c1970 LESLIE BRICUSSE acetate demo songs for never made film "Great Music Chase"

$

99

long lost c1970 LESLIE BRICUSSE acetate demo of songs for The Great Music Chase

12" 33rpm acetate record made at IBC Sound Recording Studios in London England for Commonwealth United of:

THE NUTCRACKER (1st Draft Demos)

1. I'll Take You On A Journey
2. The Dream
3. Life
4. Tell Me Who I Am
5. The Morning
6. Mathematics
7. In Love

This appears to be the first demo for a song cycle created by the famous composer and songwriter Leslie Bricusse, featuring lyrics set to musical themes from "The Nutcracker" by Tchaikovsky, and intended to be used for a never produced movie musical extravaganza titled "The Great Music Chase."

I do not know who the male and female vocalists who sing the songs on this demo are.

The following five press clip articles will provide the chronological details of how this ill-fated project started out as a can't-miss attempt to ride the excitement generated in Hollywood by Russian-themed blockbuster films in the late 1960s, eventually involving a rather stunning array of stars who were to be involved in what ultimately became an abandoned project over 6 years later.

A bit of musical unobtainium...

PRESS CLIP #1
Looking At Hollywood by Florabel Muir
Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph
April 29, 1969

HOLLYWOOD - The Russians capitalized on their Oscar-winning presence (for "War and Peace") in Hollywood by calling a press conference to announce a joint venture with Commonwealth United to make a motion picture version of Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker Suite."

Russia's famed actress and dancer, Ludmilla Savelyeva, was at the conference with the gold statuette she had accepted at the academy presentations for "War and Peace," in which she played Natasha. The Russian picture won the Oscar for best foreign language picture.

Ludmilla will also have a starring role in "The Nutcracker Suite," and the film will feature the Bolshoi Ballet, the Moiseyev Dancers, the Leningrad Kirov Ballet, the Moscow State Circus, the Ice Circus of Russia and either the Leningrad or Moscow Symphony Orchestra.

I think it's wonderful to see such cultural masterpieces and the $15,000,000 budget indicates how big a production the picture will be. It will be filmed in Russia, and Leslie Bricusse has been signed to both write the screenplay and adapt the music for the film score.

PRESS CLIP #2
Bricusse, Lubin to Produce "The Great Music Chase"
Box Office
March 20, 1972

HOLLYWOOD - Leslie Bricusse and Kenny Lubin have joined forces to make a new motion picture "The Great Music Chase," in Belgrade, Dubrovnik, and other sites along the Adriatic Coast. The original screenplay and contemporary lyrics were written by Bricusse, who also has adapted the songs from Peter Ilyich Tchaicovsky's "Nutcracker Suite." As indicated by the title, "the Great Music Chase" is planned to be a fast-moving picture from start to finish, always being driven by the music and lyrics and culminating in a huge ballet sequence involving Russian dancers. It is blueprinted as a film for people of all ages and countries.

Final discussions are now going on regarding financing and distribution.

The film will be Bricusse's third major project of the year. The first is the Broadway production "It's a Funny Old World We Live In and the World's Not To Blame," written in conjunction with his partner Anthony Newley. It is scheduled to open in October starring Newley. The second Bricusse project is a musical based on the life of King Henry VIII, to be presented in London by Bernard Delfont at the end of the year with Peter Hall directing.

Lubin has just returned from Europe after spending approximately a year selling the Jicarilla Apache Indian film "A Gun Fight," with Kirk Douglas and Johnny Cash, and location-hunting and budget-making for "The Great Music Chase" in Yugoslavia.

PRESS CLIP #3
Marilyn Beck's Hollywood Hotline
Los Angeles Times
May 19, 1974

Lesilie Bricusse, who for years teamed with Anthony Newley in composing endeavors, now has joined forces with veteran star Gene Kelly. Gene, the musical's master entertainer, and Leslie, the master at writing musicals, are creating two motion pictures for Kelly's newly-formed production company. The first is a musical version of Jean Giradoux's "Ondine" which originally starred Audrey Hepburn.

