Bedknobs and Broomsticks is a musical based on the 1971 Disney film of the same name and the stories by Mary Norton which features the original songs by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman. The musical also features new songs and additional music and lyrics by Neil Bartram and book by Brian Hill.
Background[]
The musical was originally due to open at The Yard at Chicago Shakespeare Theater from May 30 to July 28, 2019 as part of its 2018/19 season, directed and choreographed by Rachel Rockwell; however, due to Rockwell's death on May 26, 2018 the musical had been postponed and replaced with the production of Six.
In May 2020 while speaking about the closure of Frozen on Broadway to The New York Times, Thomas Schumacher, the president of Disney Theatrical Productions, confirmed the musical was in development with new directors Candice Edmunds and Jamie Harrison.
Synopsis[]
Act One[]
During the 1940 London Blitz, Charlie, Carrie, and Paul Rawlins are caught in an explosion that destroys their home and kills their parents, so they are evacuated to the small village of Pepperinge Eye ("Prologue"). In the museum, as they wait for Miss Eglantine Price, who they are to be placed in the care of, Charlie declares himself as the head of the family now ("Nobody's Problems"), and the children speculate what Miss Price will be like ("Miss Price, I Believe"). Suddenly, a plane flies overhead and the children duck for cover.
Miss Eglantine Price arrives to pick up a broom shaped package, and reluctantly takes the children in. When they arrive at her house, the children pretend to sleep, planning on running away later. Miss Price opens up the package and it is indeed a broomstick, which she uses to practice flying ("A Step in the Right Direction"). During this, the children spot her from the window.
The next morning, the children attempt to blackmail her in return of their silence ("Negotiality"), but Miss Price turns Charlie into a rabbit ("Filigree, Apogee, Pedigree, Perigee"). Miss Price then receives a letter and it is from her teacher, Emelius Browne. He has written to Miss Price to tell her that the school she had been learning from has been closed down due to the war, and because of that she will not be receiving a lesson which she was very anxious to receive.
Miss Price then explains to the children that, having seen men sent out during the First World War, some of whom never came back, she took up magic as a means to help the war effort, intending to learn the Substitutiary Locomotion spell, so inanimate objects can be deployed instead of people. Time is urgent too, as one of the first spells she received was a divination spell, where she saw the looming shadows of the German army (referred to in the show as "The Enemy") invading during the next blood moon.
Miss Price enchants a bedknob that only Paul can use, which will allow them to use to bed to travel to London. Charlie is reluctant to go, but when Paul tries the spell, it doesn't work ("Bedknob Spell"). Miss Price explains that the magic needs faith to work too, and realizes Charlie is at "The Age of Not Believing". After some words from her, Charlie agrees to come ("Bedknob Spell (Reprise 1)").
They soon arrive in London, there they meet Professor Emelius Browne ("Emelius The Great"), who they learn is a con-artist and who created the Correspondence College of Witchcraft using what he believed were nonsense passages in an old book about a wizard named Astoroth. He is surprised to learn that the spells actually work for Miss Price ("Filigree, Apogee, Pedigree, Perigee (Reprise)").
Miss Price asks to see the book, and Professor Browne takes them to his flat ("Bedknob Spell (Reprise 2)"), where he makes a proposition for her to be his magical assistant as they search for the Spell book ("Eglantine"). They soon find the book, but it is actually torn in half, thus explaining why he closed the school before sending out the final spell. He tells her that he bought it from the bookseller at a street market but because he only paid half of what was asked for, he only got half the book. Miss Price, Professor Browne, and the children travel to Portobello Road to search its many stalls and carts of old books ("Bedknob Spell (Reprise 3)" & "Portobello Road").
After their search, they find a book seller who possess the other half of the book. He exchanges it in return for Paul's first edition copy of "The Island of Nopeepo". Unfortunately, the completed text only says the spell is inscribed on a medallion known as the Star of Astoroth. Paul remembers that the Star of Astoroth appears in the "The Island of Nopeepo" book, being worn around the King's neck, and they offer to trade again with the Book Seller, in exchange for the completed spellbook. Professor Browne is reluctant to give away the spell book, but agrees once he learns that Miss Price has copied all the spells into her notebook, and so trades the notebook for the spell book, which in turn is traded for "The Island of Nopeepo" ("Negotiality (Reprise 1)"). Miss Price reads the book, but can't make out the inscription in the illustration, so the group choose to go to the Island personally. However, before they set off, an air raid begins, and in their hurry to escape before the bombs drop, they rush the spell and the bed crashes into Nopeepo lagoon. ("Bedknob Spell (Reprise 4)")
Act Two[]
As they go underneath the Beautiful Briny Sea, the group encounter talking fish who invite them to a dance contest at the Briny Ballroom. Miss Price is reluctant at first, but soon agrees when she learns that the winner gets an audience with the King ("Nopeepo Lagoon" & "The Beautiful Briny"). Despite Miss Price & Professor Browne dancing together, they still lose the contest. The winners, however, forfeit when Paul's book reveals that all the fish who do win an audience with the King wind up becoming his dinner! The party are fished up by a bear called Sherman ("Fish, Fish"), who is not happy to see them since no people are meant to be on the island by order of King Leonidas. However, the party successfully argues that, as winners of the contest, they get to see the King ("Negotiality (Reprise 2)"). King Leonidas snarls at the party, and gives a speech to the island's inhabitants about how he plans to devour the "undesirables" to preserve the island's "purity"; however, before he can, Professor Browne & Miss Price perform a magic show in order to distract King Leonidas long enough that they can switch the Star of Astoroth for a feather boa, before quickly making their escape on the bed ("Emelius and Eglantine").
