marguerite - 2008

MUSIC: Michael LeGrand
LYRICS: Alain Boublil & Herbert Kretzmer
BOOK: Alain Boublil, Claude-Michel Schonberg & Jonathan Kent

MARGUERITE is an ambitious musical that had a short but memorable run in London's West End. Based on the novel La Dame Aux Camélias by Alexandra Dumas, it tells the story of an ex-singer in Paris and her affair with a young musician. Unlike the Dumas novel, the musical takes place in the 1940s, using the conflict of the war as its background. Alain Boublil, Claude-Michel Schonberg and Herbert Kretzmer of Miss Saigon and Les Misérables fame, teamed up with writer Jonathan Kent and composer Michael LeGrand to bring Marguerite to the stage. Unfortunately word of mouth was poor, and not even the strength of its star, Ruthie Henshall, nor the favourable reviews by the critics kept the show open.

The show featured a great cast, including Ruthie Henshall (Les Misérables, Crazy For You, She Loves Me) as the title character and Julian Ovenden (Annie Get Your Gun, Merrily We Roll Along, Grand Hotel) as her younger lover. Alexander Hanson,fresh from a successful run playing Captain Von Trapp in The Sound Of Music, played Marguerite's husband Otto.

Notable about the show was the glass effect set, a brilliant design by Paul Brown who is best known for his sets for the opera .