Education and Early Career
Webb was educated at the Aida Foster stage school, after a school teacher suggested to her parents that her natural talent for singing and dancing should be nurtured. She appeared as Moonbeam in a Manchester production Listen to the Wind whilst still a student, before leaving to make her West End debut in Stop the World, I Want to Get Off, a show that starred and had lyrics by Anthony Newley, whom Webb considered to be her mentor.
Webb first came to prominence as Ann in the original London production of Half a Sixpence opposite Tommy Steele, citing her first leading role as a career highlight. She later dubbed the singing voice of Julia Foster, her replacement for the film adaptation.
She also played Nancy in the first UK tour of Oliver! where she met and befriended the show's Assistant Stage Manager Cameron Mackintosh, who was to become one of the most prominent musical theatre producers in world. Lionel Bart, the show's composer and lyricist, saw it numerous times whilst the production was in Manchester, where he was working on the notorious flop, Twang!. When it returned to the West End Phil Collins, who later achieved fame with Genesis and had been one of the original Dodgers, rejoined the production to play Noah Claypole.
During the 1970s she carved out a career as a respected, though not yet famous, West End actress and singer. In 1971, she was one of the original company of the London production of Godspell, opposite David Essex, Julie Covington and Jeremy Irons. She later played Nellie Cotterill in the 1973 original London production of The Card, a musical written by Tony Hatch and Jackie Trent which chronicled the rise of the title character from washerwoman's son to Mayor of a Northern British town through initiative, guile, and luck. The production was short-lived but was followed by the 1974 original London production of The Good Companions, alongside John Mills, Judi Dench and Christopher Gable in which she played Susie Dean, a member of a touring concert party.
Read more about this topic: Marti Webb
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