Michael Crawford In Profile, Part 2

We left Michael Crawford during a brief downturn in his career, but his fortunes were about to change with a role that would make him a household name.

Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em

It wasn’t long before Crawford’s acting career took off again appearing on the London stage in the farce No Sex Please We’re British, playing the part of frantic chief cashier Brian Runnicles (a role played by Ronnie Corbet in the film version).

This performance led to an invitation to star in a BBC TV comedy series about a childlike and eternally haphazard man who causes disaster everywhere he goes. Some Mothers Do ‘Ave’ Em made Crawford a household name. However he had not been first choice for the role of Frank Spencer. Originally, the part had been offered to comedy heavyweights Ronnie Barker and Norman Wisdom, both of whom turned it down. Crawford took on the challenge, adopting a similar characterisation to that which he used when playing Brian Runnicles.

Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em became one of the BBC’s most popular television series. Initially, running for just two series, from 1973 to 1975, the show’s creators felt that it should stop while at it’s peak.

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After a brief hiatus due to popular demand it was revived for a final series in 1978.

Crawford said he had always been a fan of comedians such as Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Laurel and Hardy with their particular brand of physical humour seeing Some Mothers as an ideal opportunity to use such humour himself. He performed all of his own stunts during the show’s run, and never used a double.

Further into the 1970’s

Whilst starring in Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em, Crawford was approached to star in the musical ‘Billy’ (based on the novel Billy Liar), ‘Billy’ opened in 1974 at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, London.

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This was his first leading man role on the West End stage and helped to cement his career as both a singer and showman. The part was demanding, requiring proficiency in both song and dance, and in preparation for the role, Crawford began taking both more seriously, studying singing under the tutelage of vocal coach Ian Adam and spending hours perfecting his dancing capabilities with choreographer Onna White.

Billy gave the many fans of Crawford’s portrayal of Frank Spencer an opportunity to see him in a broadly similar role on the stage, and was a considerable hit (904 West End performances).

When Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em finished Crawford continued to perform in plays and musicals, starring in Flowers for Algernon (1979) in the role of Charley Gordon, based on the book of the same title.

He pursued another role on a very short-lived ITV sitcom, Chalk and Cheese, as the slovenly, uncouth Dave Finn.

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The show did not go down well with his fans: the popularity of Crawford’s portrayal of Frank Spencer, and the similar Billy Fisher character, had left him somewhat typecast to the extent that they could not accept his very different role as Dave Finn. Crawford abandoned the show during its first series and returned to theatre work.

1980’s

Crawford starred in the 1981 Disney comedy/adventure film: Condorman, where he played an eccentric American comic book writer and illustrator named Woody Wilkins who is asked by his friend at the CIA to help a Russian woman to defect while acting out the fantasy of bringing his comic book creation, Condorman, to life.

The film was panned by the critics and unusually for Disney performed poorly at the box office . However years later it’s gained a cult following among Disney fans.

In 1981 Michael Crawford starred as showman P.T. Barnum in The West End. The show ran for 65 performances.

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A chance meeting

In 1984, at the final preview of Starlight Express, Crawford happened to run into the show’s creator, Andrew Lloyd Webber. The two had met socially several times and Lloyd Webber remembered Crawford from his work in Flowers for Algernon. He told Crawford about a project he was working on based on a Gaston Leroux novel and wanted to know whether he would be interested. Crawford said he was, but the show was still in the early planning stages, and nothing had been decided.

Several months passed, during which Lloyd Webber had already created a pitch video featuring his then-wife Sarah Brightman as the female lead Christine, and British rocker Steve Harley as the Phantom, singing the title song in the manner of a contemporary new wave video. Crawford was turned off by that, supposing the songwriter had chosen to do a “rock opera”-inspired spectacle in lieu of a more traditional operatic musical.

Since casting Harley, however, Lloyd Webber had also begun to regret his artistic choices (as stated in the ‘Behind the Mask’ documentary that he and Cameron MackIntosh agreed that Harley wasn’t an actor, nor a large theatre presence, all of which by this point Crawford had vast experience in).

As production continued on the show, the bulk of the score was revealing itself to be far more classical and operatic, entirely unsuited to Harley’s rough, contemporary voice. Wanting instead a performer with a more classic, melodic voice, as described in the original book, he began yet another search for the perfect actor to play his Phantom.

Becoming The Phantom

Crawford’s landing of the role was due in large part to the coincidence that Sarah Brightman had taken lessons with the same vocal coach as Crawford. She and her husband happened to arrive early for her lesson, and whilst waiting that they chanced to hear Crawford practising the aria Care Selve, from the opera Atalanta by Handel. Intrigued, Lloyd Webber asked Ian Adam who his student was. Soon after, Crawford was called in for an audition and was hired virtually on the spot.

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Many critics were sceptical; Crawford was still largely pigeonholed as the hapless Frank Spencer, and questions were asked about Crawford’s ability to manage such a vocally and dramatically demanding role.

In 1986, he began his performance in London at Her Majesty’s Theatre, continuing on to Broadway in 1988, and then Los Angeles in 1989. He played the role for two and a half years and over 1,300 performances, winning an Olivier ward (Best Actor in a Musical), a Tony Award (Best Performance by an Actor in a Lead Role, Musical), a New York Drama Desk Award, and a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Distinguished Achievement in Theatre (Lead Performance).

During the run of Phantom in Los Angeles, Crawford was asked to perform The Music Of The Night at the Inaugural Gala for President George H. W. Bush in Washington, D.C., on 19th January 1989. At the gala, Crawford was presented with a birthday cake (it was his 47th birthday).

On 29th April 1990, after three and a half years and over 1,300 performances later, Crawford left the show for the final time. He admits to having been saddened at his departure, and, during the final Lair scene, altered the Phantom’s line to “Christine… I loved you”, acknowledging that this was his final performance.

Of course Michael began a solo recording career not long into his initial West End run in Phantom with the release of his first album Songs From The Stage and Screen, including a soo chart appearance for his first single taken from the album