The Vagabond King
Encyclopedia
The Vagabond King is a 1925 operetta
by Rudolf Friml
in four acts, with a book and lyrics by Brian Hooker
and William H. Post, based upon Justin Huntly McCarthy's 1901 romantic play If I Were King. The story is a fictionalized tale concerning the 15th century poet and thief François Villon
, his wooing of Katherine De Vaucelles (the cousin of King Louis XI
), how he becomes “king for a day”, and defends France against the invading forces of the Duke of Burgundy
.
The original production opened at the Casino Theatre on September 21, 1925. It starred Dennis King
as Villon and Carolyn Thomson as Katherine and ran for a successful 511 performances. The operetta then had a successful run in London in 1927 at the Winter Garden Theatre
, running for 480 performances, and toured extensively. Its revivals include a 1943 Broadway revival. It was also performed regularly in the 1970s and 1980s in New York by the Light Opera of Manhattan
.
play, If I Were King, in 1901 by writer Justin Huntly McCarthy and was revived seveal times. In 1923, Richard Rodgers
and Lorenz Hart
were at the beginning of their careers. They created a musical version of the McCarthy play for a Manhattan girl's school and then looked for a more prestigious venue for their collaboration. Broadway backers turned down the young team, but producer Russell Janney "borrowed" their idea and commissioned the more established Rudolf Friml
to compose, and Brian Hooker
to adapt the piece into a musical, increasing the comedy roles. The production was lavish and used an unusually large pit orchestra. It received unanimously enthusiastic reviews.
A 1930 musical film
with the same title was filmed in two-color Technicolor
, with Dennis King reprising his stage role. Jeanette MacDonald
and Lillian Roth
co-starred. It was long thought lost, but was recovered and restored in 1998. Several non-Friml songs were added in this version. The film was remade in 1956
in regular Technicolor and VistaVision
. It starred Kathryn Grayson
, Oreste Kirkop
, Rita Moreno
, Walter Hampden
and Cedric Hardwicke
. Only a few songs were from the original, but new Friml numbers were added. Leslie Nielsen
and Jack Lord
were featured in villainous roles. This remake was not a success.
A 1938 nonmusical film of If I Were King was made. It starred Ronald Colman
as Villon and was a great success.
; popular support for King Louis XI is at a low point. Villon – poet, braggart, thief and darling of the Paris rabble – has sent anonymous love poems to the beautiful Katherine de Vaucelles. These have caused her to reject proposals from King Louis. She goes to seek the mysterious poet at an inn, but King Louis shadows her in disguise. Louis is incensed to hear Villon mocking the failures of his reign and saying what he would do instead "if I were king." The infuriated monarch reveals himself. The king gives Villon a hard choice: as punishment for speaking treasonously, he must either stop courting Katherine or accept the position of Grand Marshal, with all the powers of King, for 24 hours, during which time he must make good on his boasts and free Paris. At the end of the 24 hours, Villon will hang. Villon's dilemma is that he has promised himself to Huguette, his mistress, but now is deeply in love with Katherine.
Villon and Katherine declare their love for each other ("Only a Rose"). Hugette describes her means of livelihood ("Love for Sale"). Villon accepts Louis' challenge and rouses the rabble of Paris to defend the city against Burgundy. Huguette discovers that Thibault, one of Louis' advisors, is a traitor. When Thibault ambushes Villon and tries to stab him to death, Huguette steps in front of the blade and takes the blow, thus sacrificing her life, and freeing Villon to be with Katherine. He kills Thibault in retaliation and goes off with the Paris rabble to fight the Burgundians. The Parisians emerge victorious. After the battle is over, Katharine offers to sacrifice herself to the hangman in order to save Villon. Louis, realizing he cannot shed noble blood without a just cause, rewards Villon with exile instead of death, and the two lovers leave together.