The second is an original titled "The Great Music Chase" for which Bricusse is writing music and lyrics to some of the great Tchaikovsky music. If the fellows can firm the deal, it will star Liza Minnelli and one of the loves of her life, Ben Vereen. Screenplay will be Leslie and Tom Mankiwicz.

PRESS CLIP #4
Successful Song Writing Duo United First By Girlfriend
The Daily-News Times Burlington North Carolina
December 22, 1974

HOLLYWOOD - You wonder how great songwriting teams get together like, for instance, Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley. "Tony and I had the same girl friend," said Leslie the other day. Instead of getting peeved at each other, they collaborated and wrote the music, book and lyrics for the smash for London and Broadway hit "Stop the World I Want to Get Off."

The hit song from that show "What Kind Of Fool Am I?" has become a standard, so much so that there have been 472 different recordings of it. Which brings Leslie to Jerry Lewis. "Jerry, at his own expense, made the first recording of that song. He sent it off to a recording executive who wired back that the material was not suitable. "Each Christmas, Jerry sends the wire back to him as a Christmas card. This year, he is listening each recording."

Leslie, at the moment, is collaborating with George Axelrod on a new Broadway musical starring Jerry called "Feeling No Pain" which will open next year. It will be Jerry's Broadway debut.

Leslie, musically, has been working alone. He recently completed the screenplay of a new film musical called "The Great Musical Chase," for which he adapted the music of Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker Suite" and wrote original lyrics.

PRESS CLIP #4
1972 Rose Queen Weds Raquel's Ex
Pasadena Star-News
September 21, 1975

The 1972 Tournament of Roses Queen, Margo Lynn Johnson, married Patrick Curtis, the former husband of Raquel Welch, in a ceremony Saturday in Arcadia. Curtis, who was divorced from Miss Welch in 1972, is a film producer and director who has made, among other movies, "Kansas City Bomber" and "Hannie Caulder."

A reception followed the wedding at the home of Leslie Bricusse, the Academy Award winning musical composer. Bricusse is scheduled to work with Patrick Curtis next year in producing the musical film "The Great Music Chase."

Show Business Biography of
LESLIE BRICUSSE
from the Old Globe 2009/2010 season announcement of
the world premiere of Bricusse's musical "Sammy"

Double Oscar and Grammy winner Leslie Bricusse is a writer-composer-lyricist who has contributed to many musical films and plays during his career. He was born in London, and educated at University College School and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. At Cambridge, he was President of the Footlights Revue Club and founded the Musical Comedy Club. There, he co-authored, directed and performed in his first two musical shows, "Out of the Blue" and "Lady at the Wheel," both of which made their way to London’s West End.

The late, great Beatrice Lillie plucked him out of the Footlights Revue at the Phoenix Theatre, and made him her leading man in "An Evening with Beatrice Lillie" at the Globe Theatre, where he spent the first year of his professional life writing another musical, "Boy on the Corner," and the screenplay and score of his first motion picture, "Charley Moon," which won his first Ivor Novello Award. That year he decided to drop the possibilities of directing and performing, and concentrate his career on becoming a full-time writer-composer-lyricist.

His subsequent stage musicals include "Stop the World I Want to Get Off"; "The Roar of the Greasepaint The Smell of the Crowd"; "Pickwick"; "Harvey"; "The Good Old Bad Old Days"; "Goodbye, Mr. Chips"; "Henry’s Wives"; "Scrooge"; "Sherlock Holmes"; "Jekyll and Hyde"; "Noah’s Ark"; "Sammy"; "Cyrano de Bergerac"; "Kennedy"; "Victor/Victoria" and "It’s a Dog’s Life!"

He has written songs and/or screenplays for such films as "Doctor Dolittle"; "Scrooge"; "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory"; "Goodbye, Mr. Chips"; "Superman"; "Victor/Victoria"; "Santa Claus The Movie"; "Home Alone I & II"; "Hook"; "Tom & Jerry The Movie"; various "Pink Panthers" and "The Great Music Chase."

