The Hired Man (1984)

The Hired Man was Howard’s first professional musical, completed when he was 26. It is a passionate and earthy work, inspired by the stage works of Kurt Weill, English choral and folk music and - specifically - by the emotional impact of seeing Brian Friel's play set in rural Ireland, 'Translations'.

The initial idea was to write a serious, non-Broadway style musical set in a rural community, and Howard approached Melvyn Bragg with the proposition of a joint venture: adapting one of Melvyn’s novels. Melvyn felt at first, however, that Howard’s choice of novel was problematic. The Hired Man, one of Melvyn’s early novels, is set in rural Cumbria, amongst the farm workers and miners, and includes scenes of war and pit disaster. Melvyn explained, "it’s a cavalcade of working class history so unfashionable it’s almost out of sight". He agreed, however, to adapt the dialogue for the stage, leaving Howard to work on the lyrics as well as the musical score.

Licence info : Reviews : Articles : Cast : Synopsis : Miscellany : Posters :

Melvyn Bragg writes about The Hired Man here

Nuffield Theatre Southampton 1984. Photos Paul Carter

The Hired Man was premiered at the Nuffield Theatre, Southampton, and following a season at the Haymarket, Leicester, the show enjoyed a five-month run at the Astoria Theatre in London’s West End, produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Since then it has been produced both professionally and by amateur groups all over the world.

Crossbridge Fair, Leicester Haymarket Summer 1984. Photo Malcolm Andrew

The Hired Man is scored for Piano, Trumpet, Harp, Bass & (electric) Harpsichord, with optional string quartet. It is usually performed with a cast of at least a dozen.

Phyllis Logan & Richard Walsh, Southampton 1984. Photo Paul Carter

A vocal score of The Hired Man can be viewed in Scorch form here: the latest version includes the new song for Salisbury 2003, Day Follows Day. The composer is grateful to Peter Chamberlin of the Norfolk & Norwich Threshold Theatre Group for the preparation of these scores. The most recent version of the script in pdf form can be viewed here.

Information about the availability of CDs can be found here and the 1992 West End Concert recording is available on iTunes.

Claire Parker as May Tallentire, Southampton 1984. Photo Paul Carter

Amateur theatrical rights for the UK & performance materials are available from Samuel French Ltd. Professional (grand) rights for the UK are controlled by the Really Useful Group. All other enquiries may be made through the email links on this website, or by contacting Caroline Chignell at PBJ Management, 7 Soho Street, London W1D 3DQ (Tel + 44 (0)20 7287 1112, fax +44 (0) 7287 1191).

Clare Burt as May Tallentire, Leicester 1984. Photo Malcolm Andrew

In 1984 The Hired Man was awarded the Ivor Novello Award for Best Musical, earned four Olivier Award nominations, and was voted Best Musical of the Year by the critics of Time Out, The Guardian, Punch & The Stage. In 2004 its Salisbury Playhouse revival won the TMA Award for Best Musical. In 2007-8 the New Perspectives Theatre Company took The Hired Man on a 6-month UK tour, concluding at Greenwich Theatre.

Billy Hartman as Ted Blacklock, Sothampton 1984. Photo Paul Carter.

What the critics said…

Original West End Production, London...

"Howard Goodall's score is one of the finest I have heard in a British musical in years it has its own cumulative choral virility and the ability, in a simple duet about marital survival, to penetrate one's emotional defences... It has a real sense of social breadth and captures the ancestral pull of the land." Michael Billington, The Guardian

"The real drama lies in Goodalls music: his lean, unfussy scoring and his rousing choral ballads. He writes recognisably English and pungently individual music" John Peter, Sunday Times

"At his first attempt Howard Goodall has smashed the British musical mould; hewing his musical line from Britain's choral traditions with an audacity that is at once thrilling and fearful, Goodall's lyrics and haunting themes are left to fill up the mind with a simplicity that is as rare as it is effective... you will seldom hear voices used with such stirring beauty." Carole Woods, City Limits

"The Hired Man is an engagingly different kind of musical a marvellous succession of chorales, operatic duets and vigorous foot-stomping rhythms - an altogether thoroughly vital score by Howard Goodall. All the choral writing is tremendous" Michael Coveney, Financial Times

"The best musical of the year: Goodall's music runs under dialogue, through scenes, across decades: it's there down the mines and at the hiring fairs and the wrestling matches in this Cavalcade of early twentieth-century English life, and the show which has been built around the music is unbeatable and unmissable." Sheridan Morley, Punch

"The Hired Man... is a marvellous, bracing, moving creation" Steve Grant, Time Out

2007-2008 New Perspectives UK Tour

The Sunday Express 25th November 07 : Mark Shenton

'The Hired Man premiered in 1984 but is only now receiving its first UK tour by the enterprising Nottingham-based New Perspectives, who take their shows to theatres and village halls around the country. They live up to their name, offering a dramatic, beautifully pared-down new perspective on this kaleidoscopic musical view of English rural farming and mining life from the turn of the 20th century.

Howard Goodall, best known for his theme tunes to shows like Blackadder, Mr Bean and The Vicar Of Dibley, and as a presenter of several TV series on music, furnishes it with what I consider to be the greatest score of any English musical of the past 25 years. In fact, when I was a guest on Elaine Paige's Radio 2 Sunday afternoon show a couple of months ago, I selected this as one of my five essential musicals. It is a sound, at once distinctive and hugely melodic, that is drenched in English choral and folk music traditions and pulses with yearning and feeling. Its moving story, based on Melvyn Bragg’s 1969 novel of the same name, follows the lives of John and Emily Tallentire as they make a life together and as played with real heart here by Richard Colvin and Claire Sundin, their connection both with each other and with the audience is palpable.

The show may drift into melodrama at times, but it is always rescued by the tug of emotion that underpins it. Watching Daniel Buckroyd’s production through a veil of tears, I was even distracted from the draughty chill of the Swan Theatre in Worcester in which I saw it.'

