Instrumentation

cl - pno - gtr(=banjo) - drums - bass

Availability

Published by Warner/Chappell.  Administered for rental and amateur stage rights by Faber Music Ltd worldwide (excluding North America)
 
For more information on The Night Maxie Tortellini Hit Big Lolo Latrobe's, and to see our full catalogue of stage musicals for hire, visit fabermusicals.fabermusic.com
 
 
The Story
(Chicago in the 20s)
“Oh, Chicago, this terrible city we love”, sing the whole company as the Prologue to this pastiche about life in the ‘windy city’. Set in the seedy night club of the redoubtable Miss Lola Latrobe, we follow the goings-on during one evening there. The Casino Club used to be the hottest night-spot in town, but like its owners and performers, it has seen better days. “The Night Maxie Tortellini Hit Big Lola Latrobe’s” is the story of Fingers Rafferty, the piano player who used to be the best, of Lola, whose world is crumbling all around her, who still can’t ‘find her man’, of Maxie Tortellini, the biggest hoodlum in the town who was Lola’s lover ten years before, of Tony di Martino, who still claims to be the greatest Vaudeville singer in America today, and of the loves and lives of the chorus girls, some coming up from the scrapheap, some starting out with their eyes full of stars. There’s romance, there’s danger, there’s music, there’s dance in the fast-moving stylish cliché of Chicago life – gangsters, molls, chorus girls, musicians, jazz, booze, pills, laughs, disasters. The tale builds up to the climax of the “hit” – but there’s a twist and just when everything appears to be resolving itself happily, there’s another twist – and all is set to the strident, exciting heartbeat that is Chicago in the days of prohibition, in the days of jazz.
 
 
PRINCIPAL MUSICAL NUMBERS
In Chicago (Full Company)
At The Casino (Tony, Girls)
Wish I Could See Him Tonight (Marianne)
Shadow Of A Dream (Tony, Girls)
There’s A Lady (Tony)
When I Find My Man (Lola)
I’d Like To Take You Home For My Baby (Roxy, Brains)
From now On (Maxie, Lola, Full Company)
 
PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS AND VOCAL RANGE
Lola Latrobe (mezzo)
Maxie Tortellini (bass)
Fingers Rafferty (non-singing)
Tony di Martino (baritone)
Marianne (soprano)
Brains (tenor)
Roxy (soprano)
 
 
HISTORY
THE NIGHT MAXIE TORTELLINI HIT BIG LOLA LATROBE’S was written for The Portable Theatre Company, West Surrey, and first performed in 1988. It won First Prize at the Croydon Drama Festival and came second at both the Woking Drama Festival and Newport Drama Festival.
In 1989, the Welsh Premiere took place at the Dolman Theatre, Newport, and in 1990 the Scottish Premiere was presented by Quinquireme Productions.