Wi ll W aspe
A managerial combination new to the West End — Carl Denker and Anthony Chardet — is responsible for the presentation of the musical, Bordello, which opened at the Queen's last week and has all the earmarks of a costly flop. Solicitous over the national y f
balance of p ments, I am glad to have wor that most of the money lavished on the show is in dollars. ,
Denke9c is a Dutch-born, American-based record company executive (evidently more cautious in that line than in the theatre, for there is no news of his Joicking a recording of the show), and though Chardet is English — and a long-time production manager for the late 'Binkie' Beaumont's Tennent organisation — his 'angel' associate is SanFrancisco oil and real-estate man David Fasken, an addictive dabbler and regular loser in the London theatre.
Big spenders
However much money is lost on Bordello, though, will be buttons compared with what is being spent on Billy, the musical version of Billy Liar, which Tennents are putting in Drury Lane. From all I hear, it will have to run there for years to get back the initial investment. The set alone, designed by Ralph Koltai in metal (only to have its metallic nature disguised), is said to have cost a whopping £50,000. It is universally referred to in the business as "Koltai's Centre Point".
Mistimed visit
When I revealed obliquely in these notes a couple of months ago that Lord Harewood had invited the Bolshoi to the Coliseum this summer, my thought was that a sufficient outcry would be fomented among balletomanes incensed by the Panov affair to get the visit called off — or that Harewood, with the gaff blown, would have second and wiser thoughts. This week it is officially announced that he has not: the Russians open on June 12. But if
his lordship believes that the considerable and right-minded protest movement campaigning for the release of the Panovs will leave the Coliseum alone during their stay, I fear he is too naively complacent.
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