Very Good Companions

As I've noted a few times previously, it's sort of remarkable that Judi Dench -- who by her own acknowledgement really can't sing all that well -- has starred in two big musicals in London: A Little Night Music here and she was the first Sally Bowles in the original London production of Cabaret here.  But she also was in a third West End musical.  And though it wasn't especially successful, it might have been the one that might have been most memorable.  That's because her co-star in the 1974 show, The Good Companions, was Sir John Mills.  Hey, how's that for a night of the ol' musical theater? 

The show has pretty good pedigree all around.  It's based on a book by J.B. Priestley with a score by a couple of Americans, Andre Previn for the music, and Johnny Mercer with the lyrics.  I have the cast album, and it's perfectly listenable and has several very good songs, though alas it really isn't standout.  I haven't digitized it yet, so I can't pick and choose what to embed here, but I did find a "video" of one of the audio tracks, Judi Dench singing "Darkest Before the Dawn," that includes some nice production photos.