A man who was coaxed out of a coma by songs from the Broadway musical Mack & Mabel is saying thank you by helping to finance a new London production.
John Flynn, 70, a marketing executive from London Bridge, suffered severe internal bleeding during a heart bypass operation in March. He was left in a coma after being operated on three times in 24 hours.
His wife Bea and sons Matthew, 34, and Ben, 32, tried to muster a response from him by playing his favourite music on an iPod. He said: “One of my sons played some Mozart and it looked like I was coming out of it, so they said, ‘What shall we play him now?’
“My wife suggested Mack & Mabel, and my feet started moving — I was tap dancing on the end of the bed. Then my hand started going. Whatever it was, I woke up after six days. I was out of hospital three weeks later.”
Mr Flynn, who is the Master of the Worshipful Company of Marketors, invests in West End productions. He was contacted by a producer of an off-West End musical — which he does not usually invest in — and was about to turn it down until he heard it was Mack & Mabel.
He said: “All I could say was, ‘How much do you want?’ ”
The production follows the relationship of Hollywood director Mack Sennett and silent movie star Mabel Normand and has just opened at the Southwark Playhouse. Mr Flynn said: “It’s tremendously entertaining, and I suppose I owe my life to its music.”