The Independent 1st October 07: Jenny Hulme

If you've read The Hired Man you might sympathise with Melvyn Bragg's initial astonishment that composer Howard Goodall wanted to create a musical out of "the working-class heroic struggle" portrayed in his book, set in Cumbria in the early 1900s. But Bragg claimed to have been quickly convinced by the result (as were critics in the Eighties when it opened). And anyone at Nottingham's Lakeside Arts Centre this week to catch the first national tour of the musical will have seen why. The Hired Man might not have had the run it deserved in the West End, but it has an enduring appeal. Bragg and Goodall put this down to its subject matter, believing it simply strikes a chord with its audiences by touching on relationships strained by work, families torn apart by war and other life issues that still make the headlines 100 years on from when John – the hired man of the title – first set out to find work in 1898. But there's more to it than that. A lot of the magic comes from a brilliant musical score and wonderful characterisation by the cast of actors/singers (Simon Pontin, Jackson here, surely has a leading West End role round the corner). They seemed totally committed to capturing the changing and challenged expectations, dreams, passions and pain of a family dealing with the stuff that life throws at them. Director Daniel Buckroyd, who has picked up great reviews for his previous touring productions with New Perspectives, uses a smaller cast than originally planned by Goodall and Bragg, so they work hard. But they also work wonderfully together and, with the help of clever lighting and a simple set, lead the audience seamlessly from the Cumbrian hiring fair to the local bar, from misty fells to the trenches in First World War France, from a family's tea table to the depths of a collapsed mine shaft. There were a couple of scenes when apparent efforts to condense the tale seemed abrupt and confusing – the sexual tension between Emily and Jackson that made such an impact on the storyline seemed underdeveloped, and Emily's untimely end came as a surprise. Her illness was only hinted at in an earlier scene. But no matter. Like everyone else around me I was thoroughly moved from Act I, and close to tears by the time I got to "No Choir of Angels" towards the end of Act II. A wonderful production – better than many in the West End. The provinces are in for a treat.

The Stage 1st October 07: Pat Ashworth

It dares us to feel pity but commands us to feel respect. What a stroke of genius to send Melvyn Bragg’s robust and unsentimental depiction of rural struggle out on tour, into village communities where some of the issues still resonate in a new age. Stuart Ward (Issac) and Richard Colvin (John) in The Hired Man at Lakeside Arts Centre, Nottingham Stuart Ward (Issac) and Richard Colvin (John) in The Hired Man at Lakeside Arts Centre, Nottingham Photo: Tristram Kenton This brilliant chamber production uses just eight actors to bring alive a whole era before, during and after the First World War, when working people in Cumbria grappled with the barrenness of the land and the harshness of the pits. From the hiring fair at Crossbridge to the mud of Passchendale, the men and women exhibit a resilience and dignity that really move. Howard Goodall’s lyrics are tough and impassioned, sometimes beaten out to the hitting of shovels in hard earth and sung throughout with intensity and fervour. The piano score is enhanced with trumpet and occasionally violin to deliver songs of great tenderness, such as Day Follows Day and What Would You Say to Your Son? Angry, monosyllabic protests such as War, sung in the nightmare of the trenches, are mitigated by gentler, comic lyrics - “He’s a nice enough lad but I’m scared of his dad”. The story, based on the life of Bragg’s grandfather, highlights the miners’ struggles for reform and the farm workers’ for a living wage. Every word counts and it’s impeccably delivered, much of it in chorus. There are fine performances all round, especially from Richard Colvin as John, Claire Sundin as Emily, Lee Foster as Harry and Katie Howell as May. It is simply awesome.

The Guardian 27th September 07: Alfred Hickling

There's been much hand-wringing about where the next generation of British musicals is to come from. The Arts Council is so concerned about the glut of American shows that it has commissioned an inquiry to determine how fresh blood may be injected into a West End whose arteries have been hardened by years of glutinous Broadway product. It frequently goes unobserved that Howard Goodall has been plugging away for the past 20 years, quietly devising a distinctive form of musical theatre embedded in the choral and folk traditions of the English countryside. The Hired Man is adapted from Melvyn Bragg's 1984 novel. Yet it is a measure of how undervalued Goodall's work seems to be that it has never been presented in a touring version until now.

Set in the opening decades of the 20th century, the novel was written as a tribute to Bragg's grandfather, a farm labourer and keen amateur musician. Like all his fiction, it is infused with the physical and emotional landscape of Cumbria. The story revolves around the seasonal lottery of hiring fairs, where an increasingly hungry population of agricultural workers apply for a dwindling pool of jobs. The action covers a vast amount of ground, from the outbreak of war to the development of the Labour movement; though East Midlands rural touring company New Perspectives has successfully condensed this epic tale of the changing countryside into a chamber musical appropriate for a circuit of village halls. Daniel Buckroyd's production features a versatile ensemble of actor-musicians and Juliet Shillingford's simple set resourcefully suggests misty fells, precarious mine shafts and the shattered fields of France. It's a pleasure to hear a musical heartily sung without amplification: musical director Richard Reeday pounds away at a piano rather unconvincingly disguised as a rock; and if some of the playing is scratchy, it hardly matters, as Goodall's score is rooted in the simple cadences of village choirs and fireside music-making. Twenty years on, The Hired Man still offers a wholemeal alternative to sugary musicals and presents a lesson in how to produce an authentically English strain of music theatre, with a harmonic language closer to Delius or Vaughan Williams than Disney and Lloyd Webber. It will never conquer Broadway of course: but perhaps that's no bad thing.

The Daily Telegraph 24th September 07: Dominic Cavendish

Although The Hired Man didn't stay the course in the West End in 1984, on the evidence of New Perspectives's smart, pocket-sized revival, it has more than stood the test of time. An epic account of rural Cumbrian life from 1898 to 1920, Howard Goodall's score has the undulating beauty of the landscape it describes, his lyrics the flinty humour of those who broke their backs keeping body and soul together. Not to be missed.

