Leslie Bricusse
b. 29 January 1931, London, England. A composer, lyricist, librettist and screenwriter, Bricusse was influenced by the MGM musicals of the '40s, paricularly Words And Music, the Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart biopic. He originally intended to be a journalist, but, while studying at Cambridge University, started to write, direct and appear in the Cambridge footlights revues. In 1953, he wrote the music and lyrics (with Robin Beaumont) for Lady At the Wheel, a musical with the Monte Carlo rally as its setting, which included songs such as The Early Birdie, Pete Y'Know, Love Is and a comedy tango, Siesta. It was presented at the local Arts Theatre, and, five years later, had a limited run in the West End. Well before that, in 1954-5, Bricusse had appeared on the London stage himself, and with a theatrical legend, in AN EVENING WITH BEATRICE LILLIE. For a while during the '50s, he was under contract as a writer at Pinewood Film Studios, and, in 1954, wrote the screenplay, and the songs (with Beaumont), for CHARLEY MOON, which starred Max Bygraves. The popular singer/comedian took one of the numbers, Out Of Town, into the UK Top 20, and it gained Bricusse his first Ivor Novello Award: he won several others, including one for My Kind Of Girl (words and music by Bricusse), which was a UK Top 5 hit for Matt Monroin 1961. Bricusse also wrote a good deal of special material for Bygraves, including one of his ‘catch-phrase’ songs, A Good Idea—Son!. Early in 1961, Bricusse went to New York to write for another Beatrice Lillie revue, taking Anthony Newley with him to develop ideas for a show of their own. The result, Stop The World—I Want To Get Off, written in around three weeks, opened in London's West End in July of that year, and stayed there until November 1962. It later ran for over 500 performances on Broadway, and was filmed in 1966. Book, music and lyrics were jointly credited to Bricusse and Newley—the latter starred as the central character, Littlechap, in London and New York. The score included several hit songs, including What Kind Of Fool Am I?, Once In A Lifetime and Gonna Build A Mountain, as well as other, more specialized numbers, such as Lumbered, Typically English and Someone Nice Like You. While Newley went off to appear in the off-beat, parochial movie, THE WORLD OF SAMMY LEE, Bricusse collaborated with Cyril Ornadel on the score for the musical, PICKWICK (1963), which starred the ‘Goon with the golden voice’, Harry Secombe, in the title role. His recording of the show's big ballad, If I Ruled The World, was a Top 20 hit in the UK, and, later, after the Broadway production had flopped, it became part of Tony Bennett's repertoire. Reunited in 1964, Bricusse and Newley's next major stage project, The Roar Of The Greasepaint— The Smell Of The Crowd (1965), was regarded as similar to their previous effort, a moral tale of a downtrodden little man, bucking the system. It toured (Bricusse: ‘We managed to empty every provincial theatre in England’), but did not play the West End. Bricusse, and others, felt that comedian, Norman Wisdom, was miscast in the central role, and Newley took over for the Broadway run of 232 performances. Once again, though, the hit songs were there—in this case, Who Can I Turn To? and A Wonderful Day Like Today, plus other items such as This Dream, The Beautiful Land, The Joker, Where Would You Be Without Me?, Nothing Can Stop Me Now and Feeling Good. The latter number was popularized in the USA by Joe Sherman, and received an impressive, extended treatment from Steve Winwood’s UK rock group, Traffic, on their live LAST EXIT (1969). In 1964, Bricusse and Newley turned their attention to the big screen, providing the lyric to John Barry's music for the title song to the James Bond movie, GOLDFINGER (1964), which Shirley Bassey sang over the titles. Bricusse and Barry later wrote another Bond theme for YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE (1967), popularized by Nancy Sinatra. In 1967, Bricusse wrote the screenplay and the complete song score for Doctor Dolittle, which starred Newley, along with Rex Harrison, who sang the Oscar-winning Talk To The Animals. Considered an ‘expensive dud’, there was no mention of a DOCTOR DOLITTLE II. Far more to the public's taste was Roald Dahl's WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (1971). Bricusse and Newley's score contained The Candy Man, a song which gave Sammy Davis Jnr. a US number 1 in the following year. Davis was one of the songwriting team's favourite people—Bricusse estimates that he recorded at least 60 of his songs, including a complete album of DOCTOR DOLITTLE. Davis also starred in a revival of STOP THE WORLD—I WANT TO GET OFFduring the 1978-79 Broadway season. 
After writing several numbers for a 1971 US television adaptation of PETER PAN, which starred Danny Kayeand Mia Farrow, Bricusse and Newley returned to the stage with THE GOOD OLD BAD OLD DAYS. Newley directed and starred in the show, which ran for 10 months in London, and included the jolly title song and several other appealing numbers, such as I Do Not Love You, It's A Musical World, The People Tree and The Good Things In Life. Since then, their back catalogue has been re-packaged in productions such as THE TRAVELLING MUSIC SHOW (1978), with Bruce Forsyth; and ONCE UPON A SONG, in which Newley occasionally appears when he is not singing for big dollars in Las Vegas. Also in 1978, Bricusse collaborated with composer Armando Trovajoli on Beyond the Rainbow, an English language version of the Italian musical AGGIUNGI UNA POSTA ALLA TAVOLA, which ran for six months in London—a good deal longer than his own KINGS AND CLOWNS. He also wrote some new songs for a Chichester Festival Theatre production of his film score for GOODBYE, MR CHIPS (1982). By then, he was generally wearing his Hollywood hat, and had received Oscar nominations for his work on GOODBYE, MR CHIPS(1969, original song score, with John Willams), Scrooge(1970, original song score with Ian Fraser and Herbert W. Spencer, and his own song, Thank You Very Much), THAT'S LIFE(1986, ‘Life In a Looking Glass’, with Henry Mancin), HOME ALONE (1990, Somewhere In My Memory, with John Williams), and HOOK (1991, When You're Alone, with John Williams). He won his second Academy Award in 1982, in collaboration with Henry Mancini, for the original song score to Victor/Victoria. Bricusse and Newley were inducted into the Songwriters’ Hall Of Fame in 1989, a year that otherwise proved something of a disappointment for partners: an updated version of STOP THE WORLD, directed by, and starring Newley, staggered along for five weeks in London, and Bricusse's SHERLOCK HOLMES, with Ron Moody and Liz Robertson, opened there as well, to disappointing reviews. The latter show re-surfaced in 1993, and toured the UK with Robert Powell in the title role, shortly after SCROOGE, Bricusse's stage adaptation of his film score, had enjoyed a limited run at the Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham, England, with Newley in the title role. Also in 1993, Harry Secombe recreated his orginal role in PICKWICK at Chichester and in the West End, and Broadway was buzzing with talk of possible stage productions of VICTOR/VICTORIA, and JEKYLL & HYDE, a show that Bricusse wrote with Frank Wildhorn which was released on CD in 1990.