version of the story and, true to Disney sentimentality, gave it a happy ending (the Disney rendition also mixes in some bits and pieces of the Grimm Brothers' 'Hansel and Gretel' and throws in a village populated by jolly little elves. Just think, if elves didn't exist, Disney would have had to invent them!)
2. When I was 12 I danced the part of the wicked fairy in the ballet 'The Sleeping Beauty' (it was a production in which all the dancers were children). Who was the mean creature who condemns Princess Aurora to prick her finger on a spinning wheel on her sixteenth birthday?

Answer: Carabosse

Tchaikovsky's classic remains to this day the most popular ballet in the world. It was first performed in Moscow on January 24, 1890, with choreography by the famed Marius Petipa. The ballet is based on 'La Belle au Bois Dormant' by Charles Perrault and it was included in his 1697 version of Giambattista Basile's 'Sun, Moon and Talia', which was published in 1634.

Scaramouche is the swashbuckling hero of Rafael Sabatini's 1921 novel set during the French Revolution, 'Coppelia' is an 1870 ballet with music by Leo Delibes about a life-like, life-size doll created by Dr. Coppelius, and Caravaggio was an Italian painter and bad boy who lived from 1571-1610.
3. When I was 13, I appeared in one of Shakespeare's greatest hits. The play is a comedy set in Athens and it is about thwarted love, mistaken identity, a ducal wedding, a falling-out between the King of the Fairies and his missus, and a troop of artisans who decide to perform a play. I was the mischievous right-hand of the King of the Fairies and my name was - ?

Answer: Puck

Scholars date Shakespeare's popular comedy from 1595 or 1596 (from some topical references and allusion to Spenser's 'Epithalamion' the latter date seems more likely), and in his introduction to the First Quarto, published in 1600, Thomas Fisher says that the play was "sundry times publicly performed". However the first recorded performance was at the court of King James on January 1, 1604.

Shakespeare drew heavily on folklore, legend and myth for his characters and sub-plots. The 'Legend of Pyramus and Thisbe', for instance, the play the artisans present at the Duke's wedding feast, was well-known to Elizabethan audiences.

Likewise, Puck was also well-known. The mischievous sprite of Shakespeare's play has a history that goes back into the mists of time. He is variously known as Robin Goodfellow, Hob, and Will o' the Wisp. In Wales he is Pwca, in Scotland and Ireland Pooka, and the Saxons called him Puca. The word pixies (or piskies in Cornwall) is a derivative of Puck.

One of my favourite books when I was a youngster was Rudyard Kipling's 'Puck of Pook's Hill', a collection of short stories based on English legends, myths and history, featuring Puck and two children whom he entrances with the tales.

Peaseblossom was one of Titania's (the Queen of the Fairies) attendants, Bottom was the hapless artisan who ends up with the head of an ass, and Oberon is the King of the Fairies, whom Puck serves.
4. At age 13, I also performed in another of Shakespeare's comedies. This play takes place on an island, and the lead characters are a magician and his daughter, a witch (who is never seen onstage) and her monster son, the obligatory handsome prince, and a sprite. I was the sprite. What was the name of my character?

Answer: Ariel

'The Tempest' was written around 1610-11, and is generally considered to be the last play Shakespeare wrote (indeed, some scholars who have far too much time on their hands deem the references in the text to the Globe and theatre in general to be Shakespeare's way of signalling his retirement. Amazing what bees people get in their bonnets!) There are any number of theories as to the sources Shakespeare drew on for 'The Tempest' and the consensus is that it's based on a variety of sources - including a 1606 translation of 'Naufragium' ('The Shipwreck') by Erasmus, Richard Eden's 1555 translation of Peter Martyr's 'De Orbo Novo' ('Decades of the New World or West India') and letters written by William Strachey giving an eye witness account of the 1609 wreck of the ship 'Sea Venture' in the Caribbean. Whatever the source, there's also a heavy reliance on commedia dell'arte characters to people the play - Pantalone and Isabella forming the basis for Prospero and Miranda.