Bricusse has written more than forty musical shows and films, and over the years has had the good fortune to enjoy fruitful collaborations with a wonderful array of musical talents, including Anthony Newley, Henry Mancini, John Williams, John Barry, Jerry Goldsmith, Jule Styne, Quincy Jones, Andre Previn, Frank Wildhorn and Peter Illyich Tchaikovsky (whose Nutcracker Suite he adapted into a song score).

His better-known songs include "What Kind of Fool Am I?"; "Once in a Lifetime"; "Gonna Build a Mountain"; "Who Can I Turn To?"; "The Joker"; "If I Ruled the World"; "My Kind of Girl"; "Talk to the Animals"; "You and I"; "Feeling Good"; "When I Look in Your Eyes"; "Goldfinger"; "Can You Read My Mind?" (the love theme from "Superman"); "You Only Live Twice"; "Le Jazz Hot"; "On a Wonderful Day Like Today"; "Two for the Road"; "The Candy Man"; "This is the Moment"; "Crazy World"; "Pure Imagination" and "Oompa-Loompa-Doompa-Dee-Doo."

He has been nominated for ten Academy Awards, nine Grammy’s and four Tony’s, and has won two Oscars, a Grammy and eight Ivor Novello Awards, the premier British Music Award.

Hundreds of Bricusse’s songs have been recorded by major artists, including Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Judy Garland, Aretha Franklin, Barbra Streisand, Sammy Davis, Jr. (who recorded 60 Bricusse songs), Tony Bennett, Shirley Bassey, Tom Jones, Petula Clark, Julie Andrews, Liza Minnelli, Andy Williams, Bobby Darin, Rex Harrison, Kate Smith, Elaine Paige, Anthony Newley, Michael Feinstein, Bette Midler, The Moody Blues, Nancy Sinatra, Lena Horne, Sergio Mendes, Nina Simone, Dionne Warwick, Robert Goulet, Matt Monro, Ray Charles, Ethel Merman, Placido Domingo, Jennifer Holliday, Danny Kaye, Robbie Williams, Mariah Carey, Linda Eder, Diana Krall, Maroon 5, Michael Buble and The Black-Eyed Peas.

In 1989, he received the Kennedy Award for consistent excellence in British songwriting, bestowed by the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors, and was inducted into the American Songwriters’ Hall of Fame -- only the fourth Englishman to be so honored -- after Noel Coward, John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

Bricusse is currently represented internationally by "Jekyll & Hyde," written with Frank Wildhorn, which ran for four years at the Plymouth Theatre in New York, with over a dozen international productions around the world, the most recent in Tokyo, Prague, Madrid and Seoul, and "Victor/Victoria," written with Blake Edwards and Henry Mancini, which successively starred Julie Andrews, Liza Minnelli and Raquel Welch on Broadway, and is now seen in various other international productions, including Madrid, Mexico City, Moscow, Stockholm and Paris.

Bricusse’s children’s stage musical version of Roald Dahl’s "Willy Wonka" first opened at the Kennedy Center For the Performing Arts in Washington DC in November, 2004. In 2008 it is playing in school, college and amateur productions across America.

Another Bricusse perennial, his musical version of "Scrooge," in which Anthony Newley starred at the Dominion Theatre in London’s West End, is also seen annually in many productions in the U. K., Europe, the U. S. and Japan. Recently, the title role was played by Richard Chamberlain in the U. S. and British superstar Tommy Steele at the famed London Palladium.

For "Doctor Dolittle," another current stage musical, which played four years in the U. K. starring Phillip Schofield and a host of animatronic animals created by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, Bricusse serves as librettist, composer, lyricist and co-producer. A major U. S. production opened in the summer of 2005, starring nine-time Tony Award winner Tommy Tune, and a brand-new British production, again starring Tommy Steele, started life in September 2007.

His next project is a remarkable musical biography of the world’s greatest entertainer, the late Sammy Davis, Jr., entitled "Sammy." Bricusse has also completed the book and lyrics of his musical adaptation of "Cyrano de Bergerac," his new collaboration with Frank Wildhorn, which will open internationally in 2009. He is currently writing the score for his next project, a musical adaptation of the hit movie "Sleepless in Seattle."

All photographs are of actual item.

Shipping discounts for multiple purchases.

Full refunds cheerfully given for any item that I have misdescribed.