Busker Alley

Busker Alley
Poster for planned 1995 production
Music	Richard M. Sherman Robert B. Sherman
Lyrics	Richard M. Sherman Robert B. Sherman
Book	AJ Carothers
Basis	1938 film St. Martin's Lane
Productions	1995 US tour 2006 NY benefit concert

Busker Alley is a musical with music and lyrics by the Sherman Brothers and a book by AJ Carothers, based on the 1938 British film, St. Martin's Lane, which was inspired by the 1905 novel, Small Town Tyrant, by Heinrich Mann.

In the 1995 touring production, Tommy Tune played the lead character, "Charlie Baxter", a busker in love with another busker, who leaves Charlie to follow her dream of becoming a star. The musical toured the US in 1995 but did not open on Broadway.

Brothers Robert and Richard Sherman had written the scores to several Disney movies such as Mary Poppins and The Jungle Book. In the mid 1960s, Disney staff scriptwriter, AJ Carothers rediscovered the motion picture St. Martin's Lane and approached the Sherman brothers with the idea of purchasing the rights to the film and making a stage musical out it. The Shermans and AJ Carothers did just that in 1969, writing the musical Piccadilly. But nothing more became of it until 1982 when interest was rekindled, and the project was rewritten and renamed, Blow Us a Kiss. Still, nothing happened with the property until later in the same decade when interest was again sparked, and Tommy Tune became attached to the show.

With a major Broadway star behind the project, the show was finally launched in 1995 with yet a new name: Busker Alley. The musical opened on April 11, 1995 at the Brown Theatre, Louisville, Kentucky as the start of a 16-city tour. It starred Tune and Darcie Roberts, Brent Barrett, Marcia Lewis, and The Huber Marionettes. Jeff Calhoun directed and choreographed, and sets were by Tony Walton. The producers planned to bring the production to Broadway later the same year at the St. James Theatre. Artist LeRoy Neiman created a 40-foot mural for Busker Alley on the façade of the theater, and the cast performed a number from the show at the 1995 Tony Awards ceremony. The production suffered numerous setbacks during the tour as well as two more name changes including Stage Door Charley (unilaterally chosen by the producer's wife). The show finished its pre-Broadway tour, however, as Buskers.