In 1986, Andrew Lloyd-Webber and Tim Rice briefly revived their by-then defunct theatrical partnership to write a one-act comic musical on the theme of Rice's favorite game, cricket. The pair had been commissioned by one Edward Windsor, aka Prince Edward, who was at that time working for Lloyd-Webber's "Really Useful Group" and wanted the piece for a pageant celebrating the Queen's 60th birthday.

The show debuted as planned on 18 June 1986 at Windsor Castle, under the direction of Trevor Nunn and featuring the talents of Ian Charleson (of Chariots of Fire fame), Sarah Payne, and John Savident. Two more performances followed, one at Lloyd-Webber's Sydmonton Festival (on 15 July 1986) and other at the Lord's Taverners Ball (in November of that year). And then?

Ummm, and then, that was it. There were no further performances. The Lloyd-Webber tunes went back into the trunk, to be retrieved later and recycled for use in other shows (including Aspects of Love and Sunset Boulevard).

Despite my personal biases, I have to admit that complete obscurity would probably be the inevitable fate of any 25-minute-long, tongue-in-cheek musical about the sport of cricket. Still, what with Lloyd-Webber and Rice's huge respective fan bases, one might have hoped to find that once upon a time there was a Cricket songbook published or a Cricket recording released, copies of which might turn up periodically and sell for more than they were worth on eBay. However, nothing was ever published or, umm, officially recorded, and so...

... the best I can do for those whose curiosity has now been piqued is to offer a little taste of the show on this page. What follows will be a plot summary with links to sound clips (in mp3 format) from one of the performances of Cricket.

Stay tuned...