Jack the Ripper

• World Premiere Production (1974)
  London, England
• West End Transfer (1974)
  London, England
• American Premiere (1979)
  Providence, RI

Click on the title for info on the song.

Original score

• Saturday Night
• Sing Sing
• I'm the Girl You All Know
• God Bless
• Goodbye Day
• What a Life
• Love
• Ripper's Going to Get You
• Charlie and Queenie
• Half a Dozen Pints
• There's a Boat Coming In
• There Ain't Any Work Today
• Look at Her
• Suspects
• Policemen's Chorus
• Step Across the River
• Montage

Inspired by one of the most famous unsolved serial killing cases.

The play is a musical reconstruction of incidents relating to the East End murders which took place between Friday, August 31st and Friday, November 9th, 1888. A solution of Jack the Ripper's identity is hinted at, but the play is an atmospheric commentary rather than an historical re-enactment, shifting between reality and artificiality, with characters representing "real" people as well as members of the music hall audience and players. It is an essential feature that some characters are called upon to play more than one role. They thus have a life within the Music Hall and also in reality. The Chairman also plays the authoritative roles of Sir Charles Warren, the Magistrate, and the Dock's Foreman, while Montague Druitt is also known as Toynbee and plays the villain in the melodrama and the magician.