Act 2
Act 3
Act 4
Operetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
by Rudolf Friml
Rudolf Friml
Rudolf Friml was a composer of operettas, musicals, songs and piano pieces, as well as a pianist. After musical training and a brief performing career in his native Prague, Friml moved to the United States, where he became a composer...
in four acts, with a book and lyrics by Brian Hooker
Brian Hooker (poet)
William Brian Hooker was an American poet, educator, lyricist, and librettist. He was born to Elizabeth Work and William Augustus Hooker who was a mining engineer for the New York firm of Hooker and Lawrence...
and William H. Post, based upon Justin Huntly McCarthy's 1901 romantic play If I Were King. The story is a fictionalized tale concerning the 15th century poet and thief François Villon
François Villon
François Villon was a French poet, thief, and vagabond. He is perhaps best known for his Testaments and his Ballade des Pendus, written while in prison...
, his wooing of Katherine De Vaucelles (the cousin of King Louis XI
Louis XI of France
Louis XI , called the Prudent , was the King of France from 1461 to 1483. He was the son of Charles VII of France and Mary of Anjou, a member of the House of Valois....
), how he becomes “king for a day”, and defends France against the invading forces of the Duke of Burgundy
Duke of Burgundy
Duke of Burgundy was a title borne by the rulers of the Duchy of Burgundy, a small portion of traditional lands of Burgundians west of river Saône which in 843 was allotted to Charles the Bald's kingdom of West Franks...
.
The original production opened at the Casino Theatre on September 21, 1925. It starred Dennis King
Dennis King (actor)
Dennis King was an English actor and singer.Born in Coventry as Dennis Pratt, King had a stage career in both drama and musicals. He emigrated to the USA in 1921 and went on to a successful career on the Broadway stage. He appeared in two musical films and played non-singing roles in two other...
as Villon and Carolyn Thomson as Katherine and ran for a successful 511 performances. The operetta then had a successful run in London in 1927 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...
, running for 480 performances, and toured extensively. Its revivals include a 1943 Broadway revival. It was also performed regularly in the 1970s and 1980s in New York by the Light Opera of Manhattan
Light Opera of Manhattan
Light Opera of Manhattan, known as LOOM, was an Off-Broadway repertory theatre company that produced light operas, including the works of Gilbert and Sullivan and European and American operettas, 52 weeks per year, in New York City between 1968 and 1989....
.
Background
At the end of the 19th century, novelist R. H. Russell sentimentalized Villon's career in a plot that borrowed the king-for-a-day theme, allowing Villon to defeat France's enemies and win the hand of an aristocratic lady, all in under 24 hours. It was adapted as a BroadwayBroadway 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...
play, If I Were King, in 1901 by writer Justin Huntly McCarthy and was revived seveal times. In 1923, Richard Rodgers
Richard Rodgers
Richard Charles Rodgers was an American composer of music for more than 900 songs and for 43 Broadway musicals. He also composed music for films and television. He is best known for his songwriting partnerships with the lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II...
and Lorenz Hart
Lorenz Hart
Lorenz "Larry" Milton Hart was the lyricist half of the famed Broadway songwriting team Rodgers and Hart...
were at the beginning of their careers. They created a musical version of the McCarthy play for a Manhattan girl's school and then looked for a more prestigious venue for their collaboration. Broadway backers turned down the young team, but producer Russell Janney "borrowed" their idea and commissioned the more established Rudolf Friml
Rudolf Friml
Rudolf Friml was a composer of operettas, musicals, songs and piano pieces, as well as a pianist. After musical training and a brief performing career in his native Prague, Friml moved to the United States, where he became a composer...
to compose, and Brian Hooker
Brian Hooker (poet)
William Brian Hooker was an American poet, educator, lyricist, and librettist. He was born to Elizabeth Work and William Augustus Hooker who was a mining engineer for the New York firm of Hooker and Lawrence...
to adapt the piece into a musical, increasing the comedy roles. The production was lavish and used an unusually large pit orchestra. It received unanimously enthusiastic reviews.
