I have often commented that with the option to visit intimate theatres with stellar productions like the Jermyn, where tickets are £20, it’s hard to make a case for going to the cinema (which i do love). The Jermyn Street Theatre has had some great shows and based on the reviews it has another hit in the UK Premiere of Boy Meets Boy.
According to the Independent which gave it 4 stars, calls it “an unexpected Christmas treat“, and “Never has a rebuke to intolerance been delivered with such nonchalant light-heartedness or a political point been made with such sweet-natured implicitness. Gene David Kirk’s production (the UK premiere) delightfully communicates the giddy good humour of this charming oddity with its playful pastiche score and its Fred-and-Ginger-style romance between two men.”
From the Jermyn : “The time: December 11th, 1936. The place: the elegant Savoy Hotel in London. Outside, the abdication crisis is reaching its climax, the United States reels from the Great Depression and Continental Europe is shadowed by the menace of Hitler and the National Socialist party as storm clouds gather for the maelstrom to come.
Inside, society London exists in the twilight of empire – a hedonistic bubble where party-goers dance away the last years of peace. Boy Meets Boy is set against this backdrop of pre-war London sophistication, a world of cocktails and carriages, black-tie and ball-dresses where Nightingales Sing in Berkeley Square and unconventional romance blooms.”
Boy meets Boy, Boy loses Boy, Boy wins Boy
Bill Solly (music, lyrics and book) and Donald Ward (book) have lovingly recreated the era of the black and white movie musical replete with witty lyrics, memorable melodies and a cunning twist on the standard musical love story. Boy meets Boy opened in 1975 off-Broadway at the Actors’ Playhouse and ran for 463 performances.