Once Upon A Time At The Adelphi

Once Upon A Time At The Adelphi is a musical written by Phil Willmott and Elliot Davis. It received its world premiere at the Liverpool Playhouse, England from June to August 2008. The production starred Julie Atherton and Simon Bailey, was directed by Phil Willmott with musical direction and arrangements by Elliot Davis, choreography by Andrew Wright, associate musical direction and additional arrangements by Mark Collins, set and costume design by Christopher Woods and sound design by Jason Barnes.

It was written and produced for the Liverpool '08 Capital of Culture celebrations and featured a professional cast of principals and an ensemble from the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts.

Once Upon A Time At The Adelphi follows two stories; in the present day, Alice works at the world famous Adelphi Hotel in Liverpool. On a busy day of hen parties and difficult customers, Alice is informed by her colleague and boyfriend, Neil, that somebody is on the hotel's roof. Upon finding the female stranger, she tells Alice she wants to meet her ex-lover, Thompson - and reveals an epic story of the Adelphi Hotel's history, when Hollywood actors stayed there en route to UK and European destinations. Many of the stories are based on actual events, for example, Roy Rogers riding his horse Trigger in the hotel. The show portrays this event on the roof, whereas in real life Rogers reportedly waved at the crowd from the balcony.

Back in the present, Alice is having trouble when Neil asks her to leave Liverpool and move to Japan with him, but she is more interested in hearing the strange woman's stories. It transpires that she also worked at the hotel in the past, where she fell in love with a young vagabond called Thompson, whom she helped obtain employment at the hotel in order to get his life in order. However during a misunderstanding over a stolen ring, Thompson left the hotel and joined the Resistance and fought in the Second World War. Years later, whilst Liverpool was under heavy bombardment, Thompson promised to return so they could dance on the roof of the hotel.

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