Mr. Cinders
Encyclopedia
Mr. Cinders is a musical. The music is by Vivian Ellis
& Richard Myers
, and the libretto
by Clifford Grey
& Greatorex Newman. The story is an inversion of the Cinderella fairy tale with the gender roles reversed. The Prince Charming
character has become a modern (1928) young and forceful woman, and Mr. Cinders is a menial. The show captures the last frantic gasps of the roaring twenties
before the gloom of the Great Depression
settled in.
After a tryout in Blackpool in September 1928 and three month provincial tour, the musical opened in London at the Adelphi Theatre
on 11 February 1929 and moved to the London Hippodrome on 15 July 1929. It ran for 528 performances. It starred Bobby Howes
and Binnie Hale
, and became a signature piece especially for Howes. The musical had immediate international success in continental Europe and elsewhere. A revival took place at the Streatham Hill Theatre in April 1930, and the show was adapted for film in 1934.
The show was revived at the Fortune Theatre
in April, 1983 with Denis Lawson
in the title role and ran for 527 performances. When Lawson left the show Lonnie Donegan
took over the part, quickly followed by Lionel Blair
, but without Lawson the show soon folded.
Goodspeed Opera House revived the piece in 1988. It was also revived in 1996 by the Shaw Festival
, and again in 2009 by the theatre group of Emerson Jr./Sr. High School in Emerson, NJ.
The currently available professional score is for: 2 pianos, cello and single woodwind player alternating between flute and soprano saxophone. There is no conductor's score showing all the parts. 1st piano is the basic accompanying instrument although the part does not entirely suffice on its own; 2nd piano tends to play mostly decorative jazzy arabesques over the foundation of the first piano although it does (inconveniently) sometimes carry essential tune fragments; the cello part is melodic and is not a bass line; the woodwind part can be easily and effectively played on the clarinet, the few flute parts being transposed by the player. The score is stylistically something along the lines of a cross between Billy Meyerl and George Gershwin and in fact a melody fragment from Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue is quoted within the 20th Century Drag.
Jim keeps his spirits high, with the philosophy that one should Spread a Little Happiness
. Jill is an American heiress who lives next door at a stately home, The Towers, with her wealthy father Henry Kemp and her cousin Minerva (who, like Jim, is the poor relation of her family).
When Guy is credited with saving Henry from drowning (a task which Jim actually accomplished, unbeknownst to anyone but him and Guy), all at Merton Chase are invited to a costume ball at The Towers, but Jim is not allowed to attend. Jill, meanwhile, has disguised herself as a servant girl, Sarah Jones, in order to hide from a police officer who has accused her of physical assault on him. Minerva pretends to be Jill, and every man at Merton Chase is captivated by her beauty.
Jim, with the help of Jill, crashes the ball disguised as a famous South American explorer, the Earl of Ditcham. Lumley reveals that Jim is an imposter. Also, Jill's priceless necklace is found in Jim's pocket, leading everyone at the ball to believe that he stole it. Jill helps Jim escape, and they capture Smith the butler, the real thief, and leave him tied up for the authorities to arrest. After the ball, a hat is found that belongs to the valiant person who captured the thief (instead of the glass slipper). A search for the owner shows that it fits only Jim. He wins the £1,000 reward and learns that the maid "Sarah" is actually Jill, and she and Jim agree to get married. Lumley and Guy, meanwhile, announce their engagements to Minerva and Phyllis, respectively. All ends happily.
The numbers in the 1983 revival were:
Vivian Ellis
Vivian Ellis was an English musical comedy composer best known for the song "Spread a Little Happiness" and the theme "Coronation Scot".-Life and work:...
& Richard Myers
Richard Myers (songwriter)
Richard Myers was a songwriter.Together with Jack Lawrence he wrote "Hold My Hand," which was nominated for the 1954 Academy Award for Best Song....
, and the libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
by Clifford Grey
Clifford Grey
Clifford Grey was an English songwriter, actor, librettist and Olympic medalist. His birth name was Percival Davis, and he was also known as Clifford Gray, Tippi Gray, Tippi Grey, Tippy Gray and Tippy Grey.As a writer, Grey contributed prolifically to West End and Broadway shows, as librettist and...
