The Musical Jigsaw Play: In Brief
The Musical Jigsaw Play
Play Number: 48World Premiere: 1 December 1994
Venue: Stephen Joseph Theatre in the Round, Scarborough
Premiere Staging: In-the-round
Published: No
Other Media: No
Cast: 4m / 1f
Synopsis: Set in the place where bands who drop out of the charts go, it follows Why? as they attempt to produce a hit song with the aid of the audience in order to get back into the charts.
Note: The Musical Jigsaw Play has never been published, nor is it available to produce. An original manuscript is held in the Ayckbourn Archive at the Borthwick Institute for Archives at the University of York.
- The Musical Jigsaw Play is Alan Ayckbourn's 48th play.
- The world premiere - directed by Alan Ayckbourn - was held at the Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round, Scarborough, on 1 December, 1994.
- Its world premiere production remains the play's only professional production.
- It was written with the composer John Pattison, who was the Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round's Musical Director and who Alan Ayckbourn also worked with on the musicals Dreams From A Summer House and A Word From Our Sponsor. John created the pop-song which runs through the entire piece as well as the incidental music.
- The play was initially commissioned by the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester; had the production gone ahead there as originally intended it would have joined only four other Ayckbourn plays not to have premiered in Scarborough.
- The Musical Jigsaw Play is considered one of Alan Ayckbourn's family plays which includes plays such as Mr A's Amazing Maze Plays and Invisible Friends.
- It is an example of an interactive Ayckbourn play; the audience helps construct the 'musical jigsaw' and it involves much audience participation and singing. The most famous of Alan's interactive plays is Mr A's Amazing Maze Plays.
- Despite the title and the fact it was written with composer John Pattison, it is not considered one of Alan Ayckbourn's musicals as - essentially - it only contains one song.
- It was the penultimate Ayckbourn play to be premiered at the Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round, Scarborough; the final play was A Word From Our Sponsor, a musical created with John Pattison.
- The Musical Jigsaw Play has never been published, nor is it available to produce. An original manuscript is held in the Ayckbourn Archive at the Borthwick Institute for Archives at the University of York.