What's on Stage 5th March 08: Gareth James

There have really only been two great British musicals on British themes in the last 25 years – Billy Elliott and the Hired Man; and this has the better score. It was a travesty when the original West End production c.22 years ago lost out to the unoriginal Broadway tosh of 42nd Street. Howard Goodall went on to write other good musicals like Girlfriends and Days of Hope, but this is undoubtedly his masterpiece. I’ve taken every opportunity to see revivals but there have been few, so I was thrilled to see this touring production make a brief call in Greenwich. I’d never heard of New Perspectives, but they now have a new fan. It works really well pared down to a cast of eight, two of which play instruments to supplement a hard working on-stage pianist / musical director who deserves considerable credit for the high musical standards. The impressive young cast, over half of which are LIPA graduates, are clearly committed to and absorbed by the storytelling and sing and play Godall’s uplifting and simply gorgeous folk / choral-inspired score with great enthusiasm. Anyone interested in musical theatre is probably en route to Greenwich; if not, you’ve only got a few days to catch this rare gem. I now have to write to Nicholas Hytner to ask him why musicals like this aren’t where they belong in the Cottesloe Theatre! (rating: *****)

New Perspectives Brits Off Broadway June 2008 Reviews

Round up of New York critics for the show can be found here, or individually:

http://www.nypost.com/seven/06122008/entertainment/theater/hired_gets_big_hand_115209.htm

http://www.theatermania.com/content/news.cfm/story/14175

http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117937389.html?categoryid=33&cs=1

http://theater2.nytimes.com/2008/06/13/theater/reviews/13hire.html

http://www.curtainup.com/hiredman.html

http://www.backstage.com/bso/news_reviews/nyc/review_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003815633

http://uponthesacredstage.blogspot.com/2008/06/hired-man.html

SALISBURY PLAYHOUSE PRODUCTION, SEPTEMBER 2003

The Guardian 9th September, 2003: The Hired Man at Salisbury Playhouse Theatre: Lyn Gardner

A gleam often comes into the eyes of those who caught Howard Goodall and Melvyn Bragg's musical of Cumbrian life on the land and down the mines before and after the first world war, during its brief West End run almost 20 years ago. Then they mutter something about it being a great lost British musical. Well, this rare professional revival, complete with a new song, proves them right. As English as Elgar, buttered toast, loamy soil and pelting rain, Goodall's rich and gorgeously melodic score provides as sweeping an emotional landscape as the geographical features of the Lake District countryside where we follow the lives, loves and losses of one family over two generations. In the programme, Goodall suggests that the arrival of the blockbuster musical in the form of Les Misérables contributed to The Hired Man's failure. I'd hazard a guess that it might be more to do with the fact that Goodall and Bragg's piece almost entirely lacks the kind of rousing feelgood factor that musical audiences so adore.

This is a show that, despite its bygone English rural setting, is without nostalgia or sentimentality. Despite the musical form it has a real robustness, as it tells of the hardness of ordinary people's lives, whether it is driving a bargain in the hiring ring, eking out a living from the land or surviving the terrible conditions of the Whitehaven mines. Then if the pits don't do for you, the first world war will, likely as not. The politics of survival are an intricate part of the mix, whether it is the emotional sacrifices of Emily, who gives up her one great love, or the struggles of the trade unions to get better conditions for the men. It may not send you out of the theatre on a high, but this is a genuine three-hankie theatrical experience, charting the inner lives and struggles of those who had plenty to weep about but managed to find small joys. Joanna Read's beautifully acted and sung production is one of her very best; the West End would be foolish to ignore it.

John Tallentire (Paul Avedisian) at the Intar Theatre in New York

Off-Broadway Production directed by Brian Aschinger, New York

"The Hired Man has both heart and purpose. The music is robust, drawing strength from the land... quietly affecting... lyrical and liberating." Mel Gussow, New York Times

"Imagine a folk opera based on a rural story by Thomas Hardy or DH Lawrence and you will have some idea of the power and magnitude of the achievement of The Hired Man...One of the best new book musicals to come along in a long time." Victor Gluck, Backstage

"Inspiring... at the forefront of recent openings... every note and word resounds with integrity and intensity... Goodall's ambitious score is both beautiful and distinctive." Simon Saltzman, Daily Record

"A score of operatic breadth, with melodies that sound like hymns and English folk music, filtered through a theatrical sensibility." Ken Mandelbaum, Theatre Week

"The music is searing... vignettes that address both personal and global issues... that touch the heart and feed the spirit... There is nothing on Broadway to equal its simplicity." FE Siegel, New York Tribune

John at the pub in Philadelphia

Walnut Street Theatre Production, Philadelphia

John (James J Mellon) and Emily (Liz McCartney) in Philadelphia

"A serious work of music drama rich in choral harmonies and graced with a respect for life as ordinary people live it. Although the book is an absorbing narrative, the beauty of the show is Howard Goodall's score which is touched with a truly lyrical imagination. Goodall has a gift for the distinctive musical phrase and... a craftsmanly skill in making a song point the way to the next development." William Collins, Philadelphia Enquirer

Off to the Front in Philadelphia

"A not-to-be-missed theatrical event... a blockbuster musical that celebrates everyday life in operatic proportions. The Hired Man transports us back to a time of transition. A time when the traditions that burned deep in the hearts of men were tested by the inventions of man's intellect... Goodall's music is the fibre that holds everything together. He has a special gift for using music to reveal emotion in much the same way as a film director uses a close-up..." John Benigno, Delaware County News

It's all right for you, Squire...

"It's a relief to see a musical that isn't all spectacle and flash... Howard Goodall's music is superb... songs like Work Song and War Song are especially powerful." Michael Kownacky, Trenton Times

National Ballet of Flanders production, March-April 2001

"Show us your luck-pennies will you...", National Ballet of Flanders production 2001. Photo Luk Monsaert

"The Hired Man: gripping portrayal of passion and strife. Mix of music and theatre finds perfect harmony'.

The Hired Man was given its Dutch-language première at the Theatre 't Eilandje in the presence of composer Howard Goodall. It was a gripping performance of a little-known but musically skilful and dramatically rich musical, cleverly presented by the musical department of the Ballet of Flanders. Director Jan Verbist and choreographer Martin Michel opted for strongly stylized action. The alternation of music and theatre puts across the passion and poignancy. Max Smeets leads a small but vigorous orchestra in a musical language, which, as musicals go, is highly original. The Ballet of Flanders proves once again that in the world of musicals there can be quality and not just kitsch.

