Director |
Produced by Brian Epstein
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Author |
Alan Platter |
Cast |
Ben Kingsley, Robert Powell |
Plot |
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A Smashing Day, a contemporary piece where Kingsley would perform as singing
narrator (he'd written the music himself), playing guitar with Powell
accompanying on harmonica. |
Comments |
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This was a huge success and had Kingsley noticed by
Brian Epstein, manager of The Beatles, then on an extreme high as the band
dominated the charts worldwide. Acting as a theatre producer, Epstein would now
open A Smashing Day at the New Arts Theatre in London, with Hywel Bennett in the
lead and Kingsley and Powell continuing in their musical roles. After one
performance John Lennon and Ringo Starr would come backstage and urge Kingsley
to change tack into a musical career. He'd regret it forever if he didn't, they
said. Epstein would offer him a deal.
It was televised in 1962, if you happen to run on a recording of it please, I BEG you, send me a copy!!!
For the record : This reminds me the episode of The Detectives :
Strangers in Paradise in which Robert plays the harmonica on stage and
Jasper plays the guitar! |
Reviews |
"As he had done with pop management, starting with one group and then moving to
two, then seeing the sky as the limit, Brian [Epstein] put on A Smashing
Day written by Alan Plater at the Arts Theater, starring Hywel Bennett. It
was the only thing he ever directed and he only did so because the assigned
director, John Fernald, was taken ill. The play itself consisted of a couple of
buskers who told a little story between scenes as a kind of musical thread.
Brian told me to go out and find someone to play the buskers. At his suggestion,
I came up with two kids from RADA, Robert Powell and Ben Kingsley, the latter of
whom played guitar. Nobody could have guessed that many years later a bald
version of Ben would win an Oscar for Gandhi and Robert would play Jesus
in Lew Grade’s huge TV series, Jesus of Nazareth."
From Magical Mystery Tours – My life with the Beatles, by Tony Bramwell |
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