Written in 1979, Tell Me on a Sunday is the story tells of a girl, Emma, from Muswell Hill who travels to the US in search of love.
Her romantic misadventures begin in New York City and lead her to Hollywood before returning to Manhattan. The story is told through a song cycle with no spoken dialogue. The show includes many well-known numbers including:
Take That Look Off Your Face
The Last Man In My Life
Come Back with The Same Look In Your Eyes
Tell Me On A Sunday
Unexpected Song
Award-winning local group, Helston Theatre Company, bring a fresh take on this classic production featuring a cast and live band of Cornwall’s finest performers and musicians.
Review by Jenni Balow
Actor, singer and dancer Charlotte Laity, 20, put on her Sunday best at the Minack to give a stunning, starring, solo performance on the first night of one of Andrew Lloyd Webber's best-known heart-wringing musicals.
The Helston born member of the town's award-winning theatre company graduated during the Covid lockdown and is already establishing herself as a choreographer and music teacher.
This week in Tell Me On A Sunday, she is sharing the demanding solo song cycle role of Emma with Grace Wallen and Stephanie Rosewarne, only briefly leaving the stage for costume changes during the production that lasts for 75 minutes.
During that time, each will sing Don Black's memorable lyrics about the girl from London's Muswell Hill who flies to America in search of love. There is no dialogue.
Guess what, things don't turn out that well for the naive, optimistic young woman, who sets out for New York with her eyes wide shut.
She's trying to get a Green Card so that she can live and work in the US for 10 years, but she needs a partner to do it, and the emotional cost is heartbreaking, as she switches to the West Coast and back again to lonely Manhattan in search of love.
The music was written in 1979 and Marti Webb became an overnight star of the Really Useful Group production - remember Take That Look Off Your Face?
There have been changes in the intervening years. 'The Girl' was later named Emma and the Helston Theatre Company's Kiwi director, Leslie Church, has updated the look, with the introduction of a laptop and mobile phone, plus Zoom communication with her Mum in the UK.
On Sunday, Charlotte alternately wore trainers and wide trousers, and a very lovely dress, with matching amber shoes with heels to die for.
She looked the part, but her never-seen men always failed her, despite her willingness to fall in love, in a double bed cleverly covered in the duvets that changed with each partner. They told us a lot - from the big boho design of Van Gogh's Sunflowers in Los Angeles, to the dramatic purple silk statement in New York, and finally a sober deep plain red, that certainly couldn't be called scarlet.
The brilliant live band was headed by musical director Millie Millington on keyboard with Verena Watkiss, reeds, Zoe Curnow, double bass, Hannah Poulton, cello, Ross Hamilton, percussion and Jamie Toms, playing guitar.
The memorable songs tumble out with Emma's over-stretched emotions as she hopefully refers to The Last Man In My Life, and begs another to Come Back With The Same Look In Your Eyes, preferring to be ditched with Tell Me On A Sunday, please.
Will she finally triumph with Unexpected Song - can we all sigh with relief - and will we go home happy and singing again . . . you bet.