(Eddie Vaes in de 'Nieuwe Gazet', 27/01/2001)

"In Flanders' fields....": Flanders production. David Michiels as James. Photo Luk Monsaert

The hired man sings sublimely. Moving performances by Jan Schepens and Janke Dekker Just as the murderess of Jan Schepens was being exposed in the VRT soap Thuis (Home), that self-same Jan was standing large as life on the stage of Theatre 't Eilandje at the première of The Hired Man, the new production of the musical department of the Royal Ballet of Flanders. Composer Howard Goodall was in the audience. And he saw that it was good. The Brit expressed his satisfaction afterwards. "One of the best versions I've seen so far", he muttered. It could well be, of course, that he says the same thing wherever in the world his work is being performed. But we must admit that it was a very good performance. We enjoyed a beautiful spectacle, which never for a moment threatened to become banal and which was occasionally even moving. The drama that emanates from this epic is impressive. Director Jan Verbist succeeded in evoking the atmosphere of those days and with fairly simple means. A sparse décor are enough to create totally different situations in the space of a few seconds. The divine music did the rest. And of course there were the marvellous voices of Jan Schepens, probably one of Belgium's greatest musical talents, and Janke Dekker, who had little difficulty convincing everyone of her talent. We already knew what baritone Ernst Daniel Smid was capable of.

( Herman Van Doninck in 'De Gazet van Antwerpen', 27-28/01/2001)

Union men: Flanders 2001, photo Luk Monsaert

Dutch première of The Hired Man. 'Impassioned beauty'

( Jessica De Mulder, de 'Bossche Omroep', 28/01/2001)

Simplicity becomes The Hired Man. Sometimes less is more. As the musical department of the Royal Ballet of Flanders shows with The Hired Man… The story provides scope for catchy ensemble numbers with compelling rhythms and a powerful choreography. Yet the more intimate work, in which Jan Schepens in particular excels, does not suffer as a result. He makes John a man of flesh and blood, vulnerable in his changeability. Ernst Daniël Smid is also first rate in a rather smaller role than we would expect of him. There are good supporting roles as well, for example that of Philip Bolluyt as comic pleasure-seeker, while the ensemble also does a fine job. Without much to-do and spectacle, The Hired Man tugs at the heart-strings.

( Marco Weijers in 'De Telegraaf', 5/02/2001)

The Tallentire Boys: Jan Schepens, Filip Bolluyt & David Verbeeck; Flanders 2001. Photo Paul de Backer

"The Hired Man is the name of the new musical production by the Royal Ballet of Flanders premièred in Den Bosch yesterday. The public appeared unanimous afterwards: hard to understand that this wonderful show will only run for three months. The Hired Man is a little-known British show by composer Howard Goodall and writer Melvyn Bragg. The story goes that in the early eighties Goodall was tired of the musical, which had become increasingly bombastic, grotesque and clichéd. So he decided to make one of his own. The show was a success in London, arrived in New York at the end of the eighties, but then - silence. Fortunately, the wilful musical department of the Royal Ballet of Flanders pulled the piece out from the back of the cupboard and dusted it off. The result is a subdued production, averse to overblown stage props and showy scenery, the music and songs are totally captivating and, believe it or not: it is about something. A dramatic story forms the leitmotif of this realistic and moving period piece. It is brought with tremendous energy and passion on a stage consisting of moving panels, with next to no props. The café is a back wall, the house is a kitchen table and that's it. And nothing more is needed. The stage is so versatile that - with the help of slick lighting - even a collapsed mine or a pitched battle is plausible. With The Hired Man, the Royal Ballet of Flanders, which last year took Sondheim (including the less successful Company) into its repertoire, shows that musicals can be more than an all-in company outing. The artistic choice of this production deserves respect and full auditoria. Lovers of better work, go and see it and quickly......"

( René van der Velden in 'Brabants Dagblad/De Stem', 5/02/2001)

Flanders 2001: Aron Wade as Harry Tallentire. Photo Paul de Backer

Emily & Jackson: Janke Dekker & Ernst Daniel Smid, Flanders 2001; photo Paul de Backer

The Hired Man is about a woman (Janke Dekker) in a village in the north of England, who finds it difficult to choose between the adventure of an extramarital love affair (Ernst Daniel Smid) and the security of her family and society. Set around the year 1900, this love story unfurls against the background of an agrarian way of life versus the complex industralized society. The first half spends too long bogged down in the love story with tunes that are rather too artless. But when Jan Schepens as the deceived husband gives as good as he gets in the sparkling number "Wat ben ik dwaas geweest" (How foolish I have been), the whole production gathers momentum nicely. The suffering of the First World War, both on the battlefield and among those who stayed at home, is portrayed very simply and effectively. A little smoke, an ingenious stage set that can be moved apart and magnificent lighting are enough. The three lead roles are interpreted extremely well. Janke Dekker in particular makes the evening a success. No fault can be found with her singing, as we know, but as an actress, too, she provides a top-notch performance. She reconciles herself with the lot of a woman who is beaten, without becoming pitiful.

The Hired Man took some hard knocks in its première year 1984. That was the year the Broadway success 42nd Street arrived in London and scored better than Goodall and Bragg's musical, especially in terms of publicity. Now not only does the same scenario threaten to repeat itself - Joop van den Ende has included 42nd Street in the repertoire - but the Royal Ballet of Flanders is still suffering the negative aftermath of the Sondheim musical Company. Last season that production attracted only an average two-third capacity and that made the theatre directors wary about signing up on a large scale for The Hired Man. Yet Linda Lepomme, Artistic Director of the Royal Ballet of Flanders, sees no reason whatsoever to be driven off her wilful course. She believes it is the duty of a subsidized company not to rely on repertoire, which has proved so commercial. The concert version of Sondheim's Follies is just behind them, and his A little night music has again been programmed for next season. The Hired Man fits nicely into that row of experiments, which the Dutch-speaking musical public can be happy with.

