''Stop the World – I Want to Get Off'' is a 1961

musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the Character (arts), charac ...

with a book, music, and lyrics by

Leslie Bricusse Leslie Bricusse OBE (; 29 January 1931 – 19 October 2021) was a British composer, lyricist, and playwright who worked on theatre musicals and wrote theme music for films. He was best known for writing the music and lyrics for the films '' D ...

and

Anthony Newley Anthony Newley (24 September 1931 – 14 April 1999) was an English actor, director, comedian, singer, and composer. A "latter-day British Al Jolson", he achieved widespread success in song, and on stage and screen. "One of Broadway's greatest ...

. In 1966

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

released a film adaptation of the play. In 1996, a film version was produced for TV, made for the

A&E Network A&E (an initialism of its original name, the Arts & Entertainment Network) is an American cable and satellite television network and the flagship property of A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Walt Disney Company ...

. According to

Oscar Levant Oscar Levant (December 27, 1906August 14, 1972) was an American concert pianist, composer, conductor (music), conductor, author, radio game show panelist, television talk show host, comedian, and actor. He had roles in the films ''Rhapsody in Bl ...

, the play's title was derived from a graffito.

Plot

The show, set against a

circus A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicy ...

backdrop, focuses on Littlechap from the moment of his birth until his death. Each time something unsatisfactory happens, he calls out "Stop the world!" and addresses the audience. His progress through school, like his birth, having been briefly portrayed, he first finds work as an office helper performing menial tasks, or ''tea boy''. A little later, his first major step toward improving his lot is to marry his boss' daughter Evie after getting her pregnant out of wedlock; now saddled with the responsibilities of a family, he is given a job in his father-in-law's factory. He has two daughters, Susan and Jane, but truly longs for a son. He allows his growing dissatisfaction with his existence to lead him into the arms of various women in his business travels—

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

n official Anya,

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

domestic Ilse, and American cabaret singer Ginnie—as he searches for something better than he has. He becomes rich and successful and is elected to public office. Only in his old age does he realize that what he has had all along, the love of his wife, was more than enough to sustain him. But Evie dies. Littlechap comes to terms with his own selfishness while writing his memoirs. As death approaches, he watches his second daughter give birth to a son. When the boy nearly dies, Littlechap intervenes and allows Death to take him instead. In that final moment, Littlechap mimes his own birth, beginning the cycle once again.

Production history

Opening originally in

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

, England, the production transferred to the

West End of London The West End of London (commonly referred to as the West End) is a district of Central London, Central London, England, in the London Borough of Camden, London Boroughs of Camden and the City of Westminster. It is west of the City of London an ...

and opened on July 20, 1961, at what was historically called the Queen's Theatre. Directed by Newley, it ran for 485 performances. Newley starred as Littlechap, with Anna Quayle playing the multiple roles of Evie and the other women in his life.

Marti Webb Marti Webb (born 1943) is an English actress and singer. She appeared on stage in '' Evita'' before starring in Andrew Lloyd Webber's one-woman show '' Tell Me on a Sunday'' in 1980. This included her biggest hit single, " Take That Look Off Yo ...

made her West End debut as a member of the chorus. An

original cast recording A cast recording is a recording of a stage musical that is intended to document the songs as they were performed in the show and experienced by the audience. An original cast recording or OCR, as the name implies, features the voices of the sho ...

was released by

Decca Records Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis (Decca), Edward Lewis after his acquisition of a gramophone manufacturer, The Decca Gramophone Company. It set up an American subsidiary under the Decca name, which bec ...

. Producer

David Merrick David Merrick (born David Lee Margulois; November 27, 1911 – April 25, 2000) was an American theatrical producer who won a number of Tony Awards. Life and career Born David Lee Margulois to Jewish parents in St. Louis, Missouri, Merrick grad ...

