Oh, What a Lovely War!
| Oh, What a Lovely War! | |
|---|---|
| Music | Various |
| Lyrics | Various |
| Book | Joan Littlewood and Theatre Workshop |
| Basis | The Long Long Trail by Charles Chilton, The Donkeys by Alan Clark |
| Productions | 1963 Stratford 1963 West End 1964 Broadway 2002 West End revival 2010 UK Tour 2014 Stratford revival |
Oh, What a Lovely War! is an epic musical developed by Joan Littlewood and her ensemble at the Theatre Workshop in 1963.
The idea for the production started on Armistice Day 1962 when Gerry Raffles heard the second broadcast of Charles Chilton's radio musical for the BBC Home Service, called The Long Long Trail about World War I. Written and produced by Chilton in memory of his father whose name was inscribed on the memorial at Arras, the piece was a radio documentary that used facts and statistics, juxtaposed with reminiscences and versions of songs of the time, as an ironic critique of the reality of the war. The songs were found in a book published in 1917 called Tommy's Tunes which had new lyrics written in the trenches to well-known songs of the era, many from hymns or from west end shows. Bud Flanagan provided the voice of the 'ordinary soldier'. The title came from the popular music hall song "There's a Long Long Trail A-Winding" published in 1913, mentioned in the introduction of Tommy's Tunes.
Raffles proposed the idea of using it as the basis of a production to his partner, Joan Littlewood, but she detested the idea, hating World War I, military uniforms, and everything they stood for. Gerry though, brought Chilton along to the theatre and they played through the songs. Eventually Littlewood considered it might work, but refused any military uniforms, deciding on pierrot costumes from Commedia dell'arte very early on as a "soft, fluffy entertainment mode" providing an ironic contrast to the tin hats which they also wore. Littlewood said, in 1995, that "Nobody died on my stage, they died in the film - that they ruined". She wanted audiences to leave the theatre laughing at the "vulgarity of war". The idea was to portray how groups of people could lose their sense of individuality by conforming to those of a higher authority, which Littlewood despised.
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