Your Own Thing
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Your Own Thing: A Rocking West End Experiment
"Your Own Thing" is a rock-styled musical comedy that briefly lit up London’s West End at the Comedy Theatre, opening on October 1, 1969, and running for 48 performances until November 15, 1969. With music and lyrics by Hal Hester and Danny Apolinar, and a book by Donald Driver who also directed it’s a loose adaptation of Shakespeare’s *Twelfth Night*, reimagined in the groovy late 1960s. After a smash 933-performance off-Broadway run, this tale of twins Viola and Sebastian navigating love and mistaken identities in a psychedelic Illyria (think swinging New York) aimed to capture London’s counterculture vibe. Though its West End tenure was short, its bold energy and soft-rock score left a quirky imprint on musical theatre history.
Origins and Journey to London
The show began as an off-Broadway lark, premiering January 13, 1968, at the Orpheum Theatre in New York, produced by Dorothy Love. Inspired by *Twelfth Night*’s shipwrecked twins and romantic mix-ups, Driver’s book swapped Elizabethan verse for 1960s slang and satire, while Hester and Apolinar’s score leaned into folk-rock ballads and upbeat grooves. Its U.S. success winning a Drama Critics’ Circle Award spurred a North American tour and a London transfer, backed by producer Zev Bufman. Tweaked for British tastes with multimedia slides and voice-overs, it landed in the West End amid a wave of experimental theatre, hoping to ride the era’s youth revolution.
The Cast and Creative Vision
London’s cast featured Peter Reeves as Orson, Linda Kitchen as Viola, Valerie Walsh as Olivia, and John Clifford as Sebastian, with Danny Apolinar himself playing Danny, a hip impresario. Driver’s direction embraced a mod aesthetic miniskirts, go-go boots, and trippy projections while the score, orchestrated by Fred Werner, mixed tender tracks like “The Middle Years” with playful chaos like “Hunca Munca.” Designers John Ginsberg (sets) and Joseph G. Aulisi (costumes) crafted a Day-Glo Illyria, aiming to mirror the Beatles-era buzz. The result was a freewheeling romp that prized vibe over plot, banking on its cast’s charisma to sell the Shakespearean redux.
West End Reception and Struggles
Opening night drew mixed buzz. Critics like *The Times* found it “engagingly irreverent” but “thinly stretched,” praising the music yet noting its lightweight narrative drowned in 1960s clichés. Audiences, fresh off *Hair*’s revolutionary roar in 1968, were less enthralled its 48-show run paled against London’s appetite for meatier fare or glitzier imports. The rock score charmed some, with “Your Own Thing” and “Don’t Leave Me” earning cheers, but the show’s American-centric humor and loose structure didn’t fully click with British crowds. It closed quietly, overshadowed by the West End’s bigger hitters.
Beyond London and Lasting Echoes
Post-West End, "Your Own Thing" toured Australia in 1970 with stars like Marcia Hines, then faded from major stages. Its original cast recording, featuring Leland Palmer and Marian Mercer, keeps the score alive for fans, while a 1970 Drama Book Shop revival in New York hinted at lingering appeal. Unlike *Hair* or *Godspell*, it never sparked a global frenzy, but its off-Broadway roots inspired later rock musicals. By 2025, it’s a cult curiosity revived sporadically in small venues its mod flair a time capsule of 1960s optimism and theatrical daring.
Legacy and Cultural Snapshot
"Your Own Thing" captures a moment when musical theatre flirted with the counterculture, blending Shakespeare with soft-rock rebellion. Its West End flop belies its off-Broadway triumph, reflecting the challenge of exporting American zeitgeist. Hester and Apolinar’s tunes endure as period gems, and Driver’s innovative staging slides and all nudged the genre toward multimedia flair. Though it didn’t reshape the West End like *Cats* or *Les Mis*, it’s a funky footnote, a reminder of a time when theatre dared to “do its own thing” amid a world in flux.