, characteristically impressed by the low-cost project requiring minimal sets and costumes and a small cast, decided to stage the show in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. It was directed by Newley, and featured scenery and lighting design by Sean Kenny, musical supervision by Ian Fraser, musical direction by Milton Rosenstock, orchestrations by Ian Fraser. After one preview, the

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street ** Broadway Theatre (53rd Stre ...

production opened on October 3, 1962, at the Shubert Theatre, eventually transferring to the

Ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or so ...

to complete its 555-performance run. Newley and Quayle reprised their

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

roles. Newley later was replaced by

Kenneth Nelson Kenneth Nelson (March 24, 1930 – October 7, 1993) was an American actor. Born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, Nelson appeared in several television series in the late 1940s, ''Captain Video and His Video Rangers'' and ''The Aldrich Family'' am ...

, then

Joel Grey Joel Grey (born Joel David Katz; April 11, 1932) is an American actor, singer, dancer, photographer, and theatre director. He is best known for portraying the Master of Ceremonies in the musical ''Cabaret (musical), Cabaret'' on Broadway theatre, ...

; Joan Eastman assumed the roles of Evie et al. A Broadway cast limited-run recording was originally released by

RCA Victor Records RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic ...

. (The mainstream version was subsequently released by

London Records London Recordings (or London Records and London Music Stream) is a British record label that marketed records in the United States, Canada, and Latin America for Decca Records from 1947 to 1980 before becoming semi-independent. The London nam ...

.) On the national company tour, the show starred Grey and

Julie Newmar Julie Newmar (born Julia Chalene Newmeyer; August 16, 1933) is an American actress, dancer, and singer known for a variety of stage, screen, and television roles. She is also a writer, lingerie designer, and real estate Business magnate, mogul. ...

. A Broadway revival directed by

Mel Shapiro Melvin Irwin Shapiro (December 16, 1935 – December 23, 2024) was an American theatre director, writer and academic. Life and career Shapiro was born in Brooklyn, New York City, in 1935. Trained at Carnegie-Mellon University, Shapiro began his ...

opened on August 3, 1978, at the

New York State Theater The David H. Koch Theater is a theater for ballet and dance at Lincoln Center in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Originally named the New York State Theater, the venue has been home to the New York City Ballet sinc ...

Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 ...

, where it ran for 30 performances. The cast included

Sammy Davis Jr. Samuel George Davis Jr. (December 8, 1925 – May 16, 1990) was an American singer, actor, comedian, dancer, and musician. At age two, Davis began his career in Vaudeville with his father Sammy Davis Sr. and the Will Mastin Trio, which t ...

and

Marian Mercer Marian Ethel Mercer (November 26, 1935 – April 27, 2011) was an American actress and singer. Career Born in Akron, Ohio, Mercer was the daughter of Samuel and Nellie Mercer. She graduated from the University of Michigan, then spent several ...

. A revival cast recording was released by

Warner Bros. Records Warner Records Inc. (known as Warner Bros. Records Inc. until 2019) is an American record label. A subsidiary of Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division ...

. A London revival, directed by Newley, opened on October 19, 1989, at a venue that was then, and may still today be, called the Lyric Theatre. (Today's venue evidently does not acknowledge having let that show go on.) Now starring Newley and

Rhonda Burchmore Rhonda Suzanne Burchmore Medal of the Order of Australia, OAM (born 15 May 1960) is an Australian entertainer, most notable as an actress, recording artist and singer in musical theatre, she has appeared in numerous television shows and briefly ...

, the show obtained a slight update, but it retained the Nazi-ish Fräulein, the Bolshevik Russian girl, and the Judy-Holliday-ditzy American blonde—all much more distant than in 1961 and thus outside the experience of anyone under 40. It received poor reviews and closed after just 52 performances over five weeks. Newley was very disappointed and bitter about the reviews, as he told the audience after the final curtain.

