The musical began life in 1984 as a costumed concert with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican, conducted by Mike Batt and starring Paul Jones as the Baker and Christopher Cazenove as the narrator.
A further (costumed) production took place at the Royal Albert Hall on April Fool's Day 1987, with Justin Hayward taking Art Garfunkel's role of the Butcher from the original recording, Billy Connolly replacing Cliff Richard as the Bellman and Midge Ure performing George Harrison's guitar parts.
In October 1990, after Batt had completed the full-length theatrical score and book, it was successfully presented again by Batt and Jackson-Mayo Productions as a dramatised concert in Australia at Sydney's State Theatre and the Hills Centre with the Elizabethan Sinfonietta, with Philip Quast starring as The Bellman, Cameron Daddo as The Butcher, Jackie Love as The Beaver, Doug Parkinson as The Barrister, Daryl Somers as The Billiard Marker, John Waters as Lewis Carroll and David Whitney as The Baker.
12,000 35mm slides were projected from 152 computer-linked projectors arranged around the theatre using a technique developed by Batt over many years, and which had been featured in his Zero Zero TV musical fantasia in 1982.
In November 2010, Mike Batt's company Dramatico Entertainment released the original record album from 1986, together with a DVD of the Royal Albert Hall concert from 1987.