Tell Me on a Sunday

Tell Me on a Sunday is a musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics
Tell Me on a Sunday
by Don Black. A one-woman show, it has been performed by a number of female
singers/actors, most notably Marti Webb. A one-act song cycle, it tells the story of
an ordinary English girl from Muswell Hill, who journeys to the United States in
search of love. Her romantic misadventures begin in New York City, lead her to
Hollywood, and eventually take her back toManhattan.

Contents
Background
Productions Original recording
Original Album and Broadcast
Music Andrew Lloyd
Song and Dance
Webber
Subsequent productions as a stand-alone piece
Synopsis
Lyrics Don Black

List of musical numbers Productions 1979 Sydmonton

References Festival
1980 BBC telecast
External links
As part of Song and
Dance:
1982 West End
Background 1985 Broadway
The musical is based on an idea originally conceived by Tim Rice, who intended to As a one-act show:
develop it as a cycle of television shows with songwriting partner Andrew Lloyd 2003 West End
Webber. The two relished working on a small-scale project following Evita. Shortly 2008 Off-Broadway
after they began working, however, Lloyd Webber realized Rice was writing 2008 Australia
specifically for Elaine Paige, with whom the married father of two young children 2010 UK tour
was having a blatant affair. Lloyd Webber felt that allowing Paige to appear in the 2011 Belgium
series would suggest he approved of the relationship, so he decided to look for a new 2014 London revival
lyricist. He opted for Don Black who, following a successful stint in Hollywood 2016 St. Louis
(including an Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Born Free"), had begun
writing for the theatre. Although it had proven to be unsuccessful, his Bar Mitzvah Boy had impressed Lloyd Webber, who thought
Black would be a good match.[1]

Rice's original concept had kept 'the girl' in the UK. It was Black who suggested she emigrate to the States. He quickly began writing
lyrics for several tunes Lloyd Webber already had composed. It was their intent to present as complete a work as possible at the
Sydmonton Festival in September 1979. The two decided to cast Marti Webb, who was portraying Eva Perón at the matinee
performances of Evita, as their heroine,[2] and the show was first presented at theSydmonton Festival in 1979.

Productions

Original Album and Broadcast

The positive reception at Sydmonton lead to the show being recorded as an album. Following this, a special performance was filmed
at the Royalty Theatre in London on 28 January 1980, and later broadcast on the BBC on 12 February. The broadcast was a critical
success and garnered high ratings, leading it to be repeated the following month.[3] Following its transmission, the album reached #2
on the UK charts, and the single release of "Take That Look Off Your Face" reached #3. This success propelled Marti Webb into a
household name, despite being in the theatrical business for twenty years. She followed this with a number of her own albums and
two further top 20 singles.

Song and Dance

Lloyd Webber decided the piece could work well on the stage if paired with another one-act piece. He previously had considered
writing a brief operatic piece about the friendship between Giacomo Puccini and Ruggiero Leoncavallo, going so far as to compose a
melody that would later become "Memory", but decided it would not fit well with 'the girl's' saga. He tried adapting the Charles
Dickens work The Signal-Man, but decided it was too gloomy and rejected it as well. Eventually he and Black set aside Tell Me on a
Sunday and turned to other projects.[4]

In 1982, the creative team decided to combine Tell Me on a Sunday with a ballet choreographed to Lloyd Webber's Variations, a
classical piece based on the A Minor Caprice No. 24 by Paganini that had debuted at Sydmonton in 1977. Following some revisions,
including a new song "The Last Man in My Life" and several changes to the lyrics, Tell Me on a Sunday became Act I of Song and
Dance, which was staged at the West End with Marti Webb again starring as 'the girl'. Over the course of its run, she was succeeded
by Lulu, Gemma Craven, Liz Robertson, and Sarah Brightman.

Three years later, lyricist Richard Maltby, Jr. was brought in to help adapt the show for an American audience, in anticipation of a
Broadway run. Bernadette Peters was chosen for the role of 'the girl', who was now renamed Emma. It opened on 18 September 1985
to mixed reviews. Writing in the New York Post, Clive Barnes thought it was "the best thing that Lloyd Webber has written for the
theater," but Frank Rich of the New York Times was not impressed, observing that "empty material remains empty, no matter how
talented those who perform it. Emma is a completely synthetic, not to mention insulting, creation whom no performer could
redeem."[5] Peters went on to win the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical, but the show failed to
win Best Musical or Best Original Score. Black, unimpressed that Peters had insisted on gathering background information about the
ebb's performance.[6]
character, later said he preferred the original London production and W

Subsequent productions as a stand-alone piece

Reverting to its one-act format, Tell Me on a Sunday was substantially rewritten, with five new songs and additional material by
Jackie Clune, for a 2003 London production at the Gielgud Theatre. The BBC critic observed, "this may be the smallest show Lloyd
Webber's ever written, but the score (to appropriately conversational lyrics by Don Black) contains several of his very best songs."[7]
Directed by Christopher Luscombe and starring Denise Van Outen, it ran for ten months. Marti Webb succeeded Van Outen and
subsequently toured the UK with the show,alternating with formerSteps vocalist, Faye Tozer, and actress Patsy Palmer.

