Our Miss Gibbs - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Our Miss Gibbs is an Edwardian musical comedy

Edwardian Musical Comedy

Edwardian musical comedies were British musical theatre shows from the period between the early 1890s, when the Gilbert and Sullivan operas' dominance had ended, until the rise of the American musicals by Jerome Kern, Rodgers and Hart, George Gershwin and Cole Porter following World War I.Between...

in two acts by 'Cryptos' and James T. Tanner

James T. Tanner

James Tolman Tanner was an English stage director and dramatist who wrote many of the successful musicals produced by George Edwardes.-Life and career:...

, with lyrics by Adrian Ross

Adrian Ross

For the NFL player see Adrian Ross Arthur Reed Ropes , better known under the pseudonym Adrian Ross, was a prolific writer of lyrics, contributing songs to more than sixty British musical comedies in the late 19th and early 20th centuries...

and Percy Greenbank

Percy Greenbank

Percy Greenbank was an English lyricist, best known for his contribution of lyrics to a number of successful Edwardian musical comedies in the early years of the 20th century. His older brother, lyricist Harry Greenbank, had a brilliant career in the 1890s that was cut short by his death at the...

, 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 Lionel Monckton

Lionel Monckton

Lionel John Alexander Monckton was an English writer and composer of musical theatre. He was Britain's most popular musical theatre composer of the early years of the 20th century.-Early life:...

. Produced by George Edwardes

George Edwardes

George Joseph Edwardes was an English theatre manager of Irish ancestry who brought a new era in musical theatre to the British stage and beyond....

, it opened at the Gaiety Theatre

Gaiety Theatre, London

The Gaiety Theatre, London was a West End theatre in London, located on Aldwych at the eastern end of the Strand. The theatre was established as the Strand Musick Hall , in 1864 on the former site of the Lyceum Theatre. It was rebuilt several times, but closed from the beginning of World War II...

in London on 23 January 1909 and ran for an extremely successful 636 performances. It starred Gertie Millar

Gertie Millar

Gertrude "Gertie" Millar was one of the most famous English singer-actresses of the early 20th century, known for her performances in Edwardian musical comedies....

, Edmund Payne

Edmund Payne

Edmund Payne , was an actor, comedian, singer and dramatist best known for his comic appearances in Edwardian Musical Comedy. His father was Edmund Payne, a master cabinet builder and his mother was Eliza Payne née Ince....

and George Grossmith, Jr.

George Grossmith, Jr.

George Grossmith, Jr. was a British actor, theatre producer and manager, director, playwright and songwriter, best remembered for his work in and with Edwardian musical comedies...

The young Gladys Cooper

Gladys Cooper

Dame Gladys Constance Cooper, DBE was an English actress whose career spanned seven decades on stage, in films and on television....

played the small role of Lady Connie.

The show also had a short Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

run in 1910. It was revived at the Finborough Theatre

Finborough Theatre

The Finborough Theatre is a fifty seat theatre in the Earls Court area of London, United Kingdom , which presents new British writing, UK and premieres of new plays, primarily from the English speaking world including North America, Canada, Scotland and Ireland, music theatre, and rarely seen...

, London, in May 2006. This was the first professional London production since 1910. The piece was regularly revived by amateur theatre groups, particularly in Britain, from the 1920s into the 1950s but it has been produced only rarely since then. Our Miss Gibbs was revived by Lyric Theatre in July and August 2011 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts

Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts

The Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts is located in downtown Mountain View, California. It is operated by the City of Mountain View and hosts a variety of art events. Its home theatre companies include Peninsula Youth Theatre and TheatreWorks....

and the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek, California

Walnut Creek, California

Walnut Creek is an incorporated city located east of the city of Oakland. It lies in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. While not as large as neighboring Concord, Walnut Creek serves as the business and entertainment hub for the neighboring cities within central Contra Costa...

. The revival featured a cast of 22 and a 9-piece orchestra. http://www.lyrictheatre.org