Puck appears in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', Robin Goodfellow is another name for Puck, and Caliban is the monster in 'The Tempest'.
5. When I was 17, I appeared in another Shakespearean comedy about a young woman who is shipwrecked, disguises herself as a boy and hires on as a page to the local duke. The duke is wooing a wealthy young woman and sends his 'pageboy' as his emissary to her. The young woman falls in love with the 'pageboy' instead! I played the maid to the wealthy young woman. What was my character's name?

Answer: Maria

The Play was 'Twelfth Night', one of my all-time favourites. The characters are delightful. There's the love sick Duke Orsino, the fair Countess Olivia - the object of Orsino's affections, the shipwrecked Viola - the girl-passing-as-a-boy - whom Orsino sends to ply his suit with Olivia (and with whom Olivia falls in love!), Viola's twin Sebastian, Olivia's rascally uncle Sir Toby Belch and his sidekick Sir Andrew Aguecheek, the jester Feste, the pompous major domo Malvolio - who falls for a dastardly trick played on him by Sir Toby and Maria who write a love letter to him in Olivia's name, and his resulting behaviour causes Olivia to think he has gone mad, and my character Maria, who has her eye on Sir Toby.

As in all Shakespeare's comedies, all ends well - Orsino marries Viola, her brother Sebastian weds the lovely Olivia, and Maria gets Sir Toby! The play was written around 1600-01, and was first fully printed in the First Folio (1623).
6. When I was 19 I landed a leading role in 'The Boyfriend', the musical that made Julie Andrews famous (I was not in the same production as Ms Andrews!). The musical is set in the 1920s and deals with the goings on of young English girls at a finishing school on the Riviera in France. My character joins an old roue in a delightful duet called "It's Never Too Late to Fall in Love". What's the name of my character?

Answer: Dulcie

'The Boyfriend' is a brilliant spoof on musicals of the 'Tea for Two' type that were customary fare in the 1920s. Sandy Wilson wrote the piece and it opened in London in 1954 and ran for five years! Ken Russell made a movie of the film (starring Twiggy) in 1971 but made a hash of it. See the stage version and give the movie a wide berth!

Polly is the name of the lead character in 'The Boyfriend' - the part that Julie Andrews played in the Broadway production (which led to her landing the role of Eliza Doolittle in Lerner and Leowe's 'My Fair Lady'). Maisie is one of the 'perfect young ladies', along with Dulcie, Nancy and Fay, and Hortense is the maid at the finishing school.
7. One of the best roles I ever had was that of a bedraggled secretary who "lives!" The role was created on Broadway by Peggy Cass, who also played the part in the film of the play starring Rosalind Russell in the title role of "Auntie Mame". What was the name of my character?

Answer: Agnes Gooch

Agnes Gooch is the mousy secretary who is transformed into a glamour girl by Mame's Japanese houseboy Ito. (I've had some quick changes in my time, but never one as quick as this - 45 seconds from start to finish - including make-up, hair and gown. All done on a platform offstage some seven feet off the ground - me and four other people!) Agnes goes off on the town with Brian O'Bannion, the Irish lecher, and returns home months later pregnant.

'Auntie Mame' is based on the book by Patrick Dennis and adapted for the stage by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee. The play opened on Broadway in 1957 and was a huge success. Rosalind Russell played Mame and both she and Peggy Cass were nominated for Tony Awards that year. Peggy Cass won, Rosalind Russell didn't. In 1958, both Russell and Cass reprised their roles in the film of "Auntie Mame'. In 1966 Angela Lansbury starred as Mame in the musical version (book by Lawrence and Lee, music and lyrics by Jerry Herman) and won the Tony Award for her performance. Lucille Ball played the madcap aunt in the movie of the musical - which was something of a disappointment at the box office. They should have hired Angela instead of Lucy!
8. I met my husband when we were both serving as apprentices for one of Canada's leading theatres. He was assistant set designer and I was on the acting/stage management team. One of the actresses in one of our productions fell ill and I had to go on as her understudy. I played a whacko who kept presenting the leading man with cheese! The play is set in New York and tells the story of a playboy, the women in his life, and the playboy's eventual abandonment of his womanizing ways when he falls in love with a prim and proper young woman who lives with her parents! What's the play?