Film adaptation

A 1966

release was little more than a filmed version of a staged production. Directed by

Philip Saville Philip Saville (28 October 1927 – 22 December 2016) was a British director, screenwriter and former actor whose career lasted half a century. The British Film Institute's Screenonline website described Saville as "one of Britain's most prolifi ...

, it featured additional material by

Alan and Marilyn Bergman Alan Bergman (born September 11, 1925) and Marilyn Keith Bergman (née Katz; November 10, 1928 – January 8, 2022) were an American songwriting duo. Married from 1958 until Marilyn's death, together they wrote music and lyrics for numerous celeb ...

, David Donable, and

Al Ham Albert W. Ham (February 6, 1925 in Malden, Massachusetts — October 4, 2001 in Spring Hill, Florida) was an American composer and jingle writer. He was notable as the composer of the '' Move Closer to Your World'' music package used since the ...

. The cast included Tony Tanner and Millicent Martin. Neither a critical nor commercial success, it was nominated for an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...

for Best Adapted Music Scoring. The film deleted the German mistress sequence and substituted a Japanese mistress. Newley, Bricusse and Donable wrote the updated Japanese song. Al Ham and Marilyn and Alan Bergman wrote the finale "I Believed It All", which is not in the original stage version. In the film version, the show ends with "What Kind of Fool Am I?" There is no birth of a grandson, nor of Littlechap choosing to die in his stead and being reborn, as in the original musical play. With the exception of "Typische Deutsche," the original score is transferred complete. Sammy Davis Jr. and Marian Mercer reprised their Broadway revival roles for ''Sammy Stops the World'', a 1978 television adaptation taped at the

Terrace Theater The Terrace Theater is a full theatrical and performance venue located in Long Beach, California. The theater seats 3,051 patrons at its maximum configuration in Orchestra, Loge, and Balcony sections. The Orchestra seating section is arranged i ...

Long Beach, California Long Beach is a coastal city in southeastern Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is the list of United States cities by population, 44th-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 451,307 as of 2022. A charter ci ...

. It was theatrically released in a limited engagement in various American cities on September 21, 1979. As with the prior adaptation, this was neither a critical nor commercial success. Dennis Hunt of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' said that "there are closeups and attempts at creative editing in this film but these elements aren't nearly enough to make it more than a statically filmed play"; he added that "this is a star vehicle but he can't really make it go. Davis, who can be an overpowering presence on stage, doesn't come across vividly and forcefully in this play-movie. It's not totally his fault. His efforts don't add up to much because he has no exceptional material to work with. Putting Davis in this production is like renting a cannon and filling it with blanks." Tom McElfresh of ''

The Cincinnati Enquirer ''The Cincinnati Enquirer'' is a morning daily newspaper published by Gannett in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. First published in 1841, the ''Enquirer'' is the last remaining daily newspaper in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, altho ...

'' wrote: Michael Clark of the ''

Detroit Free Press The ''Detroit Free Press'' (commonly referred to as the ''Freep'') is a major daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest local newspaper owned by Gannett (the publisher of ''USA Today''), and is operated by the Detro ...

'' called it "one of the half-dozen most humiliating and embarrassing times any filmgoer can ever hope to spend in a motion picture theater." Robert C. Trussell of ''

The Kansas City Star ''The Kansas City Star'' is a newspaper based in Kansas City, Missouri. Published since 1880, the paper is the recipient of eight Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Star'' is most notable for its influence on the career of President Harry S. Truman and a ...

'' said that "the Newley-Bricusse work has been stripped of most of its inherent—albeit marginal—interest and has been redesigned to allow Davis to mug shamelessly and milk the audience for cheap laughs with a multitude of low comedy routines." Edwin Howard of the '' Memphis Press Scimitar'' called it "merely a dumb show with scenes pointlessly juggled and re-jiggered in the editing. Even cut to an hour and 35 minutes, it seems interminable." Joe Baltake of the ''

Philadelphia Daily News ''Philadelphia Daily News'' is a tabloid newspaper that serves Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper is owned by The Philadelphia Inquirer, LLC, which also owns ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', a daily newspaper in Philadelphia. The ''Dail ...

