Free As Air' was composer Julian Slade and Dorothy Reynolds' next collaboration following the enormous success of 'Salad Days'. Set in the mythical island of Terhou in the Channel Islands, it involved a runaway heiress who arrives on the island to flee an unwanted suitor. She is welcomed by the islanders who crown her their Queen at the island's Coronation Ceremony and she ends up falling in love with an islander.

'Free As Air' went straight into London's Savoy Theatre in June 1957 where it played for 417 performances. The London cast had the main roles performed by Gillian Lewis, Gerald Harper, John Trevor, Patricia Bredin and Josephine Tewson.
The cast recording of 'Free As Air' has not been available for a long time and we are delighted to be releasing it on CD for the first time. As the overture was not recorded for the cast recording, we have used a piano selection of the score performed by Julian Slade as an introduction on this CD issue.

For additional bonus tracks we have chosen other Julian Slade songs written while he was at Cambridge and as resident composer for the Bristol Old Vic Company. 'One, Two Three, One' was the first waltz song written by the young Julian Slade while 'He's got absolutely nothing' comes from Julian's second Musical Lady May. 'Doh Reh Me' was originally written for the Bristol Old Vic show Christmas in King Street which was later to have its setting altered to London where it became Follow That Girl in 1960. The Comedy of Errors from which we hear 'Should he upbraid', was originally written for television in 1954. Keeping with Julian's Shakespeare compositions we have two songs ('Pack clouds away' and 'Hey nonny no') from his settings of traditional songs for the Bristol Old Vic production of Two Gentlemen of Verona. To complete our bonus tracks we have 'Cold's the wind' from the Bristol Old Vic's production of Thomas Dekker's Elizabethan classic The Shoemaker's Holiday.

Additional Details

Label: Sepia Records

Genre: Musical/Broadway

Release Date: 11/13/07

UPC: 5055122111023