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Beautiful and Damned is an evocative and glittering musical set in the 1920's, telling the tragic story of Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald. The glamorous and fashionable couple, successful young author and stylish young wife, with their high spending, high living lifestyle, became the envy of the world. Scott christened the period The Jazz Age, and Zelda was its high priestess. However, behind the dazzling and elegant facade, a darker story awaits to be told.

The conception of the show goes back to 1977 when a British singer/songwriter walked into a bookstore in Nashville, Tennessee. His name was Roger Cook.

Of the numerous hit songs Roger had written during a career that dates back to the 60s, perhaps he's best known for songs like the Coca Cola anthem of the 70's - I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing , Crystal Gale's signature tune Talking In Your Sleep and Something's Gotten Hold Of My Heart , immortalised by Gene Pitney.

Roger had moved to Nashville from his hometown Bristol, England. The library of the farmhouse he moved into had been stripped of all of its books. Visiting a local bookstore for a restocking exercise, he spotted a book taking centre stage in the bookshop window. The book ignited a passion that has stayed with him for evermore. It was a pictorial biography created from the scrapbooks and photographic albums of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. It was called The Romantic Egoists.

He read the book from cover to cover and felt Zelda and Scott's story just had to be told. A play he thought. No � a musical! After all, their lifestyle of wild parties, music and dancing epitomised the era of the 'Roaring 20's', "The Jazz Age" and "The Flappers". To quote the words of 1920s actress Lillian Gish, "Scott and Zelda didn't make the 20's, they were the 20's."

Nurturing his idea for a musical for some 15 years, and now living back in the UK, at the end of 1991 Roger met up with an old friend and song-writing colleague, Les Reed.

Over the years, Les, like Roger, had written numerous hit songs including It's Not Unusual and Delilah for Tom Jones.

Roger told Les of his idea for a Fitzgeralds musical and asked him whether he would like to collaborate with him on the project. To Roger's delight Les agreed and suggested that they should get together to kick around some ideas the next time they met up.

It just so happened that Les had been planning a short holiday in Bath, which was no more than a twenty minute car journey from Roger's home in Bristol, and in February 1992 the two met up at Les's vacation hotel near Bath for some song-writing sessions. Roger gave Les a synopsis of the Fitzgerald's story and they went to work. By the end of the week, they knew they were onto something when, down the corridors of the hotel, the staff could be heard humming, whistling and even singing the songs they'd heard being written in Les's room!

Over the next three years, Roger and Les worked on the score. At the end of 1995 Roger moved back to Nashville and the project was put under wraps.

In 1999 Roger secured funding for the show from fellow Bristolians Mary and Charles Dobson. With funding secured, events gathered momentum and Roger and Les approached a long time friend, the celebrated, award-winning lyricist Don Black. Don felt positive about the project and contacted West End Producer Laurence Myers. Laurence concurred with Don's feelings and agreed to produce the show, putting Roger and Les together with a team of highly talented creators including bookwriter Kit Hesketh Harvey.

Following critical acclaim at its pre-London run at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford, Beautiful and Damned and is now transferring to The Lyric Theatre in London�s West End.

We look forward to seeing you at the show.

The Producers.