She accompanied the show to Broadway in 1962, where it ran for 555 performances (first at the Shubert theatre before transferring to the Ambassador).
The show began in Manchester but soon transferred to the Queen’s theatre in the West End, and Quayle won the London Critics Circle award for her performance. Quayle was cast as the four women in his life – wife Evie, the Russian Anya, German Ilse and American Ginnie – showcasing her vocal dexterity and mastery of comic, dramatic and musical material. Written and scored by Newley and Leslie Bricusse, it was an odyssey following its lead character, Littlechap (Newley), from cradle to grave. In 1960, the actor and singer-songwriter Anthony Newley came to see her in the revue And Another Thing, alongside Bernard Cribbins and Lionel Blair, at the Fortune theatre in London’s West End, and thought her perfect for the female lead in his musical Stop The World – I Want to Get Off (1961). More than 20 years later she was still a familiar face on British television screens, as the eccentric but good-hearted teacher Mrs Monroe in the groundbreaking children’s drama Grange Hill (1990-94).īut it was on the stage that Quayle’s many talents were honed, and shone.
