East Kilbride Light Opera Club - The Most Happy Fella

The Most Happy Fella - 1999

Index

History

The Cast

The Most Happy Fella - Synopsis

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 unglamourous 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 whilst 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 administered make him unconscious. In defiance of Tony's sister Marie and Joe, Rosabella agrees and the marriage is duely 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...!

Some Pictures

Jim Robertson Jim Maxwell, lan Conroy, Peter Blair, Craig Lundie

The Most Happy Fella - 1999
by arrangement with Josef Weinberger Ltd

Music, Lyrics and Libretto by Frank Loesser

Production Team
Director & Choreographer - Billy Love
Musical Director - Cameron Merriweather
Dance Captain - Dawn Gough

Characters
Cashier - Ken Lawton
Cleo - Claire Johnston
Rosabella - Kate McGhee
Postman - Peter King
Tony - Jim Robertson
Marie - Rona Maxwell
Herman - lain Fraser
Al - Peter Blair
Clem - lan Conroy
Jake - Jim Maxwell
Joe - Craig Lundie
Pasquale - Donald Corbett
Guiseppe - Martin Russell
Ciccio - Alan Orr
Doc - Denis Hannigan
Priest - Harry Sheridan
Children - Mon., Wed., Fri. and Sat. Matinee - Beth Porter and Caroline King
Tues., Thur. and Sat. Evening - Clare Edison and Stuart Macintyre.

Neighbours
Bruce Arthur, Morag Arthur, Dorothy Bedford, Peter Blair, lan Conroy, Donald Corbett, Robbie Crawford, Sandra Crawford, Gillian Dunker, Carol Edison, Anneliese Gannon, Bill Ginn, Hazel Hampson, Dianne House, Shona Jenkins, Jim Kirkpatrick, Pamela Knox, Jim Lamb, Ken Lawton, Gina Lillycrop, Christine Macintyre, Jim Maxwell, Carol Meldrum, Eileen Montgomery, Pauline Moscardini, Elizabeth Porter, Leeanne Quinn, Harry Sheridan, Bill Struthers, Walter Thomson, Angela Williamson.

Dancers
Dawn Gough, Lori McElroy, Carol Meldrum, Linsey Meldrum, Colette Quinn, Heather Smith.

East Kilbride Light Opera Club Committee
Hon. President - Hugh C. Gray
Hon. Vice-President - W.Gordon McNay, OBE
President - Ann Struthers
Vice-President - Bruce Arthur
Secretary - Pauline Moscardini
Treasurer - Elizabeth Struthers
Committee
Robbie Crawford, Jack Tait, Ken Lawton, Morag Arthur, Peter King, Hazel Hampson.

Performance Details
1st March - 6th March 1999
The Village Theatre,
East Kilbride

Synopsis of Music and Scenes

Act I
Scene 1 A restaurant in San Francisco - January, some years ago.
Scene 2 Main Street, Napa Valley, California - April.
Scene 3 Tony's barn - a few weeks later.
Scene 4 Tony's front yard.

Overture - Orchestra
'Ooh, My Feet!' - Cleo
'Somebody, Somewhere' - Rosabella
'The Most Happy Fella' - Postman, Tony and Townsfolk
'A Long Time Ago' - Marie
'Standing on the Corner' - Herman, Jake, Clem, Al
'Joey, Joey, Joey' - Joe
'Rosabella' - Tony
'Abbondanza' - Pasquale, Guiseppe and Ciccio
'Plenty Bambini' - Tony
'Sposalizio' - Neighbours
'I seen her at the Station' - Postman
'Sposalizio' - Neighbours
'Benvenuta' - Pasquale, Guiseppe and Ciccio
'Aren't You Glad' - Rosabella
'Don't Cry' - Joe and Rosabella

Act II
Scene 1 The Vineyard - May.
Scene 2 The Barn, later in May.
Scene 3 The Vineyard - June.
Scene 4 The Barn.
Scene 5 The Vineyard - 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 and Vineyard workers
'How Beautiful the Days' - Tony, Rosabella, Marie and Joe
'Young People' - Marie
'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 The Barn - an hour later.
Scene 2 Tony's Front Yard a little later.
Scene 3 The Barn.
Scene 4 Main Street, Napa Valley - a little later.

'Abbondanza' (Reprise) - Pasquale, Guiseppe and Ciccio
'I Like Everybody' (Reprise) - Cleo and Herman
'Song of a Summer Night' - Doc and Neighbours
'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 and Cleo
'I Made a Fist' - Herman and Cleo
'Finale' - Tony, Rosabella and all the Neighbours