I'm Only Posting This for You

Here's another charming song from The Four Musketeers, which had a high-spirited, very entertaining score by Herbert Kretzmer and Laurie Johnson.  In this, d'Artagnan (played by Harry Secombe) has been pursued by Milady de Winter, in hopes of seducing him (a decidedly-comic turn in the farcical musical, given the fireplug appearance and girth of Secombe, never the romantic lead...), when his love Constance arrives, and the moment is broken up.  Left alone, however, she refuses to accept his protestations of innocence, which lead his this song and his insistence that "I Was Only Doing It for You."

British actress Stephanie Voss played Constance.  As it happened, she had been the ingenue lead in composer Laurie Johnson's previous musical, Lock Up Your Daughters, about eight years earlier.  That show (which I wrote about here and here) was another period piece, based on a novel by Henry Fielding.

As I noted previously, the musical was "very loosely" based on the novel by Alexandre Dumas, and "very loosely" is the operative term.  But it was a thoroughly enjoyable show played across an expansive set and filled with swashbuckling sword fights...not to mention filled with wonderful songs.  A shame it never crossed over to the United States -- or that local companies aren't likely even aware of its existence to mount it themselves, even if it means a pared-down production.  But hey, that's why we're here, to bring such things to the fine folks here...