When they arrive home, Miss Price asks Professor Browne for his shoes so she can test the spell on them. The children explain to Professor Browne why Miss Price wants to learn the spell, with Miss Price adding that her own father was among the men who never returned from the First World War, with her being the same age as Charlie when it happened. Professor Browne agrees and together, they are able to get the Substitutiary Locomotion spell working on the clothes about the house ("Substitutiary Locomotion"). Mrs. Hobday then arrives to tell Miss Price that she found someone else to take care of the children. Miss Price tells her that things have changed: she has grown fond of the children, and the children say that they have Professor Browne too. However, Professor Browne says he is going to return to London, worried that he'll let Miss Price down. He says goodbye to Miss Price and the children. After the children go to bed, Miss Price cleans up and while she does, they all sing about how they prefer to be alone ("Nobody's Problems (Quintet)").
That night, the children spot the looming shadow of the Enemy forces approaching, and in much larger numbers than Miss Price has anticipated. They flee to the museum and warn Mrs. Hobday about the invasion, who in turn warns Professor Browne, who was waiting overnight at the station for the first train to London. He realizes that Miss Price and the children are in danger, and rushes to the museum, using a spell from Miss Price's notebook to turn himself into a rabbit to sneak past the enemy ("It's Now").
After Professor Browne joins the others in the museum, with Carrie reverting him to human form, they attempt to use Substitutiary Locomotion to animate the museum pieces. It does not work at first, as they realize Miss Price's own faith is faltering, but Charlie offers her words of encouragement ("The Age of Not Believing (Reprise)"), which allows her to cast the spell ("Onward").
The museum pieces are able to fight off the enemy, but Miss Price, Professor Browne and the children are soon cornered. The enemy points their weapons towards them, but just as they are about to fire, Charlie screams out that they're not real. Everything stops. It turns out that everything that has happened was all a figment of the children's imagination, as a way to cope with the trauma of losing their parents. The Enemy, the Star of Astoroth, the Bedknob, even Professor Browne, and eventually Miss Price all vanish.
The children all wake up in the museum, just after they had ducked for cover from the plane flying overhead. Suddenly, the real Emelius Browne arrives, who in reality runs a novelty store in London, which had also just been bombed in the blitz, with Miss Price as a regular customer and pen pal of his. As he goes into the office to try and phone her, the real Eglantine Price arrives to pick up the children, and a broom shaped package, but misses Emelius Browne. Fortunately, Paul deliberately leaves his "Island of Nopeepo" book behind, giving them an excuse to go back, allowing Miss Price and Mister Browne a chance to meet in person. Together, the five ride off for home on Miss Price's motorcycle ("Epilogue").
Differences from the film[]
- The children's life before arriving in Pepperinge Eye is shown.
- The Island of Naboombu is renamed to The Island Of Nopeepo.
- The Home Guard do not appear in this version.
- Cosmic Creepers does not appear, but a portrait of a cat resembling him can be seen hanging on the wall in Miss Price's house.
- Miss Price's motivation for learning magic, as well as her father, are explored more deeply in the stage version.
- Miss Price enchants the Bedknob after she hears about the Correspondence College closing, rather than before.
- It is explained that faith is an integral part of making magic work.
- Professor Browne lives in his own flat, rather than hiding out in an abandoned house.
- Paul has the book about the island from the beginning, rather than finding it in the house.
- In the film, Professor Browne only got half of the book because he paid with a dud coin. In the musical, it's because he only paid half of the asking price.
- The Bookman and Swinburne don't appear.
- Miss Price gives Professor Browne her notebook containing all the spells.
- Miss Price is unable to make out what the Star of Astoroth says from Paul's book.
- Mister Codfish becomes a fish called Norton.
- The dance contest in the Beautiful Briny Ballroom is to win an audience with the King, but Miss Price & Professor Browne lose the contest.
- The Fisherman Bear is named Sherman, and is not dressed as a sailor.
- The Secretary Bird is named Angela.
- King Leonidas is more antagonistic and intends on eating the group of people.
- Instead of a soccer game, Professor Brown gets the Star of Astoroth by performing a magic show.
- The Star of Astoroth does not disappear when the group return home.
- Miss Price and the children are not taken prisoner by the German forces, and immediately head to the museum.
- In the film, the German forces have verbal interactions with Miss Price, Professor Browne and the children, while in the show, they are only referred to as "The Enemy" and remain faceless, represented as looming shadows.
- Professor Browne uses the notebook he got from Miss Price to transform into a rabbit, rather than going through her workshop.
- The Substitutiary Locomotion spell does not initially work in the Museum, because Miss Price is lacking in faith.
- During the climatic battle, while the children and Professor Browne keep under cover, in the stage show, they partake in the battle.
- The events of the show are revealed to have been a fantasy dreamt up by the children, while in the film, everything happened for real.
- While the show explains everything being a fantasy sequence, in the film, Miss Price stops her magic after her workshop and all the spells in it are destroyed.
- The show closes with the five main characters heading home on Miss Price's motorcycle, while in the film, Professor Browne joins the army, and the Bedknob is still shown to still work.
Production[]
The musical had its world premiere at the Theatre Royal in Newcastle upon Tyne on August 14, 2021 and will embark on an United Kingdom and Ireland tour until May 2022. The production is directed by Candice Edmunds and Jamie Harrison, with set design and illusions also by Jamie Harrison. The production is produced by Michael Harrison by special arrangement with Disney Theatrical Productions. Casting for the production was announced on June 4, 2021 including Dianne Pilkington as Miss Eglantine Price and Charles Brunton as Professor Emelius Browne.
Gallery[]
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This page uses content from the English Wikipedia page Bedknobs and Broomsticks (musical). The list of authors can be seen in the page history. Text from Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. |
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