Overview
Synopsis
Oh! What a Lovely War is a biting, kaleidoscopic satire of the First World War created by Joan Littlewood and her Theatre Workshop in 1963. The title of the musical was inspired by the old music hall song, “Oh It’s a Lovely War”, which features as one of the main songs in the show. It was, and is, therefore a truly collaborative, ensemble production.
Rather than a conventional book musical, it unfolds as an end-of-pier variety show performed by a troupe of Pierrots. The performers—white-faced clowns in jaunty costumes—sing, dance, joke, and slip into dozens of roles as the evening ricochets from recruitment halls and parade grounds to muddy trenches and glittering home-front revues. Familiar music-hall and soldiers’ songs—“It’s a Long Way to Tipperary,” “Pack Up Your Troubles,” “Keep the Home Fires Burning,” “Mademoiselle from Armentières,” “Hanging on the Old Barbed Wire,” and the title number—are repurposed with sharp new context or altered lyrics to expose the gulf between jaunty propaganda and grim reality.
Throughout, placards, projected headlines, and a rolling “scoreboard” of casualty figures puncture the merriment, while brisk sketches lampoon diplomats, profiteers, and top brass (especially the complacent staff officers planning offensives from a safe distance). Vignettes track a naïve recruit’s journey through training, boredom, and slaughter; moments of camaraderie and gallows humor coexist with scenes of mismanagement and callous indifference. The Somme sequence—often staged with whistles, bursts of light, and a brutal tally clicking upward—forms the emotional center, and the show closes with a stark remembrance: poppies, crosses, or a simple roll call of the dead that leaves the audience sitting in uneasy silence. The “plot,” such as it is, is the war itself—its machinery, myths, and human cost—refracted through popular entertainment until the songs we thought we knew sound painfully different.
Show Information
- Book
- Joan Littlewood
- Conceived By
- Gerry Raffles , Charles Chilton , Joan Littlewood
- Category
- Musical
- Age Guidance
- Thirteen Plus (PG-13)
- Number of Acts
- 2
- First Produced
- 1963
- Genres
- Satire, Historical/Biographical
- Settings
- Simple/No Set
- Time & Place
- Multiple settings. First World War (WWI)
- Cast Size
- small
- Orchestra Size
- Small
- Dancing
- Some Dance
- Licensor
- Concord Theatricals
- Ideal For
- College/University, Ensemble Cast, Large Cast, Regional Theatre, Includes Young Adult, Adult, Mature Adult Characters, Small Cast
Context
The piece grew from Charles Chilton’s BBC radio collage “The Long, Long Trail,” which wove period songs with archival material to chart a Tommy’s path from enlistment to death. Joan Littlewood encountered the broadcast and, with producer Gerry Raffles and the ensemble at Theatre Royal Stratford East, transformed it through collective devising. The company read soldiers’ letters and memoirs, studied official communiqués, and improvised scenes, allowing documented voices and music-hall idioms to
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The first act of the musical draws the audience into the sentimentality of the war propaganda and sense of bonhomie that was prevalent at the beginning of the First World War. It opens at the seaside, where young men and women relax, until the MC announces that it is time for “the war game” to start. As the war begins, the soldiers are trained and march off to fight. The famous Christmas Day meeting between the British and German soldiers in no-man’s land is marked by the songs “Heilige Nacht”
to read the plot for Oh! What a Lovely War and to unlock other amazing theatre resources!Characters
| Name | Part Size | Gender | Vocal Part |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Ensemble |
Either Gender |
Soprano, Mezzo-Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Baritone, Bass |
Songs
Act One
- Row, Row, Row - Ensemble
- Your King and Country - Girls
- Belgium Put the Kibosh on the Kaiser - A Girl
- Are We Downhearted? - A Girl
- Hold Your Hand Out, Naughty Boy - A Girl
- I’ll Make a Man of You - A Girl
- *Hitchy-Koo - A Girl
- Heilige Nacht - German Soldier
- Christmas Day in the Cookhouse - English Soldiers
- Goodbye-ee - M.C. & Girls
Act Two
- *Oh It’s a Lovely War - Ensemble
- Gassed Last Night - Company (offstage)
- Roses of Picardy - A Lady & Gentleman
- Hush, Here Comes a Whizzbang - The Men (offstage)
- There’s a Long, Long Trail - A Man (offstage)
- I Don’t Want To Be a Soldier (to the tune of I’ll Make a Man of You) - Two Soldiers
- They Were Only Playing Leapfrog - The Men
- If You Want the Old Battalion - The Soldiers
- Far Far From the Wipers (to the tune of Sing Me to Sleep) - General Haig
- If the Sergeant Steals Your Rum - A Soldier
- *I Wore a Tunic (to the tune of I Wore a Tulip) - A Soldier
- Forward Joe Soap’s Army (to the tune of Onward Christian Soldiers) - The Soldiers
- Fred Karno’s Army (to the tune of The Church’s One Foundation) - The Soldiers
- When This Lousy War is Over (to the tune of What a Friend We Have In Jesus) - The Chaplain
- Wash Me in the Water - The Soldiers
- I Want to Go Home - The Soldiers (offstage)
- *The Bells of Hell - The Soldiers
- Keep The Home Fires Burning - The Nurse
- Sister Susie’s Sewing Shirts - A Girl
- Chanson De Craonne - French Soldiers
- I Don’t Want To Be A Soldier - The Soldiers
- And When They Ask Us (to the tune of They Wouldn’t Believe Me) - The Men
- Oh It’s A Lovely War - The Ensemble
A song with an asterisk (*) before the title indicates a dance number; a character listed in a song with an asterisk (*) by the character's name indicates that the character exclusively serves as a dancer in this song, which is sung by other characters.
Monologues
Scenes
Key Terms
Spontaneous or improvised lines not in the script, used by actors to maintain flow or enhance realism.
Political theatre intended to agitate and promote a cause, often associated with socialist and revolutionary movements.
A detailed evaluation or analysis of a performance or production, offering constructive feedback.
A group of performers who function as a unit in a production rather than as individuals with leading roles.
A dramatic style associated with Bertolt Brecht that encourages critical thinking rather than emotional involvement.
Innovative performance styles that challenge traditional theatre conventions.
A performance technique in which dialogue and action are created spontaneously. This term plays a vital role in understanding theatrical structure and is commonly encountered in stagecraft or performance settings.
A literary device where the intended meaning differs from the literal meaning, often creating contrast or humor. Irony is used in theatre to provoke thought or elicit reactions from the audience by highlighting contradictions in character behavior or plot outcomes.
A British theatrical genre featuring variety entertainment including songs, comedy, and specialty acts. Popular in the 19th and early 20th centuries, it influenced modern musical theatre.
A stock character from French pantomime, often portrayed as a sad clown with white face paint and a ruffled collar. Pierrot symbolizes unrequited love and poetic melancholy.
Satire is a dramatic style that uses humor, irony, and exaggeration to criticize human behavior, social institutions, or political systems. In theatre, it highlights flaws and hypocrisies through wit and parody, encouraging audiences to laugh while also reflecting on serious issues. Satire can range from lighthearted comedy to biting social commentary, making it both entertaining and thought-provoking.
A global conflict (1914–1918) often dramatized in plays to explore trauma, nationalism, loss, and societal transformation.
Videos
Quizzes
Themes, Symbols & Motifs
THEMES
Illusion vs. Reality
A central theme
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__Note: Since Oh! What a Lovely War was devised by
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Alexandra Appleton
Writer, editor and theatre researcher