Widely regarded as one of America’s most distinguished writers, F. Scott Fitzgerald achieved fame and notoriety the world over, whereas his wife, Zelda Fitzgerald, a creative talent in her own right, found it impossible to achieve any real measure of success. Despite her effort and undoubted talent, she was always eclipsed in the shadow cast by Scott.
Zelda was a prolific writer, a gifted artist and an accomplished dancer. It was her love of dance that drove her to the point of obsession and then took her beyond.
18‑year‑old Zelda Sayre and 21‑year‑old F. Scott Fitzgerald pictured 1918
18‑year‑old Zelda Sayre and 21‑year‑old F. Scott Fitzgerald pictured 1918
In 1977, some 29 years after the harrowing and tragic death of 48-year-old Zelda, an English singer/songwriter walked into a bookstore in Nashville, Tennessee.
His name, Roger Cook.
Of the numerous hit songs Roger had written during a continuing career that dates back to the 60s, perhaps he’s best known for the Coca Cola anthem of the 70’s - I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing, Crystal Gale’s signature tune, Talking In Your Sleep and Something’s Gotten Hold Of My Heart, immortalised by Gene Pitney. There are countless others.
Roger and his family had moved from his UK hometown, Bristol, to Nashville, where he had bought a farmhouse. The farmhouse had a library with a roomful of bookshelves that had been stripped bare by the previous owner of the property and they needed filling.
Roger thought that buying books “by the yard” would be the quickest solution to this particular interior design problem. The bookstore’s proprietor feigned a certain amount of contempt for this “tacky” strategy before accepting the order a little too eagerly!
Whilst waiting for his ‘truck load’ of hardbacks, Roger spotted a book that ignited a passion that would stay with him forever. The book was a pictorial biography created from the scrapbooks and photographic albums of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. Entitled The Romantic Egoists, it cost him $20.
Although totally captivated by the exploits of the Fitzgeralds, and Zelda in particular, it was not until a further chance encounter with another book some 14 years later that Roger began to take a renewed interest in their life story. This time the book in question was ‘Zelda’ by Nancy Milford, a biography of Zelda’s life.
In 1991, Roger was living back in Bristol, England when his wife Kitty happened on Milford’s book during a trip back home to see her relations in Florida. Whilst visiting a library, Kitty randomly pulled a book down from one of the shelves. It was Milford’s biography on Zelda.Knowing her husband’s enthusiasm for the Fitzgeralds, Kitty couldn’t resist ‘borrowing’ it and brought it back to England.
Roger read the book from cover to cover. He saw Kitty’s chance discovery as an omen! Zelda’s story had to be told. A play he thought. No … a musical! After all, Zelda and F. Scott’s lifestyle of wild parties, music and dancing were said to have epitomised the era of the ‘Roaring ‘20s’, ‘The Jazz Age’ and ‘The Flappers’. Or, put in the words of 1920s actress, Lillian Gish, ‘Scott and Zelda didn’t make the ‘20s, they were the ‘20s!’
Towards the end of 1991, with the seed of an idea for a musical firmly planted in his mind, Roger bumped into an old friend and song writing colleague, Les Reed. Both had been invited to appear in a Cole Porter Tribute Concert at the Mayfair Theatre in Southampton, England.
Over the years, Les, like Roger, had written many hit songs including ‘It’s Not Unusual’ and ‘Delilah’ for Tom Jones. Roger told Les of his idea for a Zelda musical and asked him whether he would like to collaborate on the project. Les’s response was positive, and he suggested that they should get together to kick around some ideas the next time they met up.
It just so happened that Les had been planning a short holiday in Bath, which was no more than a twenty-minute car journey from Roger’s home in Bristol, and in February 1992 the two met up in the Combe Grove Manor Hotel, Monkton Combe, near Bath for some Zelda song writing sessions.
Roger gave Les a brief synopsis of Zelda’s story and armed with Zelda’s biography they went to work. Reading the biography and stopping at an event that inspired them to write a song about it, they were effectively setting Zelda’s life to music.
By the end of the week, they knew they were onto something when down the corridors of the hotel, the staff could be heard humming, whistling and even singing the songs they’d heard being written in Les’s room!
At the end of 1995 Roger moved back to Nashville, but over the next seven years on his annual pilgrimages to the UK, he and Les completed and recorded the Zelda score, and in 2002 they secured 100% funding for the development and production of a full-blown Zelda musical from Bristol businessman Charlie Dobson, a long-time friend of Roger’s.
With the funding secured, events gathered momentum and Les and Roger approached friend and London West End veteran Don Black with a view to Don producing the show. Don liked what he heard but due to a heavy work schedule he couldn’t commit himself to producing the show and pointed them in the direction of his business partner Laurence Myers.
Laurence put together a creative team consisting of Kit Hesketh-Harvey (script) Phil Willmott (director) Craig Revel Horwood (choreographer) and Larry Blank (orchestrator) with a cast headed up by John Barrowman (F. Scott Fitzgerald) and Helen Anker (Zelda Fitzgerald).
With a name change from the writers working title ‘Zelda’ to ‘Beautiful and Damned’ and billed as the largest ever pre-West End musical to premiere at the 586 seat Yvonne Arnold Theatre in Guildford, the show broke all box office records for its 14-day trial run in June 2003.
Due to its outstanding success at the Guildford trial run, the show transferred to The Lyric Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, London in April 2004 - this time with Michael Praed playing the role of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Craig Revel Horwood choreographing and directing the production.
The West End reviews
Despite great audience reactions and standing ovations at all performances, the West End show was unable to reach the audience numbers needed to make it commercially viable and to the disappointment of all involved, the curtain came down for the last time on Beautiful and Damned after its sixteen week West End trial run.
Zelda Fitzgerald’s story however will live on - particularly in the USA which is perhaps the show’s natural home.
Watch the show
The musical was filmed by BBC Outside Broadcasts and can be viewed by clicking/touching on the image below.
The Originators/Scorewriters demonstration recordings
Below are 21 the demonstration recordings created by ‘Zelda’s’ originators and scorewriters - the spark that ignited the entire development and production of the musical.
These original recordings, performed and laid down by the composers, chronicle a stream of creative consciousness unimpaired by embellishment or elaborate studio production.
To listen to the composers’ original score, simply click/touch on the song links below. Enjoy!
- 02 Little Miz Alabama
- 03 I’ll Meet You at the Ball Tonight
- 04 Beautiful Magnolia
- 05 Tomorrow Won’t Happen ‘til Tomorrow
- 06 The Letters
- 07 The Beautiful and the Damned
- 08 So Long - (USA to Europe)
- 09 Zelda’s Dance
- 10 Day Long Blues
- 11 Oh How Tender is the Night
- 12 The Old World Shines Again
- 13 Bix
- 14 Living Well’s the Only Way
- 15 Being a Woman
- 16 So Long - (Europe to USA)
- 17 Save me the Waltz
- 18 I’m Dancing
- 19 Golden Days
- 20 Soliloquy
- 21 Even Now