A 1930 musical film
The Vagabond King (1930 film)
The Vagabond King is a 1930 American musical operetta film photographed entirely in two-color Technicolor. The plot of the film was based on the 1925 operetta of the same name, which was based on the 1901 play If I Were King by Justin Huntly McCarthy. The play told the story of a renegade French...
with the same title was filmed in two-color Technicolor
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
, with Dennis King reprising his stage role. Jeanette MacDonald
Jeanette MacDonald
Jeanette MacDonald was an American singer and actress best remembered for her musical films of the 1930s with Maurice Chevalier and Nelson Eddy...
and Lillian Roth
Lillian Roth
Lillian Roth was an American singer and actress.-Early life:Roth was born in Boston, Massachusetts. She was only 6 years old when her mother took her to Educational Pictures, where she became the company's trademark, symbolized by a living statue holding a lamp of knowledge...
co-starred. It was long thought lost, but was recovered and restored in 1998. Several non-Friml songs were added in this version. The film was remade in 1956
The Vagabond King (1956 film)
The Vagabond King is a 1956 musical film remake of the 1925 operetta The Vagabond King by Rudolf Friml. It starred Kathryn Grayson and Oreste Kirkop , with early roles for Rita Moreno and Leslie Nielsen. Sir Cedric Hardwicke played a notable supporting role. It was Walter Hampden's last movie....
in regular Technicolor and VistaVision
VistaVision
VistaVision is a higher resolution, widescreen variant of the 35mm motion picture film format which was created by engineers at Paramount Pictures in 1954....
. It starred Kathryn Grayson
Kathryn Grayson
Kathryn Grayson was an American actress and operatic soprano singer.From the age of twelve, Grayson trained as an opera singer. She was under contract to MGM by the early 1940s, soon establishing a career principally through her work in musicals...
, Oreste Kirkop
Oreste Kirkop
Oreste Kirkop was born in Ħamrun in 1923. Oreste made his operatic debut in 1945 as Turiddu in Cavalleria Rusticana. He continued singing opera with visiting Italian companies and appeared in concert with Tito Gobbi and Maria Caniglia....
, Rita Moreno
Rita Moreno
Rita Moreno is a Puerto Rican singer, dancer and actress. She is the only Hispanic and one of the few performers who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony, and was the second Puerto Rican to win an Academy Award....
, Walter Hampden
Walter Hampden
Walter Hampden is the artist name of Walter Hampden Dougherty was a U.S. actor and theatre manager. He was the younger brother of the American painter Paul Dougherty ....
and Cedric Hardwicke
Cedric Hardwicke
Sir Cedric Webster Hardwicke was a noted English stage and film actor whose career spanned nearly fifty years...
. Only a few songs were from the original, but new Friml numbers were added. Leslie Nielsen
Leslie Nielsen
Leslie William Nielsen, OC was a Canadian and naturalized American actor and comedian. Nielsen appeared in more than one hundred films and 1,500 television programs over the span of his career, portraying more than 220 characters...
and Jack Lord
Jack Lord
John Joseph Patrick Ryan , best known by his stage name Jack Lord, was an American television, film, and Broadway actor. He was known for his starring role as Steve McGarrett in the American television program Hawaii Five-O from 1968 to 1980. Lord appeared in feature films earlier in his career,...
were featured in villainous roles. This remake was not a success.
A 1938 nonmusical film of If I Were King was made. It starred Ronald Colman
Ronald Colman
Ronald Charles Colman was an English actor.-Early years:He was born in Richmond, Surrey, England, the second son and fourth child of Charles Colman and his wife Marjory Read Fraser. His siblings included Eric, Edith, and Marjorie. He was educated at boarding school in Littlehampton, where he...
as Villon and was a great success.
Synopsis
Paris is under siege by the forces of the Duke of BurgundyDuchy of Burgundy
The Duchy of Burgundy , was heir to an ancient and prestigious reputation and a large division of the lands of the Second Kingdom of Burgundy and in its own right was one of the geographically larger ducal territories in the emergence of Early Modern Europe from Medieval Europe.Even in that...