( Patrick van den Hanenberg in 'De Volkskrant', 2/02/2001)

Flanders, 2001: Photo Paul de Backer

'Musical about real people'

(Mirjam Keunen in the 'Algemeen Dagblad', 3/02/2001)

Life as a never-ending struggle The Hired Man is social realism that takes the exploitation of the working classes, the rise of the workers' movement and the insanity of war as the framework for a three-cornered relationship. Consciousness-raising theatre almost, but presented in a very tasteful and professional manner. The musical department of the Royal Ballet of Flanders is well able to stage a worthy Dutch-language version of The Hired Man. In the production by the darling of Flanders Jan Verbist (Samson & Gert, Kabouter Plop and recently Pinokkio), dramatic austerity and the grand gesture go hand in hand and make good partners. This coupled with an ingenious minimal set by Hartwig Dobbertin and an excellent choreography by the Australian Martin Michel (also involved in the Dutch Miss Saigon), results in an impressive production.

(Coos Versteeg in 'De Haagse Courant', 05/02/2001)

Website Reviews:

After the family musicals Assepoester (Cinderella) and Pinokkio (Pinocchio), director Jan Verbist had the very difficult task of staging this production. Difficult partly because the Royal Ballet of Flanders cannot fall back on big sets and often has to rely on suggestions. The décor consists of a number of tilting parts in a sloping plane. These represent a hillside, trenches, the mines and the like. A nice idea… The Hired Man is the best of what the Ballet has staged in recent years. For those who still have their doubts: Howard Goodall may not like musicals, but he knows better than anyone how to write the music for them.

Review on the 'Musical Fan' website, 29/01/2001

A cheerful musical it is not, but what's wrong with that for a change! Howard Goodall's music was pleasing to the ear. As well as a few fine songs, there are impressive ensembles and when the lyric takes precedence the music restricts itself to a piano or a discrete orchestral accompaniment. The performance we attended was enjoyable, not least because of the superb diction of all the soloists and their convincing portrayal of the characters…The small orchestral ensemble responded well under the animated leadership of Max Smeets. Jan Verbist's production was smooth and succeeded in creating just the right atmosphere: one moment it was poignant, the next cheerful. As always with the musical productions of the Ballet of Flanders, the austerity of the set was almost Spartan. The audience expressed its approval of the show and there was also loud applause for Howard Goodall, who had come over from England specially for the performance.

Review on 'De Operagazet' website, 29/01/2001

Under the approving eye of the composer himself, the musical department of the Royal Ballet of Flanders came up with a première yesterday that was indeed 'a first'. For the first time the English The Hired Man was staged in a language other than English. Expectations were running high. The cast spoke for itself: Jan Schepens, Janke Dekker, Ernst Daniel Smid, Maike Boerdam, Filip Bolluyt, Kirsten Cools, Stefan Hamblok, et al: each and every one of them artists who had already proved something on the musical stage. Add to that the experienced team of Jan Verbist as director, Max Smeets as musical director and Martin Michel as choreographer. Something big had to come of it and hopefully something positive too… ..

The Hired Man is a moving love story cum powerful social drama. The struggle for justice and against injustice is often intensely exposed. This alternates with a story of ardent love, which eventually results in a veritable three-cornered relationship. Now and then a deathly silence falls, underlining the emotionally charged moments so much that the spectator is carried away by the music and the story, which towards the end reaches a climax of pure drama. A happy ending it is not, but given the gripping events that have gone before, that would hardly have been realistic. The acting of the majority of the cast was pretty good. The audience cries genuine tears at regular intervals. Filip Bolluyt certainly deserves a special mention for his strong portrayal of Isaac… …I am confident the general public will enjoy this production. Powerfully emotional moments alternate with explosive, pugnacious scenes. Those expecting a typically English show will be disappointed. The Ballet of Flanders proved courageous enough not to take over the successful English production indiscriminately. Everything was changed and the result is intensely beautiful and compelling. As the composer Howard Goodall said with sincerity afterwards: "At last the piece has been played as I had in my mind's eye when I composed it". He could not have paid a nicer compliment. Review on 'De Showbizzsite' (website), 29/01/2001

Julia Hills as Emily Tallentire, Leicester & London 1984-5. Photo Malcolm Andrew

Adrian Mole (The Further Adventures Of) Goes to see The Hired Man

{From Woman's Realm March 2nd 1985)

THURSDAY: I am sitting at a chipboard desk in a boxroom bedroom in a suburban cul-de-sac. It sounds dead boring and ordinary, so why am I trembling with frenzied excitement? Tonight I went to the proper theatre for the first time. Yes, I regret to say that, apart from pantomimes, my parents have willfully denied me their theatrical heritage. However, Pandora's parents are another kettle of beef. They believe in introducing Pandora to as much culture as she can take without being sick. Anyway, Diary, tonight Pandora and I went to see a brilliant stupendous emotion-packed play called The Hired Man. The words were written by that dead attractive bloke who is always on telly, Melvyn Bragg. The music was written by a bloke called Howard Goodall. At the end of the play Pandora was sobbing uncontrollably. I put my arm round her and guided her out of the auditorium. If I'd been 18 I would have bought her a stiff babycham in the bar, but us minors are denied such comfort so we had to be content with a cup of cocoa in our kitchen. I now have a new ambition. I want to be an actor who appears in musicals. Unfortunately, I can't sing, but I will learn. Nothing will stop me. I won't rest until I am treading the boards in the West End of London playing the lead part in The Hired Man.

FRIDAY: I asked my father for money for singing lessons today. He refused. He is nothing but a stingy, culturally deprived Philistine. One day, when he sees my name in lights, he will regret his decision.....

(c) Sue Townsend

THE HIRED MAN: Melvyn Bragg describes its conception in a newspaper interview of 1983:

NOT THE SOUTH BANK SHOW

As Melvyn Bragg temporarily deserts his South Bank tower for the footlights, Martin Hoyle investigates his return to the musical theatre. This month sees the opening in Southampton of a musical based on a Bragg novel, The Hired Man - not entirely a new departure, since he collaborated with Alan Blaikley, a colleague in his putative pop career at Oxford, on Mardi Gras, a West End musical of some years back.

