Primrose (musical)
Encyclopedia
Primrose is a musical
in three acts with a book by Guy Bolton
and George Grossmith Jr., lyrics by Desmond Carter
and Ira Gershwin
, and music by George Gershwin
. It centers on a writer whose story-within-a-story forms the basis of the plot. It was written expressly for the London
stage, where it ran for 255 performances in 1924 and 1925. The musical was not performed in the United States until more than half a century after it was written.
George Gershwin, at 25 years old, was an established songwriter by 1924 when Grossmith and his producing partners, J. A. E. Malone and Edward Laurillard
, hired him to produce the score for Primrose for them in London. The musical is the first in which Gershwin wrote some of the orchestrations himself. The year was one of the busiest for Gershwin, as it also included his Rhapsody in Blue
and two other musicals. Gershwin's score, and the book by Bolton are old-fashioned for their time, with more in common with the frothy Edwardian musical comedies than with the later Gershwin musicals. Nevertheless, Desmond Carter's witty lyrics and the show's farcical book have been praised by reviewers, while Gershwin's score has been compared with Gilbert and Sullivan
.
. It opened at the Winter Garden Theatre
in London on 11 September 1924 only two months before the Gershwins’ Lady, Be Good! debuted on Broadway
. The cast featured comedian Leslie Henson
and also included Margery Hicklin, Claude Hulbert
, Heather Thatcher
and Percy Heming. The musical director was John Ansell, the director, Charles A. Maynard and the choreographer, Laddie Cliff.
The show was not brought to Broadway, where it would have competed with Lady, Be Good!. In fact, the American première of Primrose did not take place until 1987, when a concert production at the Coolidge Auditorium of the Library of Congress was given together with another Gershwin score, Pardon My English (1933), both conducted by John McGlinn. Soloists included Rebecca Luker
and Kim Criswell
. The next performance in North America
was not until 2003, when Musicals Tonight! presented a series of staged concerts at the 14th Street YMCA in New York City
's Greenwich Village
, with dialogue, directed by Thomas Mills
and starring Gavin Esham, Cristin Mortenson and Brynn O'Malley.
Extensive excerpts from the score were recorded with original 1924 cast members conducted by Ansell, and have been re-released on CD.
P. G. Wodehouse
rewrote the lyric of 'When Toby is out of Town' as 'The Twenties are Here to Stay', interpolated into a 1960 revival of Gershwin's Oh, Kay!
In their joint memoir Bring on the Girls!, Wodehouse and Bolton relate a story about Grossmith holding auditions for Primrose:
The romance of Toby and Pinkie is impeded by Toby’s second thoughts after rashly proposing; he enlists Hilary's help, getting him to pretend to woo Pinkie so that so Toby can catch them in flagrante and break off the engagement. However, Joan also catches Hilary wooing Pinkie. During an eventful dance sequence, Toby overcomes his reluctance to marry, Sir Barnaby gives way, and all three couples are free to marry.
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
in three acts with a book by Guy Bolton
Guy Bolton
Guy Reginald Bolton was a British-American playwright and writer of musical comedies. Born in England and educated in France and the U.S., he trained as an architect but turned to writing. Bolton preferred working in collaboration with others, principally the English writers P. G...
and George Grossmith Jr., lyrics by Desmond Carter
Desmond Carter
Herbert Desmond Carter was a British lyricist who worked with George and Ira Gershwin, Ivor Novello, and others, and also wrote one of the first English language versions of the notorious "suicide song", "Gloomy Sunday"....
and Ira Gershwin
Ira Gershwin
Ira Gershwin was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs of the 20th century....
, and music by George Gershwin
George Gershwin
George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known...
. It centers on a writer whose story-within-a-story forms the basis of the plot. It was written expressly for the London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
stage, where it ran for 255 performances in 1924 and 1925. The musical was not performed in the United States until more than half a century after it was written.
George Gershwin, at 25 years old, was an established songwriter by 1924 when Grossmith and his producing partners, J. A. E. Malone and Edward Laurillard
Edward Laurillard
Edward Laurillard was a cinema and theatre producer in London and New York during the first third of the 20th century...
, hired him to produce the score for Primrose for them in London. The musical is the first in which Gershwin wrote some of the orchestrations himself. The year was one of the busiest for Gershwin, as it also included his Rhapsody in Blue
Rhapsody in Blue
Rhapsody in Blue is a musical composition by George Gershwin for solo piano and jazz band written in 1924, which combines elements of classical music with jazz-influenced effects....
and two other musicals. Gershwin's score, and the book by Bolton are old-fashioned for their time, with more in common with the frothy Edwardian musical comedies than with the later Gershwin musicals. Nevertheless, Desmond Carter's witty lyrics and the show's farcical book have been praised by reviewers, while Gershwin's score has been compared with Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
.
Production history
Primrose was produced by Grossmith and J. A. E. Malone, who wanted to follow up on their earlier successes composed by Jerome KernJerome Kern
Jerome David Kern was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in over 100 stage works, including such classics as "Ol' Man River", "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man", "A...
