COOK'S TOUR

A Gala Charity Concert celebrating Ray Cook, the Australian pianist, conductor and arranger.

Shaftesbury Theatre London
Sunday 18 March 1990

Produced by 'West End Cares' in support of various Aids related charities.

• Musical Numbers and Cast
• Production Team
• Notes
• Quotes from the Press
• Links

'West End Cares' is the theatrical division of 'Crusaid' - the national fundraiser for men, women and children living with the challenges of HIV and AIDS - and is now known by the name 'TheatreCares'

Around £60,000 was raised by this concert.

Information on this concert was provided by Lee's World (thanks!).

"The late Ray Cook was less famous than he should have been. The Australian pianist, conductor and arranger worked on more than 40 West End musicals between his arrival here in 1960 and his death last year. Cook's Tour at the Shaftesbury was a remarkable memorial to his talents.
It was also the first production by 'West End Cares', an organization of London theatre workers dedicated to raising money for Aids charities. Around £60,000 was earned overnight in Cook's name by a gala which vastly improved on the usual run of thrown-together, Sunday charity concerts. Too often the good cause is the only good thing around.
But Cook's Tour reunited Angela Lansbury with Bea Arthur (from Golden Girls) to celebrate the Mame they first sang on Broadway two decades ago. It also allowed Liz Robertson to sing numbers from the King and I she has been touring with Nureyev, and Evelyn Laye to win a standing ovation merely by walking downstage as the one singular sensation from Chorus Line.
This was a celebration of British and American musical theatre at its greatest. But it was also a poignant reminder of the talents being lost through sudden death and the general evanescence of the old style big-band show. The ghosts of Bob Fosse, Michael Bennett, Gower Champion and Alan Jay Lerner were all around the Shaftesbury on Sunday night, as were some of their greatest shows. Cook's Tour brought back not only the scores that seem to be in constant revival - My Fair Lady, Sweet Charity, Oklahoma! - but also those that we have unwisely allowed to fall into disuse: Pippin, Sail Away, Oh What a Lovely War!
From Maria Friedman's breathtaking 'I Happen to Like New York' to the veteran Elisabeth Welch in the title song from Pippin, this was a vintage evening. Even its ending, with two small children singing 'Tomorrow' in what could have been the most appallingly sentimental of cliches, became in the context of West End Cares a moment of heartbreaking optimism." Sheridan Morley, The Sunday Times (25 March 1990)

• TheatreCares (formerly 'West End Cares')
• Cruisaid

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