A Chinese Honeymoon is a musical comedy in two acts by George Dance

George Dance (dramatist)

George Dance was an English lyricist and librettist in the 1890s and an important theatrical manager at the beginning of the 20th century....

, with music by Howard Talbot

Howard Talbot

Richard Lansdale Munkittrick, better known as Howard Talbot , was an American-born, English-raised conductor and composer of Irish descent...

 and additional music by Ivan Caryll

Ivan Caryll

Félix Marie Henri Tilkin , better known by his pen name Ivan Caryll, was a Belgian composer of operettas and Edwardian musical comedies in the English language...

 and others, and additional lyrics by Harry Greenbank

Harry Greenbank

Harry Greenbank was an English author and dramatist best known for contributing lyrics to the successful series musicals produced at Daly's Theatre by George Edwardes in the 1890s.-Life and career:...

 and others. One song that originated in the show was "Mister Dooley" which became famously associated with The Wizard of Oz for decades, when John Slavin

John Slavin

John Slavin was a Scottish football half back who played professionally in Scotland and in both the first and second American Soccer Leagues....

, in the title role, interpolated the song for much of the first year of its run. L. Frank Baum

L. Frank Baum

Lyman Frank Baum was an American author of children's books, best known for writing The Wonderful Wizard of Oz...

 even wrote an essay about it titled "The Real Mr. Dooley."

The piece opened at the Theatre Royal in Hanley, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 on 16 October 1899 and then toured extensively. After that, it played at the Royal Strand Theatre

Royal Strand Theatre

The Royal Strand Theatre was located in Strand in the City of Westminster. The theatre was built on the site of a panorama in 1832, and in 1882 was rebuilt by the prolific theatre architect Charles J. Phipps...

 in London, managed by Frank Curzon

Frank Curzon

Frank Curzon was an English actor who became an important theatre manager, leasing the Royal Strand Theatre, Avenue Theatre, Criterion Theatre, Comedy Theatre, Prince of Wales Theatre and Wyndham's Theatre, among others....

, opening on 5 October 1901 for an astonishing run of 1,075 performances. It also played at the Casino Theatre, in New York, opening on 2 June 1902 for a run of 376 performances. In London, Lily Elsie

Lily Elsie

Lily Elsie was a popular English actress and singer during the Edwardian era, best known for her starring role in the hit London premiere of Franz Lehár's operetta The Merry Widow....

 took over the role of Princess Soo-Soo from Beatrice Edwards in early 1903 and was in turn succeeded by Kate Cutler

Kate Cutler

Kate Ellen Louisa Cutler was an English singer and actress, known in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as an ingénue in musical comedies, and later as a character actress in comic and dramatic plays...

. It also starred Louie Freear, and Arthur Williams

Arthur Williams (actor)

Arthur Williams was an English actor, singer and playwright best remembered for his roles in comic operas, musical burlesques and Edwardian musical comedies...

 took over the role of Mr. Pineapple.

A Chinese Honeymoon was the first musical to run for 1,000 performances. The story concerns couples who honeymoon in China and inadvertently break the kissing laws (reminiscent of The Mikado

The Mikado

The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations...

).

Roles and original cast

• Hang Chow (Emperor of Ylang Ylang) – Picton Roxborough
• Chippee Chop (Lord Chancellor) – E. Boyd-Jones
• Hi Lung (Lord High Admiral) – Percy Clifton
• Tom Hatherton – Leslie Stiles
• Mr Pineapple – Lionel Rignold
• Florrie, Violet, Millie and Gertie (bridesmaids to Mrs P) – Fay Wentworth, Blanche Thorpe, Rosie Edwardes and Florence Burdett
• Mrs Brown (official mother-in-law) – M. A. Victor
• Yen Yen and Sing Sing (maids of honour to Soo Soo) – Jessica Lait and Fanny Wright
• Mi Mi (a waitress) – Madge Temple
• Soo Soo (the Emperor's niece) – Beatrice Edwards
• Mrs Pineapple – Marie Dainton
  Marie Dainton
  Marie Dainton was an actress of the Victorian and Edwardian eras who appeared regularly in both music halls and in the legitimate theatre.-Early career:...
  
