Richard Armitage, ‘Me and My Girl’ Producer, Dies

Richard Armitage, producer of “Me and My Girl,” the hit revival of the musical composed by his father 49 years ago, has died.

Charles Armitage said his father, who also introduced David Frost to American audiences, died of a heart attack Monday at his country home in Essex County northeast of London. He was 58.

“Me and My Girl” was Armitage’s American producing debut. The $4-million show opened at the Los Angeles Music Center in June to rave reviews after first debuting in London in February, 1985. The production then went to Broadway in August. The British production won the 1985 Olivier Award for best musical of the year.

Armitage refashioned his father’s 1937 material for the modern era. But critics said the appeal of “Me and My Girl” was its recall of a pre-World War II innocence and its unabashed boy-gets-girl exuberance. One of its numbers, “The Lambeth Walk,” sparked an international dance craze.

The show is about a Cockney lad who inherits an earldom and made Robert Lindsay, the lead in London, Los Angeles and on Broadway, into a star.

Value as Spectacle

Armitage told the Associated Press in an April, 1985, interview that the appeal of “Me and My Girl” lay in its value as spectacle. “Audiences do not want to see small, cameo musicals. They want to see big sets, big costumes, a big orchestra,” he said.

At the time of his death, Armitage was producing a stage version of Cole Porter’s musical film “High Society,” which Porter had based on the film “The Philadelphia Story.”

Armitage introduced British personality David Frost to American audiences in the 1960s. Frost was a student when Armitage first saw him appearing with Cambridge University’s Footlights Review.

But by the time Armitage introduced him to America, Frost already was a big name in Britain through such shows as the weekly television satire program “That Was The Week That Was.”