For some this British view of festal New Orleans was as ersatz an experience as Flora Robson donning blackface as mammy to Ingrid Bergman's creole countess in Sarratoga Trunk. According to its author "it had a respectable run -more than respectable: blooming good. Nine months in the hottest summer ever, without air-conditioning. We played with all the exits open: people were passing out in the heat. But audiences were bloody good. We could have gone through winter, but Bernard Delfont had a previous deal with Michael Crawford and ours was the only theatre available. If you can be nice about taking a show off, Bernard was nice."

He recalls the event with pleasure. "We had a wonderful time. Some impresario ought to revive it - and get someone to write a better script. No, I mean that." No false modesty here, as is borne out by his reluctance to return to theatre work. Despite involvement with the SWET panel - "I joined in order to go to the theatre more - and attending 153 events in two years, his first reaction to a second proposed musical was 'I'd be out of date. I'd be derivative or old-fashioned. Why ask me?"

Melvyn & Howard on opening night, February 1984.

The invitation came more than two years ago from Howard Goodall, then 21, with, according to Bragg, "one of the most brilliant firsts in music ever". Son of the headmaster of a comprehensive, he comes of a musical family - "one of those English royal flushes: they all play bloody instruments" - having studied with Simon Preston, with two children's operas under his belt and music for Rowan Atkinson fringe shows behind him ("I reckon Howard's music made him").

Solid musical training appeals to Bragg ('I love music - I play Beethoven, I sang in choirs' - his abortive pop career is tactfully forgotten) and provides a contrast with his composer for Mardi Gras: Alan Blaikley managed pop singers, worked on musicals for Anna Scher's children's group and has provided background tushery for BBC's historical By the Sword Divided.

Bragg was obviously struck as much by the lanky Goodall's chutzpah as by his talent. "This bloody stick-insect came to me and said, 'I want to do a musical and I want you to write it'." Bragg evasively made a deal with him. "If you can convince me one of my novels is worth a musical I'll break it down - on one condition: I'll do it for no money, have no contract; neither will you. We'll do it for fun. If one of us dislikes it, he can pull out." He grins like a cream-filled cat. "I thought 'That's got rid of him'."

But Goodall persisted. He wanted to do an epic and picked The Hired Man. At first the author had misgivings. "I though he'd chosen the worst novel. It has an earthy pre-Gorky feeling; it's a cavalcade of working-class history so unfashionable it's out of sight."

Among the earliest of Bragg's dozen or so novels, the story was inspired by what his father told the young Melvyn of his grandfather. Covering the period from the turn of the century to after the Great War, it touches on life among Cumbrian farm-workers, mining and embryonic trades unionism, including the war and a pit disaster. "I felt shy of writing the First World War - it's such a big event," is a needlessly modest admission from the Head of Arts Programmes, LWT.

"I learnt about it in a convalescent home in Newcastle in 1962." Recovering from a rugger injury, Bragg was fascinated by the reminiscences of the older patients for whom the catac-lysm of nearly half-a-century before was still a vivid part of their lives. They reinforced the revelatory impact of the First War poets on Bragg's generation. "I don't know about you," he says a trifle sharply; and not for the first time one shifts uneasily beneath that quick, suspicious school-masterly glance: a lecturer checking his listener's atten-tiveness, perhaps, or a prominent mediaperson wary of being knocked. He sinks back into a characteristic tousled, if watchful, geniality.

As in the novel, the war is depicted through letters written from the front. Another big set piece Bragg regards apprehensively, perhaps more for political than artistic reasons, deals with early labour militancy. "What will they make of a huge number for the Trades Union? Are they going to say 'You buggered it up?' or 'You were right in the first place'?"

After Goodall had gutted the book, Bragg, fortuitously bedridden with a ricked back, wrote the dialogue interspersed with what he felt had to be put into song, and left the lyrics as well as the music to the composer. He admits to being "totally intoxicated" by Goodall's music. "He's got too many gifts, in a way." (Everyone came out of the preview of Bragg's Lakeland film trying to hum Goodall's elusive background theme.) "I loved doing it. I went to the demo recording and joined in the chorus but was taken off the tape. Put that down," he orders in mock outrage. "Then he said, 'What are we going to do with it?' - the moment I'd been dreading."

There were three options for the completed show. Producer Robert Fox was already interested, so should they move straight into the West End? Bragg was against this, still nervous of the work's very local flavour and, as he saw it, perhaps old-fashioned themes. Another possibil-ity was a tour of the north, in those "eight or nine cities with damn good theatres" and a public more likely to understand and identify with the northern working-class subject. "We're taking a terrible risk," Bragg asserts. Perhaps because he's not addicted to the musical as a form ("I go and see them now and then," he admits cautiously) he refers to The Hired Man as "a play with music" or "a drama/melodrama with singing."

At any rate, caution and a genuine admiration for David Gilmore as a director led to the choice of the third "absolutely perfect" option: a premiere at the Nuffield, Southampton, with its better record than most provincial theatres for exploring new writing, good working condi-tions and regular local audience of guinea-pig southerners. "If it works there - we can learn such a lot we'll know what to do with it." Was he about to say, "It'll work anywhere"?

The authors of The Hired Man have cosseted their creation rather than sending it, naked and newborn, into the commercial maelstrom. It will be worked on, tailored if necessary. "We've held it back. We've bided our time." A clue to Bragg's own priorities when it comes to the musical stage may be gathered from his admiration of at least one recent musical, Blood Brothers. Not only for Barbara Dickson ("You want to bottle her voice - it's perfect") but for words and music combined on equal terms, strong story, unabashed portrayal of deep feelings, and the omnipresent sense of social pressures, privilege and struggle, against an awareness of a specific place.

