Bongo's success attracts a host of sleazy music industry types intent on exploiting him.

(David Heneker said his musical career was inspired by reading the score of Noel Coward's Bitter Sweet).

[1] Their lyrics were clever, wordy and allusive: "The Gravy Train", for example, has Johnny quoting an apt line from Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida, (Act 5, Scene X), while the unrepentant shopaholics in "We Bought It" describe themselves as "two eccentric socialites, dissipated sybarites".

Music historian John Snelsen writes,[2] Expresso Bongo opened in the West End in the same year as My Fair Lady.

It did not run as long and has hardly been seen since, but its gritty cynicism, contemporary setting and pop score gained it many fans.