The Story
The greatest danger in life is not to take the adventure.
So said George Mallory and his words echo back from a bygone era - presenting a timeless challenge to us all, no matter what our individual goals and aspirations might be. Like Mallory, we can all strive to achieve our One Great Moment in Time.
Listen to show's finale One Great Moment In Time - sung by the creator of the show.
George Mallory
(on Everest)
Bringing Mallory's story alive in the form of a musical has been an honor and we are excited to now present it to adventurous West-End and Broadway producers.
Just a little backstory about George ...
After graduating from Cambridge, Mallory pursued a career as a history teacher at Charterhouse School in England. Then came the slaughter and mayhem of WWI, during which he fought at the front and was separated from his wife and children for a total of eighteen months. Like so many young men during this time, he never knew if he would come back home alive from each deployment. Luckily, he survived and returned to his teaching position at Charterhouse, but he soon realized that his quest for extreme adventure could not be tamed.
The Quest
Mallory became one of Britain's finest post-WWI rock climbers and mountaineers, and when spurred-on by his friend and mentor, Geoffrey Winthrop Young, to accept the offer of a place on the 1921 Everest Reconnaissance Expedition, the temptation proved too much to resist.
George and his wife Ruth Turner
Act One
On March 2, 1924 - and with two unsuccessful expeditions behind him - Act One ends with George boarding a ship in Liverpool (see below) that would take him to India and the starting point for his third trek to the foot of the mountain that had obsessed him for so long.
Just before he boarded, he promised his wife Ruth that this would be his last attempt. He also said that if successful, he would place her photo (that he always carried with him) on top of the world.
Ruth Mallory
The photo that George said he
would leave on top of Everest
Act Two
Climbing into uncharted territory is always challenging. Apart from the comparatively
primitive clothing that was available back in the 1920s, what made getting to the top of
the world especially difficult was the extreme altitude and weather conditions. A ritual blessing by the Tibetan monks of Rongbuk monastery (below) served to lessen the fears of the Sherpa porters who are an indispensable part of any Everest expedition - both then and now.
Click on button above to play music from Rongbuk monastery scene
The climbing sequences in the second act of the musical are spectacular and breathtaking and give an audience a realistic, multi-sensory theatrical experience, of what it was like for these early Everest pioneers to take on this wildest of dreams.
George Mallory (on top) climbing up the North Col ... like a spider!
Mallory (Left) and his climbing partner, Sandy Irvine (Right)
(Photo taken just before they set off for their fateful summit attempt in 1924)
The Discovery
When Mallory's almost perfectly preserved body was eventually discovered on the mountain in
1999, no photo was found . . . and thus the mystery remains. Did he conquer his mountain of dreams? Whether he did or not, Mallory's spirit lives on triumphantly in the hearts of those who dare to take the adventure.
