It was last in the West End more than twenty years ago so this may be the first opportunity for many to see Andrew Lloyd Webber and Alan Ayckbourn's sole collaboration. Their musical comedy BY JEEVES, inspired by PG Wodehouse's classic Jeeves and Wooster stories, streams for 48 hours for free on YouTube from this Friday 8 May 2020. Watch two of the show's songs here...
The lockdown streaming schedule for Andrew Lloyd Webber‘s free-to-view YouTube Channel The Shows Must Go On will continue this Friday with a broadcast of By Jeeves, his musical comedy collaboration with Alan Ayckbourn, inspired by the stories of PG Wodehouse.
For 48 hours from 7pm this Friday 8 May 2020, fans can watch the show for free – more essential weekend viewing.
By Jeeves follows one of the adventures of the hapless Bertie Wooster (played by American actor John Scherer), a young gentleman about town with a penchant for getting himself into personal difficulties, particularly with women. It is inevitably left to his unflappable manservant Jeeves (played by Martin Jarvis) to provide tidy and elegant rescues and guide Bertie through the improvised chaos.
By Jeeves, originally titled simply Jeeves, premiered at the West End’s Her Majesty’s Theatre in 1975 but flopped, running for just one month. Lloyd Webber and Ayckbourn revisited it, substantially revising and renaming it, in 1996, when it opened at Ayckbourn’s Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough and then transferred to the West End, with a cast led by Steven Pacey and Malcolm Sinclair as Bertie and Jeeves.
This filmed version was recorded in Canada in 2001, before the musical’s brief Broadway premiere season. Songs include Banjo Boy, Wooster Will Entertain You, Travel Hopefully, The Hallo Song, It’s a Pig!, What You Have You Got To Say, Jeeves? and the title number.
The Shows Must Go On YouTube channel provides musical theatre lovers with a West End and Broadway experience in their own homes, online for free during the coronavirus crisis while theatres around the world are dark. Alongside the full-length shows, clips of famous performances and behind-the-scenes footage are uploaded regularly to the channel.
Previous screenings have included Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat (starring Donny Osmond), Jesus Christ Superstar, The Phantom of the Opera, Love Never Dies and Lloyd Webber’s 50th birthday concert at the Royal Albert Hall. Further productions are to be announced.
Watch songs from the show
Here are two of the kookier numbers from By Jeeves: enjoy It's a Pig! and Banjo Boy.