The History Behind The Musical
Robbie! - The Musical was conceived by a strange twist of fate. Around 1980 Bruce Hebenton Graham was working in the pit orchestra of the London Palladium during the run of 'Hans Andersen', starring Tommy Steele.
With much time off between matinees and the evening shows, Bruce took to reading the works of Robert Burns, with a view to staging a musical in the Hans Andersen genre. It became quite an obsession with him, as Burn's writings are so strong, but he did eventually finish the musical. Unfortunately, when timed, it ran for six and a half hours!!! It was severely clipped back!!!
In 1982, Bruce was playing in Andrew Lloyd-Webber's show 'Song and Dance' in the Palace Theatre, starring Marti Webb and Wayne Sleep. At this time it was proof-read by the legendary screen-writer and lyricist, Alan Jay Lerner, who gave his opinions on it, and some useful recommendations for its' being performed. Again, being a busy session musician in the London studios during the daytime, and playing West End shows in the evenings, the musical was placed in a cardboard box and stored away 'safely'.
Eventually, it was lost (literally), and it seemed that it would have been relegated to posterity as a non-event. (It was actually physically lost between 1982 and 2006!!! ). When it finally resurfaced in 2006 (after a break of 24 years), Bruce re-scripted it, and cut it back again to two hours, with an interval.
Bruce's wife Sharon read the new version and didn't want the musical to be forgotten again, so she encouraged him to promote it and get it staged somewhere. In the time between the original script and the revised version, the economic situation in London's West End theatres had changed dramatically, and the professional companies were cutting down on the amount of people onstage, and in the orchestra pit.
As Robbie! - the Musical needs a large chorus it is now more suited to amateur operatic societies, because they need the larger show in order to give their members something to do onstage. Many of today's professionally written musicals have only a few characters in them.
Being one of Britain's top composer-arrangers, Bruce has himself arranged all the orchestral parts for a seven-piece line-up and Conductor. There are also many (optionally) added parts which can be added to bring the orchestra up to a larger size.
Robbie! - the Musical
At present it is being reviewed by a number of companies for the next few seasons as we have just seen the 250th anniversary year of Robert Burns' birth.
Latest developments
In 2010 Bruce has adapted two other versions of the musical.
The first makes it suitable as a shorter School Concert, allowing educational establishments to use it as part of their curriculum.
The second adaptation is in the form of a Evening Concert, with full chorus, soloists, and narration. This gives Choral Societies the opportunity to present the concert, without the headaches of staging the full musical, and with savings on scenery, costumes, and extra rehearsal time.
For more information on any of these versions click to the Show Rights page.