Phyllis Logan as Emily Tallentire, Southampton 1984. Photo Paul Carter

The new musical boasts some set pieces - a work song for labourers, the hiring song that opens and closes the show - but is essentially the story of a young married couple, the hardships they endure, the strains on their relationship, and the effective loneliness and isolation of each. We can look for local colour, redolent of Bragg's beloved Cumbria, but it's very much an account of young love growing up saddened. Bragg does not underrate the challenge of this "cavalcade of English life, both nostalgic and painful." He considers the Nuffield a laboratory where they can get the mixture right. "It's a tragedy, it's moving; some of it is very funny." And it is probably caution as much as generosity that prompts him to apportion equal, if not greater, credit for the enterprise to Howard Goodall. "He's in the driving seat," Melvyn gracefully acknowledges; "he has been all along".

Pictures from the West End production of 1985:

Paul Clarkson, John Tallentire. Photo Malcolm Andrew

Paul Clarkson & Julia Hills

Richard Walsh (Jackson) and Julia Hills (Emily); Richard is now much more famous as a fireman in 'London's Burning'.

Characters: John & Emily Tallentire, Seth & Isaac Tallentire, Jackson Pennington, Father Pennington, May & Harry Tallentire, Sally Wrangham nee Edmondson, Ted Blacklock, farmers and farmworkers, miners, soldiers of the Great War.

Original Cast (Leicester & London): Julia Hills, Paul Clarkson, Richard Walsh, Gerard Doyle, Clare Burt, Billy Hartman, Craig Pinder, Christopher Wild, Sarah Woollett, Michael Mawby, Stephen Earle, Stephen Jameson, Nelly Morrison, Gareth Snook, Robert Gill, Nicholas David, Philip Childs, Tony Crean, Richard Bartlett, Janice Cramer, Joseph Lloyd-Collatin; directed by David Gilmore, designed by Martin Johns, Choreographed by Anthony Van Laast, musical director Kate Young (assistant MD Helen Ireland)

"What would you say to your son?": Leicester 1984. Photo Malcolm Andrew

Original Cast (Southampton): Phyllis Logan, David Tysall, Trevor Cooper, Trevor T Smith, Richard Walsh, Elizabeth Morton, Claire Parker, Peter Llewelyn-Williams, Stephen Earle, Billy Hartman, Stephen Jameson, Graham Callan, Paul Clarkson, Michael Mawby, Tilda Swinton, Nigel Eaton; designed by Roger Glossop, musical director Kate Young, director David Gilmore.

War Farewell: Southampton 1984. Photo Paul Carter

The Hired Man - Synopsis

Omitting the customary overture, the show plunges straight into the first scene. The main character John Tallentire, a newly married man is taking part in a hiring fair, which were held bi-annually. Men and women travelled for miles to be "hired on". The stage is full of movement and snatches of dialogue, as labourers and farmers bargin over wages ('Song Of The Hired Men').

John Tallentire meets his two brothers, Isaac and Seth. Seth works down the coal mines, Isaac avoids work when he can. The three brothers adjourn to the pub. John has taken a job as a farm labourer in nearby Crossbridge. His wife, Emily, who is pregnant, joins him ('Now For The First Time').

A keen betting man, Isaac issues a general challenge to a wrestling match. Jackson Pennington, son of the farmer who has just offered the "luck penny" (a shilling, their only form of contract) and hired John, accepts the challenge. He is defeated, but Emily at least has obviously been impressed. At Crossbridge the labourers work the hard ground ('Work Song/It's All Right For You').

John enjoys his work but Emily, who has given birth to a daughter, May, tells her new-found friend Sally she is dissatisfied with the life. Jackson approaches. Sally is under his spell, but it is Emily that Jackson wants. With Emily's agreement, Isaac persuades John to go fox-hunting with him ('Get Up And Go, Lad').

John decides to stay away for the night. It is Jackson who delivers the message to Emily. The temptation is too much for her ('I Wouldn't Be The First'). The next day John returns. The distance between the married couple is growing. Abandoning hope of getting Emily for himself alone, Jackson joins the army, hoping to go to India. As he is saying farewell to his old cronies at the pub he receives a whispered message from Joe Sharpe. He waits outside the pub ('Hear Your Voice').

We find out who the message was from when Emily arrives. She is distraught at him leaving without telling her. Inside the pub the men are gossiping and John suddenly realises what has been going on. He catches his wife with Jackson. There is a fight, and Jackson is beaten, while Emily stands by torn between the two men ('If I Could').

For Act Two the year shifts forward from 1898 to 1914. John and Emily are still together and have had another child, this time a son called Harry. May, now sixteen, is on a summer day out, on a hill overlooking the village of Crossbridge with her younger brother. Harry runs off, excited by the sound of a gun firing. May removes some of her clothing and luxuriates in the sunshine ('You Never See the Sun').

Jackson enters with a gun. He is home on leave and has been doing some shooting. In the conversation which follows, we learn the Tallentires are now living in Whitehaven, where John has joined his brother down the pit. Jackson asks wistfully after Emily.

The scene moves to the Tallentires' house in Whitehaven. Emily has taken a job in a factory, which doesn't please her husband. Harry wants to go down the pit like his father, but Emily will not hear of it. It turns out headstrong Harry has gone behind his parents' backs and signed on at the mine anyway ('What Would You Say To Your Son?').

Seth is now a force in the miners' union. He is trying to get all the men to join, but some are opposed. The meeting ends in a fight. The great War descends on the family, ripping them apart ('Farewell Song') as first John, Seth, their other brother Isaac and then Harry (who is still under-age) sign up to go to fight in France.

The patriotic soldiers soon discover the grim realities of trench warfare ('War Song/So Tell Your Children'). The Tallentires like most families are not spared the tragedy and horror of those four years.

The war over, we move forward to 1920. Isaac is now married. Seth has become a pacifist. For old times' sake, John and Emily return to Crossbridge for an outing to the Friendly Society Annual Day . Emily, who is not well now, having developed tuberculosis, suggests that they should return to the land. Both have regrets over what has happened in the past but their love has survived ('No Choir of Angels').

In a pit accident John and two friends are cut off by a roof fall. Seth and the others succeed in their rescue attempt, but John returns home to find that a final tragedy has descended on the family. Finally he makes up his mind to do as Emily wanted and return to the land. The story ends as it began, with John seeking work as a hired man.

