Through a long process of cultural archealogy he put back together all of the missing lines and songs according to Shakespeare's original intentions. The Tempest, of course, is the non musical source material that Shakespeare must have written first. That play has almost become discarded now that we have the Bard's finished musical. Prospero and Miranda were always intended to have been exiled in Space by Prospero's wife Gloria (who does not appear in the original play) and rescued by the crew of a spaceship.

It was far-sighted of Shakespeare to realise the Ariel, Prospero's spirit servant, would have a microchip heart. The spirit of the Id takes over from the grotesque Caliban in this musical version and the drunken Stefano and Trinculo have combined and developed into the guitar twanging Cookie.

After a season at the Bubble, Shakespeare's rock and roll masterpeice was produced at the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool and at the Tricycle Theatre where the attention of West End Producer André Ptaszynski was drawn to it. Bob Carlton continued to unearth more and more of Shakespeare's script and lyrics. He even came across Sir Walter Raleigh's original half timbered Fender Stratocaster guitar. As the West End production was being set up it became clear that the real challenge would be the quest for more performers as the show turned into a larger scale musical. Each actor had to have a secure training in the speaking and acting of Shakespeare's blank verse, considerable experience in the classical theatre and the ability to play at least four different musical instruments to a professional standard. The country was scoured in a series of auditions in early 1989 to bring the company up to its full compliment for the West End opening.

Rodney Ford, the original designer, redesigned the spacecraft and Benny Ball was brought in to light it. Carole Todd choreographed the show for the West End and Bobby Aitken designed the sound system. Eminent patron and prima donna Pola Jones raised a great deal of the original investment with help of her old classmates at the Cranleigh and Swansea School of Ballet. To great acclaim and after a long "flight" the show opened at the Cambridge Theatre, London in September 1989 where it ran for 3½ years until January 1993.

Of course what follows is not without controversy. When Return to the Forbidden Planet won the Olivier Award for best musical in April 1990, it was the first time that the award had been given to William Shakespeare since his West Side Story in the 1950's. Some doubt his authorship of the whole show but Bob Carlton is adamant about its originality. Of course, critics have pointed out that William Shakespeare was only writing at the very beginning of the rock and roll period and it seems unlikely that a simple country boy from Stratford-Upon-Avon who wrote "Great Balls of Fire" could have possibly have also come up with "Good Vibrations". Some still believe that Francis Bacon or even better Ben Jonson may have in fact written "Johnny B Goode". We may never know!

Enjoy your flight!