East Kilbride Light Opera Club - The Most Happy Fella

The Most Happy Fella - 1976

Index

History

The Cast

The Most Happy Fella

cover of programme Tony Esposito is an ageing and lovable ranch-owner from the Napa Valley in California who, during a visit to San Francisco falls in love with an attractive young waitress whom he calls Rosabella. He is too shy to speak to her and the courtship is carried on by letter. When it comes to exchanging photographs Tony, afraid that his unglamorous features may end all his hopes, sends Rosabella instead a snap of his handsome young foreman Joe.

The "mail-order-love-affair" blossoms into a proposal but when Rosabella arrives at Napa for the wedding she meets Joe by chance and discovers the deception. Horrified at how she has been deceived, she decides to return to San Francisco but, at that moment. Tony is carried home seriously injured after a car crash while on his way to meet her at the station. Tony pleads with her for the wedding to take place immediately before the drugs Doc has injected make him unconscious. In defiance of Tony's sister Marie and Joe, Rosabella agrees and the marriage is duly solemnised by the Priest in Tony's house.

Disillusioned to find herself so unexpectedly married to a physically wrecked middle-aged man, Rosabella is carried away by Joe's ardent sympathy and his remorse for his previous behaviour and they are swept into a madly passionate relationship.

Gradually Tony recovers and Rosabella begins to realise how deeply she has grown to love her kindly husband only to discover that her moment of weakness on their wedding day means she is to have Joe's child. Disconsolate and heart-stricken Rosabella confesses her guilty secret to Tony and he, beside himself with bitterness and grief sends her away and then. realising that Joe has also just left his ranch, sets off in pursuit with a gun in his hand..........!

The Most Happy Fella - 1976
by arrangement with Chappell & Co. Ltd

Book & Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner
Music by Frederick Loewe

Production Team
Producer - Jack Tait
Musical Director - S. Gordon Lang
Choreographer - Margaret Lewis

Characters in order of appearance
Cashier - Martin Shelley
Cleo - Rona MacGregor
Rosabella - Nan Tait
Postman - Nigel Matthews
Tony - Jim Barr
Marie - Elaine Anderson
Herman - Bill Walker
Al - David Hughes
Clem - Bill Struthers
Jake - William Watson
Joe - Denis Hannigan
Pasquale - Leonard Johnson
Guiseppe - Robert McDermott
Ciccio - Ernest Dodds
Doc - Robert McCrae
Children - Sarah Waters, Craig MacGregor

Ladies of the Chorus
Rhona Blair, Aileen Brookens, Sheena Brough, Frances Doyle, Betty Drennan, Aileen C Finlay, Rita Hindle, Isa Hornal, Maureen Hughes, Alison Love, Carol Love, Barbara McElroy, Laurey McElroy. Fiona Morley, Elizabeth Rennie, Betty Roberts, May Smith, Ann Struthers, Elizabeth Struthers, Gillean Tait

Gentlemen of the Chorus
Jack Allan, Bruce Arthur, Bert Blair, Tom Borland, Tom Coghill, John Ferris, Brian Gillespie, Gordon Hughes, Graham Hughes, Nigel Matthews, Jim Maxwell, Bill Roberts, Martin Shelley, Bill Taggart, Colin Thomas

Dancers
Morag Arthur, Lesley Baird, Dorothy Bedford, Helen Craig, Sandra Goodfellow, Margaret Hay, Anne Sinclair, Susan Turner

Stage manager - David Waters
Club Accompanist - Nan McKechnie
Dance Pianists - Matt Lang & Margaret McAldie
Property Master - Alfred Matthews
Wardrobe Mistress - Edna Porter
Lighting - David Roberts
Make-Up - Jean Waters
Leader of Orchestra - Andrew Wilson
Prompter - Irene Roberts

Performance Details
27th February - 4th March 1978
The Village Theatre,
East Kilbride

Synopsis of Music and Scenes

Act I

Scene 1 A restaurant in San Francisco - January, 1950
Scene 2 Main Street, Napa, California; in April
Scene 3 Tony's Front Yard; A few weeks later

Overture - Orchestra
'Ooh, My Feet!' - Cleo
'Somebody, Somewhere' - Rosabella
'The Most Happy Fella' - Postman, Tony and Chorus
'Standing on the Corner' - Herman, Jake, Clem, Al and Girls
'Joey, Joey, Joey' - Joe
'Rosabella' - Tony
'Abbondanza' (Plenty of Everything) - Pasquale, Guiseppe and Ciccio
'Plenty Bambini' - Tony
'Sposalizio' (Wedding Party) - Chorus and Dancers
'I seen her at the Station' - Postman
'Benvenuta' - Pasquale, Guiseppe and Ciccio
'Aren't You Glad' - Rosabella
'Don't Cry' - Joe and Rosabella

Act II

Scene 1 Back of the Ranch: In May
Scene 2 The Barn; Later in May
Scene 3 Back of the Ranch; In June
Scene 4 The Barn
Scene 5 Tony's Front Yard; In July

'Fresno Beauties' - Vineyard workers, Rosabella and Joe
'Love and Kindness' - Doc
'Happy to Make Your Aquaintance' - Rosabella, Tony and Cleo
'I Don't Like This Dame' - Marie and Cleo
'Big D' - Cleo, Herman, Chorus and Dancers
'How Beautiful the Days' - Tony, Rosabella, Marie and Joe
'Young People' - Marie, Tony and Dancers
'Warm All Over' - Rosabella
'I Like Everybody' - Herman and Cleo
'I Love Him' - Rosabella and Cleo
'My Heart is so Full of You' - Tony and Rosabella
'Mamma, Mamma' - Tony

Act III

Scene 1 Tony's Front Yard; an hour later
Scene 2 Main Street, Napa Railway Station; a little later

'Abbondanza' - Pasquale, Guiseppe and Ciccio
'I Like Everybody' - Cleo and Herman
'Song of a Summer Night' - Doc and Chorus
'Please Let Me Tell You' - Rosabella
'Tell Tony and Rosabella' - Joe
'She Gonna Come Home with Me' - Tony
'Nobody's Ever Gonna Love You' - Marie, Tony and Cleo
'I Made a Fist' - Herman and Cleo
'Finale' - Tony, Rosabella and Full Company