Fire Angel

Synopsis: BBC current affairs programme . In this episode presenter Bob Wellings reports on ‘Fire Angel’, a new British rock musical loosely based on The Merchant of Venice. Composed by Roger Haines with lyrics by Paul Bentley and directed for Her Majesty’s Theatre by Braham Murray, the story is transferred to New York’s Little Italy where Don Piranha, a wheel-chair bound resident Godfather of the New York Mafia, puts up a $1 million ante to choose an heir to the syndicate. Angelo, a hoodlum who runs a fleet of ships, borrows the money from Piranha’s rival, Barach, who demands a pound of Angelo’s flesh should the latter default on his loan.
Series: Nationwide
Language: English
Country: Great Britain
Medium: Television
Technical information: Colour / Sound
Transmission details: 24 Mar 1977 at 17:55 (Channel: BBC1)
Duration: 50 mins

Notes: The music of the production was supervised by Anthony Bowles, who directed 18 woodwind and brass musicians, a rock group and the London Saxophone Quartet. The London cast included C. T. Wilkinson as Barach (Shylock), Peter Carrie as Angelo (Antonio/Bassanio), Helen Chapelle as Deborah (Jessica), Linda Kendrick as Lucy (Portia), Gaye Brown as Piranha’s wife (Nerissa?), Julian Littman as Bobby (Lorenzo), Derek Smith as Joe Diamonds (Launcelot Gobbo), Larrington Walker, Ian Burford and Anthony Wood.
History: 'Fire Angel’ was first produced in Edinburgh in 1974 where it won the Scotsman Award. The £250,000 enhanced London production opened at Her Majesty’s Theatre on 24 March 1977.
Panned by the critics, the show disappeared rather quickly from the West End . More recently, on 19 February 2006, the musical featured in the BBC Radio 4 series ‘More Fabulous Flops’ that celebrates the best and worst of musical theatre.

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