The Dancing Years is a musical

Musical theatre

Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...

 with book and music by Ivor Novello

Ivor Novello

David Ivor Davies , better known as Ivor Novello, was a Welsh composer, singer and actor who became one of the most popular British entertainers of the first half of the 20th century. Born into a musical family, his first successes were as a songwriter...

 and lyrics by Christopher Hassall

Christopher Hassall

Christopher Vernon Hassall was an English actor, dramatist, librettist, lyricist and poet, who found his greatest fame in a memorable musical partnership with the actor and composer Ivor Novello after working together in the same touring company...

. The piece is one of Novello's most popular musicals. Like many of Novello's musicals, The Dancing Years was given an expensive, spectacular production, with several scene changes and a large cast including many extras and dancers.

It was first produced in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

's West End

West End theatre

West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...

 on 23 March 1939.

Production

Novello starred in the lead part. The story, set in Vienna in pre-1914, shifting to 1938, follows the life of a penniless composer and his love for two women. The women are completely different in their social classes, one being an innkeeper's daughter and the other an opera singer. The background of Nazi persecution was very topical in 1939 when the musical was first played. The opening night was 23 March 1939 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane

Theatre Royal, Drury Lane

The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is a West End theatre in Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster, a borough of London. The building faces Catherine Street and backs onto Drury Lane. The building standing today is the most recent in a line of four theatres at the same location dating back to 1663,...

. After a closure at the start of the Second World War in September 1939, it reopened at the Adelphi Theatre on 14 March 1942 and ran there until July 1944, for a total of 969 performances. It was the most popular show of WW2, having similar attraction as Chu Chin Chow

Chu Chin Chow

Chu Chin Chow is a musical comedy written, produced and directed by Oscar Asche, with music by Frederic Norton, based on the story of Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves...

had in the First World War.

A televised production was aired by United Kingdom channel ITV in the 1980s.

Songs

• Waltz of My Heart
• Wings of Sleep
• My Life Belongs to You
• Three Ballet Tunes
• I Can Give You the Starlight
• My Dearest Dear
• Primrose
• Leap Year Waltz