A MODEL GIRL

Back in 2007, I had the great pleasure of being the Musical Director and Orchestrator for A Model Girl at Greenwich Theatre. Written by Richard Alexander and Marek Rymaszewski, this musical had a five-year journey to the stage, beginning as a staged concert and undergoing numerous rewrites, before it finally opened with Emma Williams playing the lead part of Christine Keeler.

A Model Girl was based on the famous Profumo scandal from the 1960s and explored the events through the eyes of Christine Keeler, John Profumo, and Stephen Ward. One of the challenges of the musical was recreating the 1960s pop style in the new songs without them sounding pastiche, but the amazing cast and band that we had achieved this perfectly.

I wasn’t originally booked to be the orchestrator on the show, only the Musical Director, but a late availability clash for the original orchestrator meant that I was also asked to take on that additional role as well. We were still in rehearsals and were just two weeks away from opening night when I started orchestrating the score, so it was very tight to get everything finished… but we managed it.

Working on a new musical, with the rewrites and constant changes, is always exciting, and it was made even better thanks to the incredible creative team that were assembled. The four-week run was from Tuesday 30th January to Saturday 24th February, and stepping into the world of Christine Keeler really was the perfect way to start 2007.

The cast was made up of Emma Williams (Christine Keeler), James Clyde (Stephen Ward), Dale Rapley (Jack Profumo), Lorraine Bruce (Maureen) along with Jenii Hicks, Victoria Kruger, Lee Reynolds, Laura Selwood, Mark Oxtoby, Stuart Nurse, David Ricardo-Pearce, and Graham Bryan.

The creative team was Ruth Carney (Director), Paul Wills (Designer), Nichola Treherne (Choreographer), Oliver Fenwick (Lighting Director), Nick Lidster & Terry Jardine (Sound Design), Kay Magson (Casting Director), Stephen Brooker (Musical Supervisor), Steve Hill (Musical Director), Stephen McCarthy (Music Preparation) and Sylvia Addison (Orchestral Management).