Twang!

Twang!!
London Cast Album cover
Music	Lionel Bart
Lyrics	Lionel Bart
Book	Lionel Bart & Harvey Orkin
Basis	The Robin Hood legend
Productions	1965 West End

Twang!! is a musical with music and lyrics written by Lionel Bart and a book by Bart and Harvey Orkin, with assistance from Burt Shevelove. The piece was a spoof of the character and legend of the outlaw Robin Hood. It was a disastrous box-office failure and cost Bart his personal fortune.

After a preview in Manchester, Twang opened at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London's West End on 20 December 1965 and closed on 29 January 1966 after just 43 performances, receiving scathing reviews and playing to mostly empty houses. Bart produced it with Bernard Delfont and John Bryan, and Joan Littlewood directed but quit before it opened. She was replaced by Shevelove and Bart.Twang!! is remembered as "the most expensive flop" in West End history up to that time.

Robin Hood and his Merry Men attempt to break into Nottingham Castle, in a variety of preposterous disguises, in order to prevent a marriage between the nymphomaniac "court tart" Delphina and the hairy Scots laird Roger the Ugly, arranged for the purpose of securing the loan of Scottish troops for bad Prince John.

The cast included the strongest players from Littlewood's Theatre Workshop, including Ronnie Corbett, Barbara Windsor and James Booth. But Twang!! ran into difficulty from the start. The script was weak, especially the part of Robin Hood, which was badly underwritten. When Booth expressed his concerns, he was repeatedly assured that the part would be expanded to a starring role. Littlewood demanded a rewrite, but constant, confusing revisions failed to improve the script. Littlewood, the choreographer Paddy Stone, the designer Oliver Messel, and the writers failed to work together. Rehearsals were disorganised and fraught with tension; Bart was drinking; Littlewood threatened to walk out. At a rehearsal, Littlewood accused Bart of failing to fulfill his creative responsibilities because he was too strung-out on LSD. Bart, in turn, accused Littlewood of ruining the piece.