A Model Girl: The Profumo Affair Musical

With its heady cocktail of sex, politics, guns and espionage, the Profumo Affair of 1963 became Britain’s first tabloid scandal. Now the sensational story of a girl whose dalliance with a Cabinet minister and a Russian diplomat led to jail, suicide and a Prime Minister’s resignation, is to be dramatised in a new musical – ‘A Model Girl’.

Set at the very moment the Sixties began to swing, with new songs set to musical styles of the era, ‘A Model Girl’ will be staged at Greenwich Theatre in January. It is being produced under the theatre’s innovative Arts Council-supported Musical Futures programme showcasing new musicals.

Developed over the past five years, ‘A Model Girl’ is written by Richard Alexander and Marek Rymaszewski, and directed by Ruth Carney.

Its newly composed songs are set to the various styles of one of the richest and most exciting musical eras: the early Sixties swung to the sound of big-band swing, jazz blues and ska, and rocked to the first thrilling steps in rock’n’roll and pop.

The script is a dramatisation inspired by the public reported events of the time.

“All great musicals are often set against the backdrop of historic watersheds,” says writer Richard Alexander. “They tell the emotional tales of personal stories in times of change, stress and revolution. The Profumo scandal has always been a musical waiting to be written.”

The Profumo Affair was the quintessential story of a personal tragedy set against a massive watershed in British society, when the repressive post-war period of rationing and belt-tightening exploded into the liberal era of the Swinging Sixties.

Personal morality suddenly moved on to the public stage and the burgeoning tabloid press trampled over the old-world values of conservatism – all against a backdrop of the Cold War, the Berlin Wall and the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Adds Alexander: “It’s a great tale that people have heard a bit about – they know it involves sex, politics and spies - but most of them don’t know the whole publicly reported story,” says writer Richard Alexander. “In my view it is an iconic tale and the defining moment when private life became public property.”

A Model Girl centres on the tale of a beautiful girl from a poor Home Counties background. She came to London as a teenager in 1961 and quickly bewitched high society with her intoxicating blend of beauty and naïve charm. Taken under the wing of Stephen Ward, a socialite who arranged female company for men of influence in government circles – with the covert knowledge of MI5 – she was the centre of a love triangle with the married War Minister, John Profumo, and a Russian spy, Yevgeny Ivanov.

Into this already explosive mix was thrown a jealous ex-boyfriend, Johnny Edgecombe. And when he blasted his way into Ward and Christine Keeler’s flat with a handgun, he blew the whole scandal into the public eye.

Enter a Press corps with a grudge, following the jailing of two journalists who refused to reveal their sources in an earlier government scandal, and the tinderbox was ready to ignite.

The cost was considerable for all concerned. Ward, charged with living off immoral earnings, committed suicide on the last day of his trial. Keeler was sent to prison for nine months for perjury. Profumo resigned and left politics. Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, his credibility damaged, his health failing, stepped down soon afterwards.

Despite the passage of time, there are still unanswered mysteries surrounding this saga and ‘A Model Girl’ seeks to answer some of these, using source material never used before.

A Model Girl
Written by Richard Alexander & Marek Rymaszewski
Directed by Ruth Carney & Designed by Paul Wills

From: Tuesday 30th January
Booking until: Saturday 24th February 2007

Performances:
Mon – Sat at 8pm
Matinees Wed & Sat at 2.30pm

Tickets:
Evening - £25, £22, £20, £18
Matinee - £23, £20, £18, £16

Booking Information:
greenwichtheatre.org