; popular support for King Louis XI is at a low point. Villon – poet, braggart, thief and darling of the Paris rabble – has sent anonymous love poems to the beautiful Katherine de Vaucelles. These have caused her to reject proposals from King Louis. She goes to seek the mysterious poet at an inn, but King Louis shadows her in disguise. Louis is incensed to hear Villon mocking the failures of his reign and saying what he would do instead "if I were king." The infuriated monarch reveals himself. The king gives Villon a hard choice: as punishment for speaking treasonously, he must either stop courting Katherine or accept the position of Grand Marshal, with all the powers of King, for 24 hours, during which time he must make good on his boasts and free Paris. At the end of the 24 hours, Villon will hang. Villon's dilemma is that he has promised himself to Huguette, his mistress, but now is deeply in love with Katherine.
Villon and Katherine declare their love for each other ("Only a Rose"). Hugette describes her means of livelihood ("Love for Sale"). Villon accepts Louis' challenge and rouses the rabble of Paris to defend the city against Burgundy. Huguette discovers that Thibault, one of Louis' advisors, is a traitor. When Thibault ambushes Villon and tries to stab him to death, Huguette steps in front of the blade and takes the blow, thus sacrificing her life, and freeing Villon to be with Katherine. He kills Thibault in retaliation and goes off with the Paris rabble to fight the Burgundians. The Parisians emerge victorious. After the battle is over, Katharine offers to sacrifice herself to the hangman in order to save Villon. Louis, realizing he cannot shed noble blood without a just cause, rewards Villon with exile instead of death, and the two lovers leave together.
Roles
- Katherine (sopranoSopranoA soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
) - Huguette (mezzo-sopranoMezzo-sopranoA mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...
) - Lady Mary, a courtier
- Villon (lyric baritoneBaritoneBaritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
; a tenorTenorThe tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
in the 1956 film) - Taberie
- Nodl, a Court popinjay
- Oliver, Keeper of the Royal Bath
- Captain of the Scotch Archers
- Rene, a rogue
- The Herald of Burgundy.
- Fat Margot, keeper of a tavern-brothel
- King Louis (non-singing)
- Tristan, his trusted adviser (non-singing)
- Thibault, his traitorous Grand Marshal (non-singing)
- Isabeau and Jehanneton, harlots (non-singing)
- The Queen (non-singing)
- Casin, Rogati and Jelian, thieves (non-singing)
- An astrologer (non-singing)
Musical numbers
Act 1- Life is Like a Bubble in Our Glasses—Ensemble
- Love For Sale—Huguette du Hamel, Chorus and Dance Ensemble
- Drinking Song (A Flagon of Wine) -- Guy Tabarie and Male Chorus
- Song of the Vagabonds—Villon and Chorus
- Some DaySome Day (1925 song)"Some Day" is a song, with music by Rudolf Friml and words by Brian Hooker, originally published in 1925. It was included in Friml's operetta The Vagabond King, sung by Caroline Thomas in the role of Katherine de Vaucelles....
-- Katherine de Vaucelles - Only a Rose and Finale—Katherine and Villon
Act 2
- Hunting --- Noel Le Jolys, Chorus and Dance Ensemble
- Scotch Archers' Song—Captain of Scotch Archers and Archers
- Tomorrow—Katherine, Villon and Chorus
- Finale, Act II—Ensemble
Act 3
- Nocturne—Ensemble & Ballet
- Serenade—Oliver Le Dain, Guy Tabarie and Lady Mary
- Waltz Huguette (Huguette Waltz - "Never try to Bind Me") -- Huguette du Hamel
- Love Me Tonight—Katherine and Villon
- Finale, Act III—Ensemble
Act 4
- Te Deum—Ensemble
- Victory March ("Song of the Vagabonds" reprise) and Finale, Act IV—Ensemble
External links
- The Vagabond King at the Internet Broadway Database
- Broadway theatre program, 1925
- The Vagabond King in The Cambridge guide to American theatre, p. 661
- The Vagabond King in Broadway musicals, show by show, p. 48