Yet the musical version of Billy Budd, titled Billy, which ran one night at the Billy Rose in 1969, felt the need to have a woman in the cast, playing, IIRC, the girl Billy left behind (or maybe she was a sort of fantasy).
A few years later, there was a much more successful musical of the same title in London, but that was based on Billy Liar. And it was successful as long as Michael Crawford played the title role. It ran only two more months when he was replaced by Roy Castle, and I don't think has been seen much since.
Anyway, sorry for going off-topic a bit. |