Eyre enjoys leading the Pajama Game

When Richard Eyre was 14 years old his sister bought an album. “It was the first album that I ever heard and I listened to it over and over again and it has been etched in my memory ever since.”
By Anne Cox
Published 20th Apr 2013, 10:00 BST
Richard Eyre in rehearsals of The Pajama Game. Photo by Catherine Ashmore.Richard Eyre in rehearsals of The Pajama Game. Photo by Catherine Ashmore.
Richard Eyre in rehearsals of The Pajama Game. Photo by Catherine Ashmore.

That album was the original cast recording of Richard Adler and Jerry Ross’s Broadway musical The Pajama Game which ran for 1,063 performances from May 1954.

“I have always been very fond of it and I have always had the desire to direct it,” says Eyre who gets his wish at last when he recreates the Sleep-Tite Pajama Factory at Chichester Festival Theatre’s Minerva stage from next week.

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Based on the novel 7½ Cents, The Pajama Game is a love story set against labour troubles. Handsome Superintendent Sid Sorokin falls madly in love with firebrand Union rep Babe and all goes well until the management refuses the workers a pay rise and the now less than happy couple find themselves at odds.

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For Eyre, who directed a famous and lauded production of Guys and Dolls at the National Theatre where he went on to become Artistic Director, The Pajama Game “is certainly and absolutely in the top ten of great American musicals. It has some very good tunes in it. I think some people underrate it and maybe for a time it was unfashionable because it is quite a fifties sound, but the cycle is turning, tastes change and the fifties are back in fashion so I think the time is right to show people again what a wonderful musical it is.”

In letting the musical sing for itself Eyre has chosen Hadley Fraser, whose theatre credits include Les Misérables in London and The Pirate Queen on Broadway, to play Sid. Joanna Riding is Babe. Her musical pedigree includes two Olivier Awards for Best Actress in A Musical for My Fair Lady and Carousel.

One thing he will not be doing is studying past productions or watching the Doris Day film. “I don’t pay much attention to what other people have done because it clouds your mind. I don’t need that extra baggage. I want my take on it to be as fresh as possible.”

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Pajama Game runs until from Monday until June. For tickets call the box office 01243 781312 or visit www.cft.org.uk.

Chichester is just two hours away by car and makes for a fabulous night out for theatre goers.

@LBOanne

Related topics:Chichester Festival Theatre