The French Maid - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The French Maid is a 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 Basil Hood

Basil Hood

Basil Willett Charles Hood was a British librettist and lyricist, perhaps best known for writing the libretti of half a dozen Savoy Operas and for his English adaptations of operettas, including The Merry Widow. He embarked on a career in the British army, writing theatrical pieces in his spare...

, with music by Walter Slaughter

Walter Slaughter

Walter Alfred Slaughter was an English conductor and composer of musical comedy, comic opera and children's shows. He was engaged in the West End as a composer and musical director from 1883 to 1904.-Life and career:...

, first produced at the Theatre Royal, Bath, England, under the management of Milton Bode on the 4 April 1896. It then opened London's Terry's Theatre

Terry's Theatre

Terry's Theatre was a West End theatre on Strand, in the City of Westminster, London. Built in 1887, it became a cinema in 1910 before being demolished in 1923.-History:...

under the management of W. H. Griffiths beginning on 24 April 1897, but later transferred to the Vaudeville Theatre

Vaudeville Theatre

The Vaudeville Theatre is a West End theatre on The Strand in the City of Westminster. As the name suggests, the theatre held mostly vaudeville shows and musical revues in its early days. It opened in 1870 and was rebuilt twice, although each new building retained elements of the previous...

on 12 February 1898, running for a very successful total of 480 London performances. The piece starred Louie Pounds

Louie Pounds

Louisa Emma Amelia "Louie" Pounds was an English singer and actress, known for her performances in musical comedies and in mezzo-soprano roles with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company....

, 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...

, Eric Lewis

Eric Lewis (actor)

Frederic Lewis Tuffley , better known by his stage name, Eric Lewis, was an English comedian, actor and singer...

, Herbert Standing and Richard Green. There was a New York production in 1897.

The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

gave the piece a very favourable review at its London opening, saying that "a fresher, brighter piece has not been seen for many a day."

Roles and original London cast

Admiral Sir Hercules Hawser - H. O. Clarey
General Sir Drummond Fife - Windham Guise
Lt. Harry Fife - Richard Green
Paul Lecuire - Herbert Standing
Monsieur Camembert - Eric Lewis
Eric Lewis (actor)
Frederic Lewis Tuffley , better known by his stage name, Eric Lewis, was an English comedian, actor and singer...
Maharajah of Punkapore - Percy Percival
Charles Brown - Murray King
Jack Brown - Joseph Wilson
Alphonse - J. W. MacDonald
Dorothy Travers - Louie Pounds
Louie Pounds
Louisa Emma Amelia "Louie" Pounds was an English singer and actress, known for her performances in musical comedies and in mezzo-soprano roles with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company....
Lady Hawser - Kate Talby
Violet Tavers - Hilda Jeffries
Madame Camembert - Lillie Pounds
Suzette (the title role) - 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...

Synopsis

Suzette, a French maiden, has attracted several men, including a jealous gendarme, Paul Lecuire, and a waiter at the hotel where she works, Charles Brown. She must choose an escort to the upcoming bal-masqué. But things are complicated when several visitors to the hotel all call for the pretty maid, including an Indian Prince, his attaché, and Jack Brown, an English soldier who is the waiter's twin brother. In traditional French style, Suzette strings them all along, causing confusion in the lives of all concerned, including the aristocratic Admiral and Lady Hawser, their niece Dorothy and her lover, Harry, who gets involved in situations full of jealousy, disguises and misunderstandings. Finally everything is revealed, and a chastened Suzette returns to her faithful gendarme.

Musical numbers

ACT I

No. 1 - Opening Chorus - "Les femmes de chambre de cet Hôtel (Hôtel Anglais, Boulogne-sur-Mer)..."
No. 2 - Song - Paul - "O pretty Suzette! Delightful Suzette, you're a bright little, slight little, sweet soubrette..."
No. 3 - Entrance of Sir Drummond & Maharajah - "I'm General Sir Drummond Fife, V.C., K.C.B.,..."
No. 4 - Duet - Sir Drummond & Prince, with Chorus - "In eighteen hundred and ninety-four the Maharajah of Punkapore..."
No. 5 - Song - Charles - "I'm only a waiter today, but the thought is most exhilarating..." (three verses)
No. 6 - Song - Suzette - "The sort of girl I am the gentlemen adore, although I am a Femme de Chambre..." (three verses)
No. 7 - Song - Dolly - "With my pencil and paper (my sketch-block or book) I frequently caper to some quiet nook..."
No. 8 - Duet - Dolly and Harry - "'Tis a law in Society's code that, whatever a damsel may do..."
No. 8a - Song - Dolly - "There is a castle in the air, and Cupid holds the key..."
No. 10 - Song - Jack and Chorus - "When quite a little chap, a-sitting on my mother's lap..." (three verses)
No. 11 - Song - The Twin Duet - Charles and Jack - "Some twins are very much alike, but we are not a bit..." (four verses)
No. 12 - Song - Jack and Chorus of Sailors - "The Admiral! Sir Hercules! Let every gal get off your knees..."
No. 13 - Song - Admiral and Chorus - "I'm an Admiral of the Fleet, with character untarnish'd..."
No. 14 - Finale Act I - "She's going with the Admiral, the Admiral, the Admiral..."

ACT II

No. 15 - Act II Opening Chorus - "Tho' Englishmen in England may take their pleasures sadly..."
No. 16 - Song - Harry and Chorus - "When Elizabeth ruled England, in the gallant days of yore..." (three verses)
No. 17 - Chorus of Girls and Sailors - "It's gone eight bells, or, leastways, sev'n-- Ashore that spells half past elev'n..."
No. 18 - Duet - Jack and Suzette - "You seem to say the proper way of making love's an art..."
No. 19 - Trio - Charles, Jack and Paul - "We're bound to follow Nature's laws, whatever we may do..."
No. 20 - Song - Charles and Chorus - "As a child my father told me of the good that people reap..."
No. 21 - Song - Paul and Gendarmes - "When danger sounds the alarm, the bold Gendarme must nerve his arm..."
No. 22 - Duet - Dolly and Harry - "No one I ever heard a sentence could compress..."
No. 23 - Song - Admiral - "I'm as proud as a Plantagenet - you mightn't, p'raps, imagine *it..."
No. 24 - Song - Jack - "I ain't no famous 'ero of 'alf a hundred fights..."
No. 25 - Finale Act II - "Ah! Ah! Ah! that's a way we have in France..."

Additional item

Song with Chorus - soloist probably Jack - "I ain't the sort of man as you meets now and then..."

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.