MARGUERITE is an ambitious new 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 husbandOtto.
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
.