Keith Michell at the Lyric

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33520, 29 April 1974, Page 4

Keith Michell at the Lyric

’ In a colour programme i screening on Monday evening, Keith Michell visits the

7.30 p.m.: • John Reid. 10.31: Christopher Macauley. 3ZM, CHRISTCHURCH (1400 kilohertz) 7.30 p.m.: E.M.I. Records on the Air. 8.0: The Story of Pop.

Lyric Theatre and traces some of its rich and varied history. Since this includes two famous Hamlets — Forbes Robertson and Martin Harvey — viewers will see Keith in the role himself.

After the Hamlet soliloquy, Keith Michell plays a scene from Rattigan’s “The Winslow Boy" with 15-year-old William Relton as Ronnie Winslow, and an excerpt from “Heartbreak House” in which Jane Asher plays Ellie Dunn to Michell’s ageing Captain Shotover. “Irma La Douce” is still the Lyric’s longest running show, so Elizabeth Seal and Keith Michell recreate their roles in a collection of numbers from the show. Another guest on the programme, June Bronhill, recalls “Robert and Elizabeth”, a show in which she and Michell originally starred. Other musical presentations include songs from “Floradora”, “The Chocolate Soldier”, “The Girl in the Taxi”, “Time to Dance” and “She Loves Me”.

Built in 1887, the Lyric is the oldest building in Shaftesbury Avenue and was built for a song — or rather, the proceeds from one. Impresario George Edwardes had produced a comedy-opera called “Dorothy” at the Gaiety; it flopped and he sold his interest in it for £lOOO. A new song, “Queen of My Heart” was introduced and the show became a hit overnight. The proceeds went to finance the Lyric, which opened with a transfer of “Dorothy” and Marie Tempest in the leading role. Eleanora Duse and Sarah Bernhardt both appeared at the Lyric in its early years, when comic opera gave place to drama.