The Horror! The Horror! The Final Curtain Music & Lyrics by Jeffrey Mayhew The music and lyrics from the 2012 sell-out smash The Horror! The Horror! published in 2014 to coincide with a new run of performances. The final curtain hangs like a guillotine over Alfred Brownlow's variety troupe. Creditors are at the door, the death of music hall is just round the corner and a terrible revelation is waiting in the wings. But there's always time for one last show... "A home grown Little Shop of Horrors" ***** Exeunt "Oozes wicked glee" The Times "A rambunctious mixture of Victorian variety theatre and eerie magical malady" Time Out Buy this music now: £14.00 + p&p original cast recording also available

Jeffrey Mayhew : Profile & Catalogue of works

Sample from the Original Cast Recording (click here for further details)

Musical Numbers:

The Little Button Hook – Brownlow
Here We Go – The Company
The Horror! The Horror! – Nancy, Archie, Close, Cassandra
Keep Your Hand On Your Penny – Sally, Nancy
The Old Song – Sally, Nancy
Take A Good Look At The Mother – Brownlow, Archie
Chung Lee’s Chinese Brew – Brownlow, Archie and Company
No More A Home – Sally
One Knock For Yes – Archie, Cassandra, Nancy, Brownlow
We Never Stood A Bloomin’ Chance – Sally, Brownlow
Finale – Sally, Nancy, Cassandra, Archie, Close

The Horror! The Horror! The Final Curtain The final curtain hangs like a guillotine over Alfred Brownlow’s variety troupe. Creditors are at the door, the death of music hall is just round the corner and a terrible revelation is waiting in the wings. But there’s always time for one last show… The team behind 2012′s sell-out smash The Horror! The Horror! present an all new evening of music hall merriment and ghoulish glee. Creeping into Wilton’s Music Hall for two nights before setting up shop at The Bedlam Theatre for the Edinburgh Fringe, The Horror! The Horror! The Final Curtain is a musical slice of the macabre by acclaimed horror and suspense company Theatre of the Damned. Age recommendation: 12+ “A home grown Little Shop of Horrors” ***** Exeunt “Oozes wicked glee” The Times “A rambunctious mixture of Victorian variety theatre and eerie magical malady” Time Out (Praise for The Horror! The Horror!) Original score by Jeffrey Mayhew Book by Tom Richards and Stewart Pringle Produced by George Warren Designed by Alice Saville 2014 Tour Dates 25th & 26th July 2014 (7.30pm) - Wilton’s Music Hall, London 4th-24th August 2014 (7.45pm) - Bedlam Theatre, Edinburgh 2014 Show Reviews from The Edinburgh Festival It’s the marvellously melodious music that make this unique show what it is. After all, what’s a music hall without music? Jeffrey Mayhew’s full score of music-hall numbers is toe-tappingly catchy, capturing a cascade of gems for the golden age and evoking a glorious throwback to simpler times.  A Younger Theatre A particular highlight was Harold Close (played by Jeffrey Mayhew, who also penned the tunes for the show). His foray into the world of an ancient Egyptian legend injected a refreshing dose of dry British wit into an otherwise whimsical show.  Edfringe There's all the fun you'd expect from an old-fashioned music hall show: corny jokes, dance, a puppet act, a psychic and a whole lot of singing. In that regard, the performance is wonderful, and the onstage malarkey would be a credit to any real life music hall of the period. British Theatre Guide  4* an inventive, evocative and very funny salute to and loving parody of end-of-the-pier music hall. The Stage  4* And there is indeed a wide variety of acts to enjoy, from a 1900’s answer to Psychic Sally to a genuinely delightful, innocently saucy song in which two young women harmonise about their “brand new pennies”.  Best of all, perhaps, is a gently macabre tale told by puppets, which develops into an absolutely captivating moment of old-fashioned entertainment.  Fringe Guru 4* 4*  The Public Reviews 4*  Musical Talk  Photographer: Anna Soderblom

The Horror! The Horror!
The Final Curtain

Music and Lyrics
Jeffrey Mayhew

Book
Tom Richards and Stewart Pringle

Dramatis Personae
Original cast in order of main appearance

Mr. Alfred BROWNLOW (Bass) – Low Comedian and Manager – Tom Richards
Mr. ARCHIE Cox (Tenor) – Light Comedian – James Utechin
Miss SALLY Summerill (Soprano) – Ingénue – Alicia Bennett
Miss NANCY Quick (Mezzo) – Soubrette – Kate Quinn
Professor Harold CLOSE (Baritone) – the Pianist – Jeffrey Mayhew
CASSANDRA Fay (Mezzo) – the Medium – Stephanie Walls

Musical Numbers

The Little Button Hook – Brownlow
Here We Go – The Company
The Horror! The Horror! – Nancy, Archie, Close, Cassandra
Keep Your Hand On Your Penny – Sally, Nancy
The Old Song – Sally, Nancy
Take A Good Look At The Mother – Brownlow, Archie
Chung Lee’s Chinese Brew – Brownlow, Archie and Company
No More A Home – Sally
One Knock For Yes – Archie, Cassandra, Nancy, Brownlow
We Never Stood A Bloomin’ Chance – Sally, Brownlow
Finale – Sally, Nancy, Cassandra, Archie, Close

A Word From The Writers

The Horror! The Horror! began with a battered paperback passed between the two of us, and the opportunity to produce a show for one of London’s most exciting venues. The book was J. B. Priestley's magnificent Lost Empires, recommended to us by the writer of these songs Jeffrey Mayhew, and the venue was Wilton’s Music Hall, which had invited us to create a performance to take place in its nooks, crannies and hidden corridors while the main house underwent renovation. Having previously worked largely in the ‘Grand Guignol’ tradition of gruesome naturalist short plays, Priestley’s book and Wilton’s itself suggested a very different approach.

We started putting together the story of a music hall company gradually absorbed by dark invisible forces, and Jeffrey began to write the score. From the first draft of ‘Keep Your Hand on Your Penny’ that Jeff played for us, we were bowled over. It’s a song that could easily have fallen through time from those days before the Empires were lost, when great halls up and down the company played to packed crowds twice-nightly and the best of the bill-toppers were true household names. Jeff has an enviable knowledge of late 19th and early 20th century popular music, but it’s his ability to not only emulate the tone and the rhythms of that period, but to create wickedly clever, extremely naughty and irresistibly catchy new compositions which blend the traditional with the slyly arch that makes his score for The Horror! such a joy to listen to.

This score represents a brand new version of the show, subtitled The Final Curtain, with six new songs, revised lyrics for several of those that return, and a completely reconceived book. The production is travelling up to the Edinburgh Fringe this summer via a brief stop-off at Wilton’s, and it’s packed with superb numbers from start to finish. There are peppy up-tempo pieces, saucy rabble-rousers and tender ballads, unfolding the story of a tragic romance caught in the calcium glare of the footlights.

We hope you’ll enjoy them as much as we do.

Tom & Stewart
May 2014

Work	The Horror! The Horror! The Final Curtain
Composer:	Jeffrey Mayhew
Instrumentation:	Voice & Piano
Format:	Score, Stapled
Size:	A4
Weight:	145gm
ISMN:	M-57046-128-8
Our Ref:	SM473
Publisher:	Jeffrey Mayhew
Printed/Distributed	Creighton's Collection
Edition/Year:	2014
Origin:	UK