Answer: The Tender Trap

I can't even remember the name of the whacko I played. In fact, the whole play - written by Robert Paul Smith and Max Shulman - is pretty forgettable, too. It opened on Broadway in 1954 and has become a Little Theatre favourite. The movie based on the play starred Frank Sinatra, Debbie Reynolds, David Wayne and Celeste Holm, and it laid a good egg, too, mainly because Sinatra and Reynolds phoned in their parts. David Wayne and Celeste Holm were worth watching, though.
9. Shortly before my first baby was born I was in another Shakespearean comedy playing maid to the ingenue. The play leans on practical jokes, misrepresentation, a love affair gone awry, a marvellously malapropic constable, a jealous younger brother and a pair of antagonistic lovers. My character's name was Ursula. What was the play?

Answer: Much Ado About Nothing

Shakespeare's 'Much Ado About Nothing' is an absolute delight - for both the audience and the actors. If you've never seen the Kenneth Branagh/Emma Thompson movie of the play, make for your nearest movie rental outlet now. It's superb on all levels - the acting (even Keanu Reeves does well in this one!), the costumes, the setting, the music, the colours are all perfect, and Michael Keaton does a brilliant job as the constable Dogberry.

The play was first performed c.1598-99, and first published in 1600. It is an enduring favourite and some of the greatest actors of the English theatre have played Benedick - David Garrick in the 18th century, Charles Kemble and Henry Irving in the 19th century, and John Gielgud and Derek Jacobi in the 20th. Sam Waterston starred as Benedick in the 1972 Broadway production.

I remember being very grateful for the high-waisted, full skirted 15th century-style costumes which hid my pregnancy! Our first son was born two months after the show closed.
10. One of my favourite shows is a delightful little British musical created by students at the Bristol Old Vic School. The plot line centres on a magic piano that makes everyone dance. I played Rowena, a dress designer's assistant who is in love with a police constable named Lancelot Boot. What was the musical?

Answer: Salad Days

'Salad Days' is a charming little show with music by Julian Slade and lyrics by Slade and Dorothy Reynolds. It was first performed at the Bristol Old Vic in 1954, and migrated to London's West End in 1955. It played 2,238 performances at the Vaudeville Theatre and held the record for the longest-running musical until it was overtaken by 'Oliver!' in the 1960s. Canadian actor Barry Morse and producer Bill Freedman brought the show to Canada in 1958 and it had a successful run in both Toronto and Montreal. However, when it was transported to Broadway it didn't catch on and failed dismally. Maybe the American audiences weren't in the mood for whimsy.

Monty Python fans will remember the comedy troupe's hilarious - and very violent - send-up of 'Salad Days' in their skit 'Sam Peckinpah's Salad Days'.
11. By now you've no doubt discerned that my forte is comedy, but in one year I played two very straight roles - as a thirteen year old in 'The Potting Shed' and as a young, pregnant teenager abandoned by the father of her baby and by her mother, a woman of easy virtue who takes off with a rich lover. My character is cared for by a young gay art student who lets her share his apartment and cares for her during her pregnancy and the birth of her child. What was the play?

Answer: A Taste of Honey

'A Taste of Honey' was the first play written by then-nineteen year old Shelagh Delaney and its subject matter definitely puts it in the 'kitchen sink' genre popular in the British theatre in the late '50s/early 60s. Rita Tushingham starred as Jo in the movie of the play.