& Greatorex Newman. The story is an inversion of the Cinderella fairy tale with the gender roles reversed. The Prince Charming
Prince Charming
Prince Charming is a stock character who appears in a number of fairy tales. He is the prince who comes to rescue of the damsel in distress, and stereotypically, must engage in a quest to liberate her from an evil spell...
character has become a modern (1928) young and forceful woman, and Mr. Cinders is a menial. The show captures the last frantic gasps of the roaring twenties
Roaring Twenties
The Roaring Twenties is a phrase used to describe the 1920s, principally in North America, but also in London, Berlin and Paris for a period of sustained economic prosperity. The phrase was meant to emphasize the period's social, artistic, and cultural dynamism...
before the gloom of the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
settled in.
After a tryout in Blackpool in September 1928 and three month provincial tour, the musical opened in London at the Adelphi Theatre
Adelphi Theatre
The Adelphi Theatre is a 1500-seat West End theatre, located on the Strand in the City of Westminster. The present building is the fourth on the site. The theatre has specialised in comedy and musical theatre, and today it is a receiving house for a variety of productions, including many musicals...
on 11 February 1929 and moved to the London Hippodrome on 15 July 1929. It ran for 528 performances. It starred Bobby Howes
Bobby Howes
Bobby Howes, born as Charles Robert William Howes on 4 August 1895 in Battersea, England. His parents were Robert William Howes and Rose Marie Butler.- Biography :...
and Binnie Hale
Binnie Hale
Binnie Hale was an English actress and musician. Both her father, Robert Hale and younger brother, Sonnie Hale were actors. She married West End actor Jack Raine, with whom she had one daughter....
, and became a signature piece especially for Howes. The musical had immediate international success in continental Europe and elsewhere. A revival took place at the Streatham Hill Theatre in April 1930, and the show was adapted for film in 1934.
The show was revived at the Fortune Theatre
Fortune Theatre
The Fortune Theatre is a 432 seat West End theatre in Russell Street, near Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster, built in 1922-4 by Ernest Schaufelberg for impresario Laurence Cowen. The façade is principally bush hammered concrete, with brick piers supporting the roof...
in April, 1983 with Denis Lawson
Denis Lawson
Denis Stamper Lawson is a Scottish actor and director. He is known for his roles as John Jarndyce in the BBC's adaptation of Bleak House and as Gordon Urquhart in the film Local Hero, but is best known for playing the part of Wedge Antilles in the original Star Wars trilogy.-Early life:Lawson was...
in the title role and ran for 527 performances. When Lawson left the show Lonnie Donegan
Lonnie Donegan
Anthony James "Lonnie" Donegan MBE was a skiffle musician, with more than 20 UK Top 30 hits to his name. He is known as the "King of Skiffle" and is often cited as a large influence on the generation of British musicians who became famous in the 1960s...
took over the part, quickly followed by Lionel Blair
Lionel Blair
Lionel Blair is a British actor, choreographer, tap dancer and television presenter. He is the son of Myer Ogus and Deborah Greenbaum...
, but without Lawson the show soon folded.
Goodspeed Opera House revived the piece in 1988. It was also revived in 1996 by the Shaw Festival
Shaw Festival
The Shaw Festival is a major Canadian theatre festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, the second largest repertory theatre company in North America...
, and again in 2009 by the theatre group of Emerson Jr./Sr. High School in Emerson, NJ.
The currently available professional score is for: 2 pianos, cello and single woodwind player alternating between flute and soprano saxophone. There is no conductor's score showing all the parts. 1st piano is the basic accompanying instrument although the part does not entirely suffice on its own; 2nd piano tends to play mostly decorative jazzy arabesques over the foundation of the first piano although it does (inconveniently) sometimes carry essential tune fragments; the cello part is melodic and is not a bass line; the woodwind part can be easily and effectively played on the clarinet, the few flute parts being transposed by the player. The score is stylistically something along the lines of a cross between Billy Meyerl and George Gershwin and in fact a melody fragment from Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue is quoted within the 20th Century Drag.
