Perchance To Dream (musical)

Perchance To Dream (musical)

Perchance to Dream is a musical romance with book, lyrics and music by Ivor Novello. It was the only musical for which Novello wrote lyrics. The title is a quotation from William Shakespeare's play Hamlet. The plot, like many of Novello's plots, is a romantic adventure tale, telling the parallel stories of the fates of several inhabitants of the same house through differing time periods. The stories interconnect and have unforeseen repercussions, one upon the other.

It opened on the London stage at the Hippodrome Theatre on 21 April 1945. The show starred Novello, Margaret Rutherford, Olive Gilbert, Roma Beaumont, Muriel Barron and Bobbie Andrews, and veteran actress Zena Dare appeared in the piece as Charlotte Fayre. Sylvia Cecil was a replacement during the run. It is one of Novello's most successful works and enjoyed an original run of 1,022 performances and many subsequent tours and revivals. A 2011 revival at the Finborough Theatre, London, was the first professional production since the 1980s. The hit song of the show was "We'll Gather Lilacs".