The play opened in London in 1958 and also played on Broadway (with Angela Lansbury as Jo's mother Helen and Joan Plowright as Jo. Interestingly, Plowright is only four years younger than Lansbury!). The film won the BAFTA Award for best film in 1961 and a best actress BAFTA for Dora Bryan who played Helen. Rita Tushingham won the best Actress Award at the 1962 Cannes Film Festival for her portrayal of Jo.
12. One of the strangest parts I ever had was that of the mother of three adult children in what had to be the most dysfunctional family of all time. The play was full of rambling conversations, none of which connected, and I had a heck of a time learning my lines because there was never any real reason to say any of them! The play was called 'Vegetable Inside' (I never figured why it was called that) and it was presented at the very first Winnipeg Fringe Festival in 1988. Which city hosts the longest-standing Fringe Festival in the world?

Answer: Edinburgh

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival was started in 1947 as an alternative to the Edinburgh International Festival, and it has grown over the past 60 years. Fringe audiences have a wide range of divertissements to enjoy during the three week event, from drama and musical comedy, to classics and new works, dance and jazz - every branch of the performing arts is represented.

Some of the best-known names in theatre today got their start at the Edinburgh Fringe - Rowan Atkinson, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Emma Thompson, and various members of the Monty Python ensemble.

The success of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival has spawned many other Fringe Festivals around the world, the biggest of which are the Adelaide (Australia) Fringe and the Edmonton (Canada) Fringe.
13. Back to the comedies! One of the musicals I most enjoyed playing in was 'A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum' with book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart and music by Stephen Sondheim. I played the mother of the boy who falls in love with the girl next door. What was the name of my character?

Answer: Domina

'A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum' is loosely based on the farces of the Roman playwright Plautus. It centres on the machinations of the slave Pseudolus to gain his freedom (the part was created by Zero Mostel, who also played Pseudolus in Richard Lester's film version).

Hero, his master, promises to free Pseudolus if he can obtain the hand of Philia, who lives in the house next door which is run by the procurer Marcus Lycus. The whole show is a non-stop romp from start to finish, with a sparkling script, wonderful music and clever lyrics and an array of off-the-wall characters. Get hold of the film and laugh yourself silly! Panacaea, Gymnasia and Tintinabula, by the way, are other women Marcus Lycus has for sale.

The musical opened on Broadway in 1962 and ran for 964 performances. Nathan Lane starred as Pseudolus in the 1996 Broadway revival.
14. Another role I thoroughly enjoyed was that of The Wicked Witch of the West in 'The Wizard of Oz'. I don't have to explain the plot to you, do I? Can you remember who created the role of the Wicked Witch in the 1939 film starring Judy Garland?

Answer: Margaret Hamilton

Despite her legacy as one of the most memorable screen villains of all time, Margaret Hamilton was, in real life, a gentle lady who adored children and animals, and was noted for her charitable work for them. Prior to turning to acting in 1923 she was a school teacher and taught future actors William Windom and Jim Backus.

She made her film debut in 'Zoo in Budapest' in 1933 and continued acting until she was in her eighties. her last role was that of a veteran journalist in an episode of 'Lou Grant'.

She appeared as herself on 'Mr. Rogers' Neighbourhood' and demonstrated how make-up turned her into the Wicked Witch of the West, explaining to the audience of children that she had been playing a role and that the Witch wasn't real!
15. While I'm not the biggest fan of Rogers and Hammerstein, I've appeared in more than one of their musicals. In which musical did I sing a solo entitled "When I Marry Mr. Snow"?

Answer: Carousel

I played Carrie Pipperidge in 'Carousel'. Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein II always maintained that 'Carousel' was their favourite of all their collaborations, and in 1999 'Time' magazine named 'Carousel' the best musical of the twentieth century.