  
• Fi Fi (waitress at the hotel)– Louie Freear

Synopsis

The Emperor seeks a bride who will marry him "for himself alone," so he despatches an English skipper, who has been promoted to the post of Lord High Admiral of the Chinese fleet, in search of such a woman. But the conditions are rather hard, for the high position of the Emperor is withheld, and the unlucky admiral has to pretend that he represents a billposter. The admiral returns from his quest without success. As a lingering death is the penalty of his failure it need hardly be said that he resorts to all sorts of expedients in order to avert the punishment. Some comical effects are obtained by making the abnormally tall Emperor think that he is betrothed to a diminutive "slavey" [a maid-of-all-work]. To these ingredients add a cockney tradesman married to a jealous wife who insists upon her four bridesmaids travelling with her for detective and protective purposes, a pair of young lovers, and quaint (even if imaginary) Chinese customs.

Musical numbers

Act I - The Gardens of the Hotel at Ylang Ylang.

• No. 1 - Opening Chorus - "In Ylang Ylang where the ruby river rolls its billows"
• No. 1a - Chorus Exit - "It's Roly Poly, Roly Poly, o'er the sea once more"
• No. 2 - Song - Soo-Soo & Chorus - "In the days of the ancient long ago in a quaint little Chinese town"
• No. 3 - Chorus - Entry of the Emperor, and Song - "Hail, hail, hail all hail!"
• No. 3a - Reprise for Exit - "And this is the hand that seeks a mate"
• No. 4 - Sextette - Mr. & Mrs. Pineapple & Bridesmaids - "Three months ago we stepp'd aboard a great big ocean ship"
• No. 5 - Song - Mrs. Pineapple & Chorus - "The à la girl is an English girl with lots of à la ways"
• No. 6 - Nursery Rhymes Sextette - Tom, Fi Fi, Hi Lung, Mrs. Brown, Yen Yen and Mr. Pine - "Sing a song of sixpence"
• No. 7 - Song - Fi Fi & Chorus - "I'm awfully partial to music, so I bought a piano one day"
• No. 8 - Finale Act I - "Gather, gather, man and maiden come with bridal blessings laden"

Act II - Room in the Emperor's Palace.

• No. 9 - Opening Chorus - "With weary hearts we wait about, the bride to greet"
• No. 10 - Song - Fi Fi & Chorus - "Some people sigh for beauty and some yearn for this and that"
• No. 11 - Song - Soo Soo & Chorus - "Dolly was a baby just as others may be, with a pair of eyes of blue"
• No. 12 - Song - Mr. Pineapple - "I dreamed a dream the other night, I thought that I had flown..."
• No. 13 - Octette - Emperor, Yen, Tom, Soo Soo, Mr. & Mrs. Pineapple, Fi Fi & Hi Lung - "There's nothing like a little pat"
• No. 14 - Chorus - "Welcome, official mother-in-law, let the cymbals clang"
• No. 15 - Duet - Soo Soo & Tom - "Along the way where lovers go the roses red are twining"
• No. 16 - Duet - Hi Lung & Mrs. Pineapple ("Marie") - "We'll give some little tit-bits from the plays"
• No. 17 - Duet - Emperor & Fi Fi - "Now once there was a Mandarin, who for a sweetheart yearn'd"
• No. 18 - Song - Fi Fi & Chorus - "You no doubt heard of the happy home where music is ador'd"
• No. 19 - Finale Act II - "For he is the bridegroom and she is the bride"

Supplementary items

• No. 20 - Sestet - Hang Chow, Mi Mi, Hi Lung, Yen Yen, Chippee, & Fi Fi - "The force of good example is a power beyond dispute"
• No. 21 - Song - "Maidee of Ohio" - "I'se a coloured lady and I've just come up to town"
• No. 22 - Song & Chorus (singer unspecified) - "While passing through the busy streets of busy London town"
• No. 23 - Cake Walk and Two-Step

External links

• Song list and links to Midi files, lyrics and cast list
• Theatre program and details
• Reviews, images and other information about the show
• List of longest running plays in London and New York
• http://www.library.unt.edu/theses/open/20032/hicks_william/thesis.pdfArticle comparing The Nautch Girl
  The Nautch Girl
  thumb|right|250px|Solomon , with Gilbert and Sullivan irate at his success at the SavoyThe Nautch Girl, or, The Rajah of Chutneypore is a comic opera in two acts, with a book by George Dance, lyrics by Dance and Frank Desprez and music by Edward Solomon...
  
  and Utopia Limited with other exotic-locale works, such as A Chinese Honeymoon, and analyzing the implications of the exotic settings as a reflection of British imperialism]
• Poster for A Chinese Honeymoon