Song and Dance

The "Song" act is Tell Me on a Sunday, with lyrics by Don Black and music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, about a young British woman's romantic misadventures in New York City and Hollywood.

The "Dance" act is a ballet choreographed to Variations, composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber for his cellist brother Julian, which is based on the A Minor Caprice No.

"When You Want to Fall in Love", with a tune previously released by Marti Webb and Justin Hayward as "Unexpected Song" which itself was later added to the score, was used at the climax of the dance section to meld the two halves.

[1] Carol Nielsson, Webb's original understudy took over the role with two hour notice when Lulu damaged her voice after a foldback monitor failed during a performance.

The set and lighting was designed by David Hersey, costumes by Robin Don, and sound by Andrew Bruce and Julian Beech.

[1] The Broadway production, choreographed by Peter Martins, opened on September 18, 1985 at the Royale Theatre conducted by John Mauceri, and closed on November 8, 1986, after 474 performances and seventeen previews.

Singer-songwriter Melissa Manchester starred in a subsequent six-month US national tour of the show in 1987, starting in Dallas, Texas and ending in Tampa, Florida.

In Frank Rich's review of the Broadway production for The New York Times, he wrote: "Miss Peters is more than talented: As an actress, singer, comedienne and all-around warming presence, she has no peer in the musical theater right now.

Yet for all the vocal virtuosity, tempestuous fits and husky-toned charm she brings to her one-woman musical marathon, we never care if her character lives or dies.

"[14] John Simon, in The New York Magazine, noted that the unseen men seemed "nebulous and unreal, so too, does the seen woman", and in the Dance half, "things go from bad to worse."

However, he wrote that "Miss Peters is an unimpeachable peach of a performer who does so much for the top half of this double bill as to warrant its immediate rechristening 'Song of Bernadette'.