The musical is based on Ferenc Molnar's 1909 play 'Liliom' (the setting was transferred from Budapest to New England) and opened on Broadway in April 1945. It ran for 890 performances and has enjoyed numerous revivals since. 'Carousel' was something of a ground-breaker in that it was the first musical with a tragic plot. John Raitt and Jan Clayton created the roles of Billy Bigelow and Julie Jordan, and Gordon McRae and Shirley Jones played Billy and Julie in the 1956 film 'Carousel'.
16. I played Ado Annie, the gal with an eye for the boys in Rogers and Hammerstein's 'Oklahoma!' Can you name the author of 'Green Grow the Lilacs', the book on which the show is based?

Answer: Lynn Riggs

There are two things that not everyone knows about Lynn Riggs: 1) Lynn Riggs was male; 2) Lynn Riggs was Cherokee. Riggs, the son of an Oklahoma cattleman, was born near Claremore, Oklahoma in 1899. He attended the Oklahoma Military Academy and on graduation he hied himself off to New York where he worked as stringer for the 'Wall Street Journal' and sold books at Macy's. He spent his spare time at the theatre. In 1919 he returned to Oklahoma and became a reporter for the 'Oil and Gas Journal' in Tulsa. He wrote poetry and became a protege of H.L. Mencken who published Riggs' poetry in the journal 'Smart Set' which he co-edited with critic George-Jean Nathan. In 1928, Riggs won a Guggenheim fellowship which allowed him to travel in Europe. It was in a Paris cafe that he started to write 'Green Grow the Lilacs', the play on which the musical 'Oklahoma!' is based. The play opened on Broadway in 1931 and ran for 64 performances. Riggs also worked as a screenwriter in Hollywood (notably on 'The Plainsman', a western classic starring Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur), and served in the U.S. military from 1942-44. He died of cancer in 1954.

'Oklahoma!' was Rogers' and Hammerstein's first collaboration and it was a smash hit and continues to be popular to this day. It opened on Broadway in March 1943. Originally titled 'Away We Go', it was re-named 'Oklahoma!' after the show-stopping tune was added after the out-of-town tryouts. Alfred Drake created the role of Curly and Joan Roberts played Laurie. Celeste Holm created the role of Ado Annie.

'Oklahoma!' was the first musical I ever saw. That was in 1947 in London, and Howard Keel played Curly. I've been in love with him ever since.

Diana Rigg is the British actress who starred as Emma Peel in the TV series 'The Avengers' and later did a turn as host for PBS' 'Mystery', Lynn Thigpen is an American actress who hosted 'Where in the World is Carmen San Diego' on PBS and later starred as the Chief's secretary in the TV series 'The District'. Bobby Riggs was the tennis player who claimed that no woman could beat him. Billie Jean King made him eat crow!
17. Another role I thoroughly enjoyed playing was Mrs. Squeezum in the bawdy musical comedy 'Lock Up Your Daughters', set in the 18th century (I got to sing a song called 'When Does the Ravishing Begin?'). The libretto was adapted by British actor Bernard Miles from a play by Henry Fielding. Which play?

Answer: Rape Upon Rape

'Lock Up Your Daughters' was adapted by British actor/director/producer Bernard Miles from Henry Fielding's play 'Rape Upon Rape'. Lionel Bart (of 'Oliver!' fame) and Laurie Johnson wrote the lyrics and the music respectively. The musical opened at the Mermaid Theatre in London in 1959. In 1969, it was made into a film starring Christopher Plummer, Susannah York, Glynis Johns (as Mrs. Squeezum), Ian Bannen, Kathleen Harrison and a host of other British stage and screen luminaries. It has been described as one of the funniest films ever!

'The Rape of the Lock' is a narrative poem by Alexander Pope, 'She Stoops to Conquer' is a play by Oliver Goldsmith, and 'The Daughter of the Regiment' is an opera by Gaetano Donizetti.