Synopsis
Jim is the adopted and abused son of Sir George Lancaster and his snobbish and cruel wife, Lady Agatha Lancaster, the widow of Sir General Bloodwing Beardsley. Jim works as a menial at Merton Chase, their elegant home. Lady Agatha dominates her weak husband and plots to marry her two foppish sons, Lumley and Guy (from her previous marriage) to wealthy girls, since the Lancasters have lost their fortune. Guy, however, is in love with a woman named Phyllis Patterson, whom Agatha rejects because of her lack of money.Jim keeps his spirits high, with the philosophy that one should Spread a Little Happiness
Spread a Little Happiness
Spread a Little Happiness is a song by English musical comedy composer Vivian Ellis from his 1929 musical Mr. Cinders. Ellis was suffering from a fever of 103 degrees when he wrote this song. In the original production it was sung by Bobby Howes as Jim, but Binnie Hale was the singer on the 78...
. Jill is an American heiress who lives next door at a stately home, The Towers, with her wealthy father Henry Kemp and her cousin Minerva (who, like Jim, is the poor relation of her family).
When Guy is credited with saving Henry from drowning (a task which Jim actually accomplished, unbeknownst to anyone but him and Guy), all at Merton Chase are invited to a costume ball at The Towers, but Jim is not allowed to attend. Jill, meanwhile, has disguised herself as a servant girl, Sarah Jones, in order to hide from a police officer who has accused her of physical assault on him. Minerva pretends to be Jill, and every man at Merton Chase is captivated by her beauty.
Jim, with the help of Jill, crashes the ball disguised as a famous South American explorer, the Earl of Ditcham. Lumley reveals that Jim is an imposter. Also, Jill's priceless necklace is found in Jim's pocket, leading everyone at the ball to believe that he stole it. Jill helps Jim escape, and they capture Smith the butler, the real thief, and leave him tied up for the authorities to arrest. After the ball, a hat is found that belongs to the valiant person who captured the thief (instead of the glass slipper). A search for the owner shows that it fits only Jim. He wins the £1,000 reward and learns that the maid "Sarah" is actually Jill, and she and Jim agree to get married. Lumley and Guy, meanwhile, announce their engagements to Minerva and Phyllis, respectively. All ends happily.
Musical numbers
The musical numbers in the 1929 version were:- True to Two – Lumley
- I'm a One Man Girl – Jill, Jim
- On with the Dance – Minerva (Lumley's girlfriend)
- "Spread a Little HappinessSpread a Little HappinessSpread a Little Happiness is a song by English musical comedy composer Vivian Ellis from his 1929 musical Mr. Cinders. Ellis was suffering from a fever of 103 degrees when he wrote this song. In the original production it was sung by Bobby Howes as Jim, but Binnie Hale was the singer on the 78...
" – Jim - Buda-Pest –
- She's My Lovely – Kemp
- Ev'ry Little Moment – Minerva, Lumley
- I've Got You, You've Got Me – Jill, Jim
- I'm On a See-Saw –
- The Swan – (instrumental)
The numbers in the 1983 revival were:
- Tennis - Lady Lancaster, Guy, Lumley & Ensemble
- Blue Blood - Lady Lancaster, Guy, Lumley & Ensemble
- True To Two - Lumley, Enid, & Cynthia
- I Want The World To Know - Guy & Phyllis
- One-Man Girl - Jim & Jill
- On With the Dance - Minerva, Lumley, Guy & Ensemble
- Dying Swan - Instrumental
- At The Ball - Jim, Guy, Lumley
- Spread A Little Happiness - Jim
- Spread A Little Happiness (Reprise) - Jill
- The 18th Century Drag - Minerva
- On The Amazon - Jim
- 18th Century Drag (Reprise) - Jim, Sir George & Ensemble
- Please, Mr. Cinders - Jill
- She's My Lovely - Henry
- Every Little Moment - Minerva & Lumley
- I've Got You - Jim & Jill
- Honeymoon For Four - Guy, Phyllis, Lumley & Minerva
- Spread a Little Happiness (Finale) - Full Cast (minus Lady Lancaster)