Fings Ain’t Wot They Used T’Be – LONDON CAST***

Overture-G’night Dearie/Fings Ain’t Wot They Used T’be/Layin’ Abaht/Where Its Hot/The Ceilin’s Comin’ Dahn/ Contempery/Entr’acte/Cochran Will Return/Polka Dots/Meatface/Where Do Little Birds Go-Big Time-Fings Ain’t Wot They Used T’Be/Carve Up/Cop A Bit Of Pride/The Student Ponce/Finale

The London cast musical Fings Ain’t Wot They Used T’be starred Miriam Karlin, Maurice Kaufman and Barbara Windsor. It opened at the Garrick Theatre in February 1960 and ran for 886 performances. With heavy Cockney dialect it portrays a mixed ensemble of London low life. A bowdlerized version of the catchy title track was a big British hit for Max Bygraves. Music and lyrics by Lionel Bart, based on the play by Frank Norman. (UK:5)

“The comedy show, as devised by Joan Littlewood, written by old lag Frank Norman, with songs by Lionel Bart, was a celebration of an idealised East End and Soho bohemian lifestyle at the end of the 1950s, as knocking shops and coffee shops teemed with ponces, doxies, molls, spivs, gamblers and bent coppers.”

“With stars such as Yootha Joyce and Barbara Windsor, and Lionel Bart's words and music, this original cast recording is a must for any lover of musicals.”

“Fings was unique in that it was written almost entirely in the Cockney dialect, prompting a dozen or so phrases to be explained in the theatre programme.”

“Soho is changing, as we learn from the title song, head and shoulders above any other, which is apparent from its regular reappearances throughout the musical.”

“The music and lyrics are a curtain-raiser for Bart's finest moment but are not yet at the peak that he subsequently reached.”

“The score was always one or two numbers short of a full house. But there’s nothing but delight spreading from the horizontal sensuality of Layin’ Abaht, the music hall bounce and cheek of The Ceiling’s Comin’ Dahn or the hilarious interior decorating numbers, Contempery and Polka Dots.”

“Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be launched the career of Barbara Windsor in the role of 'Lil', long-suffering girlfriend of Fred 'Razor King' Cochran. The stock character of the tart with a heart, who longs for a ring on her finger, and a 'bungalow with no stairs'.”