Roles and original cast

The Hon. Hughie Pierrepoint (An Amateur Criminal) – George Grossmith, Jr.
George Grossmith, Jr.
George Grossmith, Jr. was a British actor, theatre producer and manager, director, playwright and songwriter, best remembered for his work in and with Edwardian musical comedies...
Slithers (A Professional Crook) – Robert Hale
Mr. Toplady (Manager at Garrod's) – Arthur Hatherton
Lord Eynsford (In Love with Mary) – J. Edward Fraser
Mr. Amalfy (The Director-General of the White City) – H. B. Burcher
Timothy Gibbs (Mary's Yorkshire Cousin) – Edmund Payne
Edmund Payne
Edmund Payne , was an actor, comedian, singer and dramatist best known for his comic appearances in Edwardian Musical Comedy. His father was Edmund Payne, a master cabinet builder and his mother was Eliza Payne née Ince....
Lady Elizabeth Thanet (Engaged to Lord Eynsford) – Denise Orme
Madame Jeanne (Modiste at Garrod's) – Jean Aylwin
Mrs. Farquhar (An Impecunious Woman of Fashion) – Maisie Gay
Lady Connie – Gladys Cooper
Gladys Cooper
Dame Gladys Constance Cooper, DBE was an English actress whose career spanned seven decades on stage, in films and on television....
Miss Gibbs (Mary) – Gertie Millar
Gertie Millar
Gertrude "Gertie" Millar was one of the most famous English singer-actresses of the early 20th century, known for her performances in Edwardian musical comedies....

Synopsis

Act I
Mary Gibbs is a Yorkshire

Yorkshire

Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...

lass who, in 1908, has found work at Garrods in London as a shop girl, selling candy. The young men are making themselves ill eating the sweets they buy to gain the attention of the beautiful, but no-nonsense Mary, who disapproves of their attempts at familiarity. Miss Gibbs has fallen in love with a young bank clerk who is actually the son of an Earl, Lord Eynsford, in disguise. His father would not consent to his marrying a shop girl. When she discovers that young Eynsford has lied to her, she breaks up with him.

Mary's cousin Timothy travels from Yorkshire to play in the town band for a contest at the Crystal Palace. He is a very unsophisticated country boy, and he has a variety of humorous big city adventures. Timothy gets entangled in a crime by mistakenly picking up a bag. Inside the bag is the Ascot Gold Cup

Ascot Gold Cup

The Gold Cup is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain open to thoroughbreds aged four years or older. It is run at Ascot over a distance of 2 miles and 4 furlongs , and it is scheduled to take place each year in June....

(the trophy for Britain’s most prestigious long-distance horse race). The cup has just been stolen by the Hon. Hughie Pierrepoint.

Act II
At the Franco-British Exhibition

Franco-British Exhibition (1908)

The Franco-British Exhibition was a large public fair held in London in the early years of the 20th Century. The exhibition attracted 8 million visitors and celebrated the Entente Cordiale signed in 1904 by the United Kingdom and France....

in White City, Timothy worries that the police will find him and accuse him of the crime. He disguises himself as a contestant in the Olympic marathon race. When he staggers into the stadium, he is mistakenly declared to be the winner. The Gold Cup is eventually recovered and returned to its owner, who is coincidentally Lord Eynsford. He is now so enchanted with Mary that he is eager for her to become his daughter-in-law, and all ends happily.

Musical numbers

Act I - Garrod's Stores

No. 1 - Chorus - "We'll be quick and do our shopping..."
No. 2 - Eynsford - "There's a girl at the stores called Mary..."
No. 3 - Bridesmaids - "We're the dear little ladies, selected..."
No. 4 - Jeanne and Chorus of Girls - "Some people say success is won..."
No. 5 - Betty - "Though I am not so unwilling..."
No. 6 - Dudes - "A fashionable band of brothers are we..."
No. 7 - Mary and Chorus of Dudes - "I'm a little Yorkshire lass..."
No. 8 - Hughie and Chorus - "Though I'm a man of noble birth..."
No. 9 - Mary and Timothy - "When the season's on the wane..."
No. 10 - Mary and Hughie - "I will confess that as a man..."
No. 11 - Concerted Number - "There's a City of palaces white..."
No. 12 - Finale - Act I - "Saturday afternoon..."

Act II - Court of Honour at the Franco-British Exhibition

No. 13 - Chorus and Entrance of Irish Girls - "Palaces oriental..."
No. 14 - Mary - "Oh, London is really a wonderful town..."
No. 15 - Hughie, Toplady, Slithers, Amalfy, Eynsford and Timothy - "Though something has upset me..."
No. 16 - Betty and Chorus - "I am sure your education is not complete..."
No. 17 - Concerted Number - "Push the pram for baby..."
No. 18 - Mary and Timothy - "I'd like to tell you all about the farm..."
No. 19 - Chorus and Solo Dance - "Over the dome and steeple..."
No. 20 - Mary (dressed as Pierrot
Pierrot
Pierrot is a stock character of pantomime and Commedia dell'Arte whose origins are in the late 17th-century Italian troupe of players performing in Paris and known as the Comédie-Italienne; the name is a hypocorism of Pierre , via the suffix -ot. His character in postmodern popular culture—in...

) and Chorus of Girls - "Moon, moon, mischief making moon..."
No. 21 - Hughie and Timothy - "If you'll come down to my place..."
No. 22 - Finale - Act II - "When country cousins come up to town..."

External links

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