'' called it "a vanity film for Davis and his fans," while Ernest Leogrande of the ''

New York Daily News The ''Daily News'' is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, New Jersey. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson in New York City as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in Tabloid (newspaper format ...

'' wrote that "the passage of time painfully emphasizes the show's heavy-handed reliance on national stereotypes and the show, blown up to screen size, is a gassy business. The choppy editing, omitting chunks of action, doesn't help." Greg Tozian of ''

The Tampa Tribune ''The Tampa Tribune'' was a daily newspaper published in Tampa, Florida. Along with the competing ''Tampa Bay Times'', the ''Tampa Tribune'' was one of two major newspapers published in the Tampa Bay area. The newspaper also published a ''St. P ...

'' called it "simply a terrible movie," and noted that only four other people were in attendance of the screening that he saw. David Mucci of '' The Lexington Leader'' wrote, "To truly enjoy the film, the viewer must be a Sammy Davis Jr. fan and appreciate the type of musical experience he delivers. Otherwise, when Sammy belts the final song ''What Kind Of Fool Am I?'' that’s exactly what the paying customer is going to be asking." These sentiments were echoed in ''

The Courier-Journal The ''Courier Journal'', also known as the ''Louisville Courier Journal'' (and informally ''The C-J'' or ''The Courier''), and called ''The Courier-Journal'' between November 8, 1868, and October 29, 2017, is a daily newspaper published in ...

'' by Owen Hardy, who also called it "a boring, tasteless, offensive display of almost total non-talent."

Janet Maslin Janet R. Maslin (born August 12, 1949) is an American journalist, who served as a film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1977 to 1999, serving as chief critic for the last six years, and then a literary critic from 2000 to 2015. In 2000, M ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' said that "this version of ''Stop the World'' features a gaudy set, a few uneasy references to current events, and floppy, ill-fitting costumes on everybody but Mr. Davis, who wears a silky sweater and pants but no jewelry, because he is supposed to start out poor"; she concluded the review by saying that "music, mime and merriment are in abundant supply—all the ingredients of a perfectly nice evening at a dinner theater in a suburb somewhere. Except for the dinner, that is." In 1996, a TV movie version was produced starring

Peter Scolari Peter Thomas Scolari (September 12, 1955 – October 22, 2021) was an American actor. He was best known for his roles as Henry Desmond in the American Broadcasting Company, ABC sitcom ''Bosom Buddies'' (1980–1982) and Michael Harris on the C ...

as Littlechap and Stephanie Zimbalist as Evie. Made for the

, it adhered closely to the format of the original stage production.

Songs

; Act I * The A.B.C. Song * I Want to Be Rich * Typically English * A Special Announcement * Lumbered * Welcome to Sludgepool * Gonna Build a Mountain * Glorious Russian * Malinki Malchik * Family Fugue * Typische Deutsche * Nag! Nag! Nag! ; Act II * All-American * Once in a Lifetime * Mumbo Jumbo * Welcome to Sunvale * Life Is A Woman * Someone Nice Like You *

What Kind of Fool Am I? "What Kind of Fool Am I?" is a popular song written by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley and published in 1962. It was introduced by Anthony Newley in the musical '' Stop the World – I Want to Get Off''. It comes at the end of Act Two to clos ...

Cast

London replacements

Littlechap: Tony Tanner Evie, Anya, Isle, Ginnie: Millicent Martin

Broadway replacements

Littlechap:

Notable national tour replacements

Littlechap:

Awards and nominations

Original Broadway production

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Stop the World - I Want to Get Off 1961 musicals West End musicals Broadway musicals 1966 films 1966 musical films Warner Bros. films Compositions by Leslie Bricusse Original musicals Films shot at Pinewood Studios Films based on musicals British musicals Tony Award–winning musicals