Table Of ContentMusical Comedy on the West End Stage, 1890–1939
Also by Len Platt
JOYCE AND THE ANGLO-IRISH (1998)
ARISTOCRACIES OF FICTION: The Idea of Aristocracy in Late Nineteenth- and
Early Twentieth-Century Literature (2001)
MUSICAL THEATRE AND AMERICAN CULTURE (with Dave Walsh, 2003)
Musical Comedy on the
West End Stage, 1890–1939
Len Platt
© Len Platt 2004
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2004 978-1-4039-3225-9
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First published 2004 by
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PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave
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ISBN 978-1-349-51592-9 ISBN 978-0-230-51268-9 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230512689
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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Platt,Len.
Musical comedy on the West End stage,1890–1939 / Len Platt.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p.) and index.
ISBN 978-1-349-51592-9
1.Musicals—Social aspects—England—London.2.West End (London,
England) I.Title.
ML3918.M87P55 2004
782.1’4’09421—dc22 2003066379
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04
This book is dedicated to Nell Platt and Lizzie Rebbeck
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
List of Illustrations viii
Preface ix
1 Themes and Approaches 1
2 Our Sickly Age’s End – Musical Comedy and Modernity 26
3 Chin Chin Chinaman – Doing Other Cultures 59
4 Aristocracy and the Cultural Politics of Modernity 83
5 Interventions in the Politics of Gender and Sexuality 104
6 The Decline of West End Musical Comedy, 1912–1939 126
Appendices 152
1 Selected British Musical Comedies, 1892–1920
(London, West End) 154
2 Selected ‘Imported’ Musical Comedy, 1898–1920
(London, West End) 166
3 Selected Musical Comedies, 1921–1939
(London, West End) 172
Notes 178
Bibliography 195
Index 200
vii
List of Illustrations
1 Musical comedy, modernity and the department store
(Our Miss Gibbs) 5
2 ‘Marjorie Maxwell as the genuine Madame Alvarez
featured a huge leopard skin muff’ (The Pearl Girl) 35
3 Mr Robert Courtneidge’s staging of the destruction
of Tokyo by earthquake (The Mousmé) 36
4 Arcadia – a pre-modern idyll (The Arcadians) 50
5 Arcadia reproduced in a London restaurant (The Arcadians) 53
6 ‘Wardour Street Orientalism’ (The Mousmé) 67
7 Mr Huntley Palmer as Chambhuddy Ram (The Cingalee) 71
8 ‘Womanhood incarnate’ (Our Miss Gibbs) 105
9 The spectacle of the feminine (Our Miss Gibbs) 107
10 Twopenny postcards: the commercial exploitation
of the feminine (Gabrielle Ray) 122
The publishers and author wish to state that they have made every effort
to contact the copyright holders of material reproduced in this text. If,
however, any have been overlooked, the publishers will be pleased to
make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity.
viii
Preface
The origins of this book can be traced very precisely to my cousin, Alan
Rebbeck. That so much of this preface should be given over to an expla-
nation of his part in things is an indication of his importance in this
respect. Now in his mid-sixties, Alan has worked in the theatre all his
life, in both America (he lived in New York for many years) and England
where, in the 1960s, a highlight of his career was playing alongside John
Mills in a very successful West End adaptation of J. B. Priestley’s The
Good Companions. This show marked the apex of a relatively brief but
exciting trajectory. Thereafter, Alan worked a great deal in theatre, film
and television, but the early promise of fame and fortune was never
entirely fulfilled.
Alan has a particular fascination with early West End musical comedy,
which goes back to his childhood. One of the first pieces of music he
recalls noticing seriously was an old recording of the Edwardian musical
comedyThe Arcadians; he would have been about ten years old when he
first heard it. This started a long relationship with a culture that in the
1950s was already well beyond the out-of-date. Under the pervasive
influence of American styling and energy, West End musical comedy
was virtually dead before my cousin was born. The only place where it
continued to enjoy any kind of presence was in the world of suburban
amateur, or ‘pro-am’, dramatics. Here a few of the old shows remained
on the repertoires. Indeed, as a young aspiring actor, Alan had played in
such productions at the Royal Artillery Theatre, Woolwich. He once
appeared in A Country Girl, for instance, originally a vehicle for one of
musical comedy’s big stars, Evie Greene, and, in a production a few years
later, for an even bigger star – Gertie Millar. He also appeared in The
Arcadiansand several productions of the First World War hit, Chu Chin
Chow. This, then, was an intimate relationship, but with a culture that
was, by my cousin’s account, sadly neglected and well on the way to
becoming forgotten outside a small circle of enthusiasts.
My introduction to musical comedy, just a few years ago, was by way
of Alan’s admiration for this material, significantly enabled by his large
collection of theatre literature and memorabilia. Of particular interest
here were the old Victorian and Edwardian playgoers’ magazines, espe-
ciallyThe Play Pictorial. Each edition of this gem, which continued to be
published through the 1920s and 1930s, begins with perhaps ten pages
ix