A Hired Man miscellany

[A hiring fair in Derry, N.Ireland, in the 1930s]

In 1904 the British population was about 44 million, of which 1.25 million were seriously wealthy, 3.75 million were 'comfortably off' middle class. The remaining 38 million were desperately poor. Infant mortality in 1900 was 153 in every 1000 babies born (compared with 19 in 1000 in 1965), life expectancy for men in 1900 was 46, women 50.

Agricultural decline was such that whilst in 1800 half the population of the UK were country-dwellers, by 1911 four out of five Britons lived in towns or cities.

A Whippet is produced by crossing a greyhound and a terrier.

At the turn of the 19th/20th centuries there were 7 twice-yearly hiring fairs in Cumberland. The Fairs date back to medieval times and are known in some areas of Britain as Mops, as Feeing Markets in Scotland, as Statices in Yorkshire and Lancashire, Statchets in some Midland towns (both corruptions of 'statute fair'). As bond of the verbal agreement between employer and worker, a shilling, or half-crown, often called a fest or fastening penny was given. Children as young as 10 or 11 offered themsleves up for service. Workers might wear on their best clothing some insignia of their trade, such as wool, a broom, whipcord, etc.

[Lorton, near Cockermouth]

[Cockermouth historic town webpage here]

Cumberland-Westmoreland-style wrestling is alleged to have been left in Britain by the Romans. The two opponents crouch crab-like against each other, swinging up for a grip against the other's back, which once held, signifies the start of the contest. The bout is won by breaking one's opponent's grip.

*

[Haig Colliery Mining Museum, Whitehaven, webpage here]

Wellington Pit, sunk on the southern shore of the harbour at Whitehaven, was built by the Lowther family to resemble a castle. An explosion on 11 May 1910, caused by methane gas, led to the immolation of 137 miners, including several teenage boys.

[Whitehaven mining disasters webpage here]

Further along the Whitehaven coast lay William Pit, often described as the most dangerous mine in Britain was fully operational from 1812 until 1955. A disaster on 15 August 1947 killed 104 miners.

An explosion at Hulton Pretoria Colliery, Lancashire, in 1910 killed 344 men, at Senghenydd, Glamorgan in 1913 killed 439, at Gresford, Denbighshire in 1934 killed 265 and West Stanley, County Durham in 1909 killed 168.

Off the Cumbrian coast some pit seams were mined 4 miles out under the sea.

"It is impossible to watch the 'fillers' at work without feeling a pang of envy for their toughness. It is a dreadful job that they do, an almost superhuman job by the standards of an ordinary person. For they are not only shifting monstrous quantities of coal, they are also doing it in a position that doubles or trebles the work. They have got to remain kneeling all the while - they could hardly rise from their knees without hitting the ceiling - and you can easily see by trying it what a tremendous effort this means." George Orwell, The Road to Wigan Pier.

In the 1880's came a shift in policy of the miners' unions. For many years they had been tied to a sliding scale, so that wages rose and fell with the price of coal: but in the 1880's this proved disastrous to their fortunes as the price of coal fell heavily. The county unions lost many of their members, and by 1887 the prospects for mining unionism seemed grim. In 1888, however, Ben Pickard of Yorkshire rallied as many county unions as he could for an overall 10% wage demand, and was surprisingly successful. The result was the foundation in 1889 of the Miners Federation of Great Britain, a body to which most of the miners' unions of the country except Northumberland, Durham and South Wales adhered and which pledged itself to secure the eight-hour day for the miners.

The Coal Mines Regulation (8 hours) Act was passed by the Liberal Government - despite bitter Tory opposition - in 1908, and the Coal Mines (Minimum Wage) Act - despite bitter Tory opposition - in March 1912 after a strike involving one million men.

The Great (First) World War, which raged from 1914 to 1918, claimed at least 8 million lives in the trenches alone. In addition civilian deaths have been estimated at between 9 and 12.6 million, not including the Europe-wide influenza pandemic during the latter stages of the war. Adding in wounded and missing the total military causlaties on all sides is thought to amount to around 37.5 million lives.

"War binds men more tightly together than almost any other branch of human activitiy. To share your last crumb of bread with another, to warm your enfeebled body against another's in the bleak and barren mystery of the night, to undergo shame, fear and death with scores of others of your age and mental colouring - who, indeed would trade these comrades of the battlefield for friends made in time of peace?" American soldier in The Sharp End, John Ellis, 1990

"This war has opened my eyes and I hope that if I am ever spared to get back, I will prove a better son and brother than before I got an insight into real life, the horrors of dead and dying, the acts of devotion between mates. It is really a great experience, and I am not sorry that I have gone through it." Private Thomas Gardner, 13 April 1917

"Tomorrow morning I shall take my men - men whom I have got to love, and who, I think, have got to love me - over the top to do our bit." Second Lieutenant John Engall, 30 June 1916

"Give them my love and dear mother do not worry. We have all got to go some time or other and the only thing that worries me is you worrying. Well we are a funny pair right enough. Your loving son, Tom"

*

A Club Walk was held annually on the last Friday in June, from the pub to the Church and back, beginning formally, with some ceremony and ending in drunken debauchery.

Friendly Societies were workers' voluntary co-operatives to which labourers paid a few pence a week to guard against sickness, destitution or accident. Forerunners of National Insurance, they died out as the State took over the role of Welfare.

In 1908 the Liberal Government introduced - despite bitter Tory opposition - the Old Age Pensions Act. Flora Thompson in Lark Rise & Candleford chronicled the change on elderly cottagers in the Cotswolds: "They were relieved of anxiety. They were suddenly rich. Independent for life! At first they went to the Post Office to draw it, tears of gratitude would run down the cheeks of some, and they would say as they picked up their money. "God bless that Lloyd George...and God Bless you, Miss! and there were flowers from their gardens and apples from their trees for the girl who merely handed them the money."

*

Posters from various productions over the years:

[Southend High School for Boys Production 2006]

[Craigmount High School Edinburgh June 2007 Production]

Back to Musicals