In 2008, the Alloy Theater Company[8] staged the original one-act version with Irish actress, Maxine Linehan,[9] at the Laurie
Beechman Theatre in New York City. That same year, Bailiwick Repertory produced the Chicago premiere starring Harmony France
to rave reviews and the Kookaburra Theatre presented the Australian premiere starring Jolene Anderson, with Noni Hazlehurst and
John Waters providing the voices of "Mum" and "Married Man" respectively. Despite mixed reviews, it had sellout performances in
both Sydney and Melbourne.[10]

The show toured the United Kingdom, beginning on 30 August 2010 at Northampton's Royal Theatre and continuing until autumn
2011.[11] The tour starred Claire Sweeney as 'the girl' and was directed by Tamara Harvey. The script was again updated for the 21st
century, and 'the girl' was rewritten as originating from Liverpool, like Claire Sweeney herself. The song list stayed closer to the
original, although a new finale was added, "Dreams Never Run On Time", itself a rewrite of the song "Somewhere, Someplace,
Sometime" from the 2003 version.
In late 2013, Marti Webb performed the songs "Tell Me on a Sunday" and "Take That Look Off Your Face" at a tribute show to Don
Black, where she met Lewis Carnie, the Head of Programmes for BBC Radio 2, who asked if she would consider performing the
entire piece again for broadcast on the station. Producer Robert Mackintosh then suggested the show could be staged for a week at
the St James Theatre, London in January, the popularity of which saw it being restaged for three weeks at the Duchess Theatre in
February and early March, with musical direction bySimon Lee.

Synopsis
'The girl' arrives in New York City, and tells her friend that she does not want to become a hard-bitten career woman or a user of men.
Shortly after, she discovers her beau has been cheating on her with numerous other women and she walks out. She meets Hollywood
producer Sheldon Bloom, who takes her to Los Angeles. Sheldon's career ambitions preclude his spending much time on a personal
relationship and, after realizing life in the film capital is uneventful and Sheldon has been using her as a trophy girlfriend, 'the girl'
returns to Manhattan.

Back in Greenwich Village, 'the girl' meets a salesman, and once again faces disappointment when she learns he frequently has been
in town with other women when he supposedly was away on business. The two split up and she meets a married man. Intent on
succeeding in her career and acquiring a green card, she is content with the noon-to-two relationship they share, until he announces
he plans to leave his wife and marry her instead. She is horrified because not only does she not love him, but she realizes she's been
using him, something she had vowed never to do. She sends him away and promises herself she will return to being the idealistic and
ethical woman she was when she first arrived in the States.

'The girl' is the only person who appears on stage, despite having conversations with her friends and writing letters to her mum.

List of musical numbers

Original 1980 album 2003 London production 2010 UK tour

Take That Look Off Your Face Take That Look Off Your Face Let Me Finish
Let Me Finish Let Me Finish It's Not the End of the World (If It's
It's Not the End of the World (If I It's Not the End of the World Over)
Lose Him) Goodbye Mum, Goodbye Girls Writing Home (For the First Time)
Letter Home To England Haven in the Sky Sheldon Bloom
Sheldon Bloom First Letter Home Capped Teeth and Caesar Salad
Capped Teeth and Caesar Salad Speed Dating You Made Me Think You Were in
You Made Me Think You Were in Love
Second Letter Home
Love Capped Teeth and Caesar Salad
Tyler King
It's Not the End of the World (If (Reprise)
Capped Teeth and Caesar Salad
He's Younger) It's Not the End of the World (If
You Made Me Think You Were in He's Younger)
Second Letter Home
Love
Come Back with the Same Look in Writing Home (For the Second
Capped Teeth and Caesar Salad Time)
Your Eyes
(Reprise)
Let's Talk About You Unexpected Song
It's Not the End of the World (If
Take That Look Off Your Face The Last Man in My Life
He's Younger)
(Reprise) Come Back With the Same Look in
Third Letter Home
Tell Me on a Sunday Your Eyes
Unexpected Song
It's Not the End of the World (If Take That Look off Your Face
Come Back With the Same Look in
He's Married) Tell Me on a Sunday
Your Eyes
I'm Very You, You're Very Me It's Not the End of the World (If
Let's Talk About You
Nothing Like You've Ever Known He's Married)
Take That Look Off Your Face
Let Me Finish (Reprise) Married Man
(Reprise)
Writing Home (For the Third Time)
Tell Me on a Sunday
I'm Very You, You're Very Me
Who Needs Men
Ready Made Life
It's Not the End of the World
Let Me Finish (Reprise)
Fourth Letter Home
Nothing Like You've Ever Known
 Ready Made Life/I'm Very You Writing Home (For the Fourth Time)
Let Me Finish Take That Look off Your Face
Nothing Like You've Ever Known (Reprise)
Fifth Letter Home Dreams Never Run on Time
Somewhere, Someplace, (Finale)
Sometime

References
1. Citron, Stephen. Sondheim & Lloyd-Webber: The New Musical. New York, New York: Oxford University Press 2001.
ISBN 0-19-509601-0 pp. 262-63
2. Citron, p. 264
3. Citron, p. 266
4. Citron, p.266-67
5. Citron, p. 309
6. Inverne, James, Wrestling With Elephants: The Authorised Biography of Don Black
. London: Sanctuary Publishing
Ltd. 2003. ISBN 1-86074-468-0, p. 137
7. BBC review (http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/entertainment/theatre/tellme_160403.shtml)
8. Alloy Theater website (http://www.alloytheater.org)
9. MaxineLinehan.com (http://www.maxinelinehan.com)
10. TheWest.com.au (http://www.thewest.com.au/aapstory.aspx?StoryName=506666)
11. "Official 2010 UK tour website"(http://www.tellmeontour.com).

External links
Official website
History of the production and review of the 2004 UK tour
Official 2010 UK tour website

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