Six Nights in Naples

A new musical

Music by Richard Link
Book and Lyrics by Eden Phillips

Six Nights in Naples is a new musical based on a quirky, true story set in the famous Naples opera house, the Teatro di San Carlo.

In 1943, as British forces enter Naples, they find shelter at the teatro. There, with encouragement from a mysterious American visitor, they create and stage a show for Allied forces – in just six days and six nights.

The soldiers are fortunate to find some interesting characters resident in the opera house, including an Italian diva, her dresser and her dancing daughter. Culture clashes between Brits and Italians, musical theatre and opera, the real world and the supernatural combine in a piece that affectionately sends up theatrical conventions – and throws in some on-off-on love affairs for good measure.

“Phillips knows just the right moment to surprise us with a plot development to sustain his yarn spinning along in high gear. The balance between music and dialogue…is judged to a tee [and the] book throws up a number of deft exchanges.

“The fluency of his writing is buoyed up by the effervescent and tuneful score by Richard Link... His score bubbles merrily along levitating this show into the beta plus class…Link has that rare ability to fashion a piece that weaves solos, duets and group numbers with a light hand, moving from one to the other seamlessly.”

—Adrian Edwards, Musical Theatre Review