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Moby Dick is a musical with a book by Robert Longden, and music and lyrics by Longden and Hereward...

Moby Dick is a musical with a book by Robert Longden, and music and lyrics by Longden and Hereward Kaye. A mixture of high camp, music hall-style smut, and wild anachronism overflowing with double entendres, the show focuses on the anarchic and nubile girls of St. Godley’s Academy for Young Ladies who, determined to save the institution from bankruptcy, decide to stage Herman Melville's classic novel in the school's swimming pool. Having become involved with the restoration of Oxford's Old Fire Station Theatre, producer Cameron Mackintosh sought a new musical to inaugurate its re-opening. Impressed by an audio tape sent him by Longden, Mackintosh offered him £25,000 to stage what was then called Moby Dick: A Whale of a Tale. Originally an intimate piece with a cast of twelve performing with an upright piano, it became a greatly expanded version featuring a troupe of thirty and a six-piece band. The end result was a madcap romp, with veteran cabaret star Tony Monopoly playing the headmistress/Captain Ahab in drag, that immediately developed a cult following among the university students. One of its first venues was aboard Ki Longfellow's Old Profanity Showboat where after a slow