Words and Music by Bill Solly



       

           





















     







           BILL SOLLY has been writing songs, musicals and plays for over 50 years. In Canada he contributed to My Fur Lady, Jubilee, Spring Thaw, Clap Hands, and various CBC radio and TV shows including Maple Sauce with Robert Goulet, but his focus has always been musicals. Never produced were Let the Piper Come, based on L.M. Montgomery's Rainbow Valley, and a musical about the St. Lawrence Seaway called Strawberry, but the Montreal Rep mounted I Love Electra in 1959, and Vamp Till Ready, Made in the Mountains and Come North Come Home were performed at the Banff School of Fine Arts in Alberta where Solly pioneered the school's musical theatre division. In England for 15 years, he wrote for Maurice Chevalier, Petula Clark, June Whitfield, Libby Morris, Dusty Springfield, Annie Ross, Danny La Rue, Marty Feldman, Matt Monro, Ronnie Corbett, Brigitte Bardot, Max Bygraves and George Burns, and had five productions in the West End: Sweet William, Ad Lib, Queen Passionella and the Sleeping Beauty, Danny La Rue at the Palace and The Great American Backstage Musical. The latter (book co-authored by Donald Ward) originated in Los Angeles and has since been produced in theatres across the US including the Goodspeed Opera House.

           With co-author Ward he has had six other musicals in New York including the 1975 Off Broadway hit Boy Meets Boy. Others are Come North Come Home (produced Off Broadway in 1974 under the title 100 Miles From Nowhere), a newly revised Sweet William, Tent Show (Mrs Moses), Stars 'n Stripes (Starring in Alphabetical Order) and The Snow Queen. On his own Solly has written six musicals for children, The Cat in the Castle, The Three Magic Mushrooms, The Travelling Tree, The Story of Millicent, The Sleeping Beauty Musical and Mother Goose, and in New York he runs BSCT (the Bill Solly Children's Theatre). Other New York credits include revues of his songs, Solly's Follies (also presented in Los Angeles) and Callbacks, two Christmas musicals written with Donald Ward, Santa and the Christmas Clowns and Christmas at the Zoo, a play, The Ruby Slippers (co-authored by Neil Kennedy), the 3-actor musical Girl Boyfriend Piano, and several cabaret shows in which he also appeared.

          As a performer he was in Zbigniev Rybczynski's PBS video Steps, and played the role of Ned Hammer in the world premiere of Charles Strouse's one-act opera, The Future of the American Musical Theatre. He has written two novels, Garden in the Rain and Metro-Goldwyn-Murder, and has produced three CDs of his songs, Does Anybody Love You?, Turn on the Lights (Christmas songs) and Gay Friendly. Bill Solly is a member of ASCAP and the Dramatists Guild.