ACT FOUR
It's 1969, and in our final Act, Harry cuts a sad and lonely figure, shuffling through the streets of Soho, back on his side of town, but deflated and defeated following the machiavellian schemes of Posnonby and his boys. It may take time, but will love find a way?
The intense collage of iconic images is back with the date 1968 ticking up to 1969. We take in the key moments from the year just gone, including the Vietnam War, 2001: A Space Odyssey premier, Apollo 6 mission to Saturn and Apollo 7 first crewed mission, Apollo 8 crew enters orbit around the moon; Enoch Powell’s Rivers of Blood Speech; The Kray twins being arrested, Paris student riots. The Beatles launching Apple Records and releasing The White Album, first interracial kiss on US TV on Star Trek, Rolling Stones release Beggars Banquet, Oliver! released in cinemas, Man Utd becoming the first English team to win the European Cup Final, the assassination of Robert F Kennedy, the Ford sewing machinists strike in Dagenham, Dad’s Army’s first broadcast, Mexico ’68 summer Olympics and black panther salute, Jackie Kennedy marred Aristotle Onassis, Richard Nixon is elected US President and Martin Luther King’s assassination...
[The scene opens on Harry, a sack on his back with all his worldly belongings, leaving Mayfair and heading back towards the streets of Soho].
Song 28: Harry's Dream
(1969 reprise)
[Harry’s now back in a Soho street, the same as where we fist met Harry the young lad with no shoes. He’s wearing shoes this time. In fact, he’s wearing fine clothes – but they’re a little tatty and his kicking a stone into the gutter, looking down and a glum. He walks to a bar where the flower stall used to be, get out some keys, opens it up]
Song 29: My Part Of Town (1969 reprise)
[The stage goes black. No lights. A spotlight breaks the dark. It’s Harry, back in the modern day, wiping the glasses in the bar telling his story to the enthralled guests. The lights go up, and the suits, hipsters, office girls and football fans are all there hanging on his every word. But our eyes are drawn to the old woman sitting quietly at the bar]
OLD HARRY:
And that was that. The end. Back then, someone once said “the love you take is equal to the love you make”. Well I had love, but it was taken from me. Then again, if I’d never met Michelle, I’d never have learned all those fancy new words, or fancy new ways - and all that gave me the confidence to open up this place. If it wasn’t for all that, I wouldn’t be here today. But it came at a cost. Love. Loss. A life well lived, but alone.
​
[The television in the bar crackles with a posh newsreader discussing a deathbed interview from a former Soho night dweller. “It’s a book called ‘The Ninth Life of Kitty Velour’ and she tells all – the sixties, the scandal, and the men she sacrificed … there were boys, there were men, and there was poor Harry Bright”]
[The bar stops. A spotlight falls on the old woman at the bar. She stands]
​
OLD WOMAN:
It’s a hell of a tale, Harry.
OLD HARRY:
Sorry love, come again?
OLD WOMAN:
I said, it’s a hell of a tale Harry. The street boy, the socialite, the stripper, the scandal. And now the truth. It’s all over the news. The lovers, the lies. The Harry trap.
OLD HARRY:
Michelle?
OLD WOMAN:
Kitty may have had nine lives, but I only had one. You should have fought for me. You should have come back for me. I loved you Harry. I LOVE you Harry. I always did. I always have. I always will.
OLD HARRY:
Michelle?
OLD WOMAN:
I was only a girl. I was Embarrassed. I thought you’d disgraced me. Taken me for granted.
OLD HARRY:
I never did. I never would.
OLD WOMAN:
And for both of us ... that one, sad lonely night gave us a life of longing, lives lived alone. No-one has ever come close, Harry.
OLD HARRY:
Michelle. I don’t know what to say. I, I...
OLD WOMAN:
It didn’t need to be like this. And it doesn’t need to end like this.
OLD HARRY:
Michelle?
OLD WOMAN:
My Harry boy.
[They embrace]
Song 30: The Impossible Dream
[They embrace. The Band picks up pace, the bar comes alive and we finish with our final flourish of a feel-good song]
Song 31: Love Will Find A Way
Song 32: That Oh So Soho Feeling (Finale)
[Old Harry is down on one knee, asking Old Michelle, once more, to marry him]
[Cast take their bows]
​
[CURTAIN]
