The Boy Friend

poster design for a production of Sandy Wilson's musical
at the South London Theatre

ink, gouache & Letraset, 1993

Never been a great fan of musicals, myself, no matter how hummable some of the songs are. But Sandy Wilson's show about lovelorn youngsters at the seaside during the 1920s - the "roaring twenties" - has an innocent charm and is lots of fun. I was also an assistant stage manager (or was it assistant assistant stage manager?) on this production, which was a hoot.

The strange jargon, manners and fashions of the middle class fun-lovers - the first teenagers; the early jazz music (albeit a sanitized version for white folk) and the dance fads, such as the Charleston, that went with it; a notion of romantic love heavily influenced by popular literature, magazines, songs and movies; and the summer seaside holiday, with its parties, dances and air of freedom and abandon. A heady mix.

A pair of lovers dancing free, silhouetted by an over-sized moon, the land and sky melted in a cool jazzy blue... How romantic.

There is a touch of Art Deco in the simplified forms, the stylized frame and the use of the Broadway Engraved typeface. The idea for the silhouette comes from my admiration of popular illustrators of the 19th century, especially in the German periodical the Münchener Bilderbogen.

This one's for Melissa.