. It opened at the Winter Garden Theatre
New London Theatre
The New London Theatre is a West End theatre located on the corner of Drury Lane and Parker Street in Covent Garden, in the London Borough of Camden...
in London on 11 September 1924 only two months before the Gershwins’ Lady, Be Good! debuted on 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...
. The cast featured comedian Leslie Henson
Leslie Henson
Leslie Lincoln Henson was an English comedian, actor, producer for films and theatre, and film director. He initially worked in silent films and Edwardian musical comedy and became a popular music hall comedian who enjoyed a long stage career...
and also included Margery Hicklin, Claude Hulbert
Claude Hulbert
Claude Noel Hulbert was a British comic actor. He was the younger brother of Jack Hulbert. Like his brother, he was Cambridge educated and was a member of the Footlights comedy club as an undergraduate....
, Heather Thatcher
Heather Thatcher
Heather Thatcher was an English actress in theatre and motion pictures. She was from London.-Dancer:By 1922 Thatcher was a dancer. She was especially noted for her interpretation of an Egyptian harem dance. Her exotic clothes were designed in Russia. They featured stencil slits in the waist,...
and Percy Heming. The musical director was John Ansell, the director, Charles A. Maynard and the choreographer, Laddie Cliff.
The show was not brought to Broadway, where it would have competed with Lady, Be Good!. In fact, the American première of Primrose did not take place until 1987, when a concert production at the Coolidge Auditorium of the Library of Congress was given together with another Gershwin score, Pardon My English (1933), both conducted by John McGlinn. Soloists included Rebecca Luker
Rebecca Luker
Rebecca Luker is an American musical theatre actress and soprano who has appeared in several prominent Broadway productions.-Life and career:...
and Kim Criswell
Kim Criswell
Kim Criswell is an American musical entertainer and actress.- Life and career :Criswell was born in Hampton, Virginia, but grew up in Chattanooga, Tennessee. After she graduated from high school, she studied musical theatre at the University of Cincinnati's College Conservatory of Music...
. The next performance in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
was not until 2003, when Musicals Tonight! presented a series of staged concerts at the 14th Street YMCA in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
's Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
, with dialogue, directed by Thomas Mills
Thomas Mills
Thomas Wesley Mills , generally referred to as T. Wesley Mills in the scientific literature, was a Canadian physician and physiologist who worked as a professor at McGill University...
and starring Gavin Esham, Cristin Mortenson and Brynn O'Malley.
Extensive excerpts from the score were recorded with original 1924 cast members conducted by Ansell, and have been re-released on CD.
P. G. Wodehouse
P. G. Wodehouse
Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE was an English humorist, whose body of work includes novels, short stories, plays, poems, song lyrics, and numerous pieces of journalism. He enjoyed enormous popular success during a career that lasted more than seventy years and his many writings continue to be...
rewrote the lyric of 'When Toby is out of Town' as 'The Twenties are Here to Stay', interpolated into a 1960 revival of Gershwin's Oh, Kay!
Oh, Kay!
Oh, Kay! is a musical with music by George Gershwin, lyrics by Ira Gershwin, and a book by Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse. It is based on the play La Presidente by Maurice Hanniquin and Pierre Veber. The plot revolves around the adventures of the Duke of Durham and his sister, Lady Kay, English...
In their joint memoir Bring on the Girls!, Wodehouse and Bolton relate a story about Grossmith holding auditions for Primrose:
Plot summary
Primrose consists of three interconnected love stories about Freddie and May, Hilary and Joan, and Toby and Pinkie. Freddie is reluctantly engaged to his cousin Joan, but falls in love with May. Joan, a naive, pretty young socialite, loves Hilary, a successful author of romantic yarns. Hilary is writing a story whose heroine, Primrose, is in a remarkably similar impasse. Hilary returns Joan's love, but Freddie and Joan are under the thumb of Sir Barnaby – Joan’s father and Freddie’s uncle – who, for financial reasons, refuses consent to their marrying anyone except each other.The romance of Toby and Pinkie is impeded by Toby’s second thoughts after rashly proposing; he enlists Hilary's help, getting him to pretend to woo Pinkie so that so Toby can catch them in flagrante and break off the engagement. However, Joan also catches Hilary wooing Pinkie. During an eventful dance sequence, Toby overcomes his reluctance to marry, Sir Barnaby gives way, and all three couples are free to marry.
Song list
- Overture
- The Countryside (Opening Act I)
- Till I Meet Someone Like You
- Isn’t it Wonderful
- This is the Life of a Man
- When Toby is out of Town
- Some Far Away Someone
- The Mophams
- Roses of France/Four Little Sirens
- Berkeley Square and Kew
- Boy Wanted
- Mary Queen of Scots
- Wait a Bit, Susie
- Naughty Baby
- Ballet
- That New Fangled Mother Of Mine
- I Make Hay when the Moon Shines
- Brummell
- Finale