NB: My thanks to FunTrivia member daver852 for reminding me that 'Rape Upon Rape' is a play by Henry Fielding and not a novel as I had it in the first version of this question.
18. Sad to say, only those who have seen a stage version of 'Oliver!' have enjoyed the song called 'That's Your Funeral' sung by Mr. and Mrs. Sowerberry (Mr. Sowerberry was the undertaker to whom Mr. Bumble the beadle sold Oliver Twist). I played their daughter Charlotte who was very mean to poor little Oliver. Do you know who played Mr. Sowerberry in the original London production of 'Oliver!'

Answer: Barry Humphries

Barry Humphries is better known as Dame Edna Everage, confidante of HM the Queen.

'Oliver!', with music and lyrics by Lionel Bart, opened in London in 1960 and enjoyed a successful run, breaking records as the longest-running musical in British stage history. It repeated its success when it opened on Broadway in 1963. A revival is planned for 2009, with Rowan Atkinson as Fagin - that should be fun!

Ron Moody created the role of Fagin in the original production, and reprised it on Broadway and in the 1968 film directed by Carol Reed. Jonathan Pryce played Fagin in the 1994 London revival. Martin Horsey created the role of The Artful Dodger (in the first Broadway production the part was played by Davy Jones of 'The Monkees').

Here's a bit of trivia: Keith Hampshire, who created the role of Oliver in the first London production is now a photographer in Hollywood.
19. Lerner and Loewe's 'Brigadoon' is a fantasy musical set in the Scottish highlands. My character sings 'On My Mother's Wedding Day'. Who did I play?

Answer: Meg Brockie

'Brigadoon' (book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe) opened on Broadway in March, 1947, ran for 581 performances, and gave rise to a new word 'brigadoonery' which is used to describe any romanticized, inaccurate or silly misrepresentation of Scotland! (For instance, Shakespeare was guilty of brigadoonery when he wrote 'Macbeth'.) The plot is loosely based on a story by Frederick Gerstacker about a German village called Germelshausen which falls under an evil spell, but Lerner transplanted the venue to Scotland and took the name of the enchanted village from one of Robert Burns' poems about Tam O'Shanter's escape over the Brig (bridge) of Doon. Incidentally, there really is a Brig o' Doon near Alloway in Ayrshire. It's a single span stone bridge dating from the 13th century.

Bonnie Jean and Fiona MacLaren are characters in 'Brigadoon' and Mary Beaton was one of Mary, Queen of Scots' ladies-in-waiting.

Trivia note: According to the plot line of the musical, the people of Brigadoon live in the 18th century. However, the name Fiona did not exist at that time. It was invented in the 19th century by the writer William Sharp who based the name of one of his heroines on fionn, the Gaelic word for fair.
20. One of my favourite plays is Oscar Wilde's 'The Importance of Being Earnest'. I've performed in it twice, in two different roles - once as the aristocratic Lady Bracknell (I got to intone that famous line "In a handbag?") and once as the governess to the hero's ward. What was the governess' full name?

Answer: Laetitia Prism

Laetitia Prism was the lady who put her novel into the perambulator and the baby into the handbag and left it in the cloakroom at Victoria Station where it was found by a Mr. Thomas Cardew. Mr. Cardew adopted the small occupant of the handbag and named him John Worthing because he (Mr. C.) had a ticket to Worthing in his pocket at the time.

The play opened at the St. James Theatre in 1895 and was an immediate hit - and has continued to be so for the past one hundred plus years. It has been made into a movie three times: in 1952 (for my money, the best of the three), in 1992 and again in 2002 (with Colin Firth playing Jack and never quite, to my mind, pulling it off! And much as I love Judi Dench, she wasn't a patch on Dame Edith Evans as Lady Bracknell).

Trivia note: in October, 2007 the Oxfam Shop in Nantwich, Cheshire was given a handbag. When the staff opened the bag they found, appropriately enough, a rare first edition (349 of 1,000 copies) of 'The Importance of Being Ernest'. It sold for 650.00 pounds, which will go a long way to aiding the good work of Oxfam!
Source: Author Cymruambyth

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