In the early '60s, British composer/lyricist David Heneker was charged to come up with a musical theater vehicle for
Tommy Steele, who had been a teen idol in the second half of the 1950s with a series of hit records and lately made a transition to acting on-stage and in films. Heneker decided on a musical version of H.G. Wells' 1905 novel Kipps, one of those typically British stories of a working-class lad who comes into money and tries to rise in society while being torn by his love for a working-class girl. Heneker succeeded mightily; his adaptation, called Half a Sixpence, kept
Steele occupied for more than four years, with a 677-performance run in London that began on March 21, 1963, followed by 11 months on Broadway starting April 25, 1965, and then a movie version that opened in December 1967. The Broadway production was much revised from the London version, with many songs cut to make room for dance routines. The effect, however, was to focus even more attention on
Steele, who sang ten of the 11 remaining tunes. One of these, "The Old Milit'ry Canal," was not recorded for the original Broadway cast album. As such, the 37-and-a-half-minute release is a fairly skimpy version of the show; both the original London cast album and the original motion picture soundtrack album boast more selections. When the original Broadway cast album was reissued on CD on June 6, 2000, however, no other version was in print in the U.S. Half a Sixpence has a charming, tuneful score that relies heavily on the appeal of the show's star. When the musical opened on Broadway, more than a year had passed since the British Invasion led by
the Beatles, and America had become accustomed to hearing Cockney accents and appreciating cute British pop stars. Half a Sixpence traded on that familiarity, as
Steele made no attempt to moderate his accent and the lyrics reveled in British terms and local slang. But there was no danger of missing the point of the songs' messages, even if you didn't understand individual words, and
Steele sold the material effectively, especially the title song and "Flash, Bang, Wallop!" Though the
Half a Sixpence album made the U.S. charts for a few months, no hits emerged from it, which was as it should have been since, while melodic and entertaining, the songs were easily forgotten outside the theater. ~ William Ruhlmann