Operette
Presented by John (Jack) C Wilson 1938 for Noël it followed the usual pattern of pre-West End run at the Opera House in Manchester and then 'into town' at His Majesty's theatre for a brief 133 perfomances. It was largely viewed as a pale shadow of Coward's finest operetta 'Bitter Sweet', whose success it is was clearly designed to emulate.
Musicals given a historic dressing (in this case Edwardian) were becoming passé and although the musical contained the fine young voice of Peggy Wood and the mature soprano voice of Fritzi Massary and the comic song 'The Stately Homes of England' that has stayed with us, it was viewed as a rather dismal delectation by a nation facing the dangers of yet another European war.
Fritzi Massary played an aging Viennese star who warns a young Peggy Wood not to marry a nobleman. Despite the classic Coward word play in 'The Stately Homes of England' and the charming 'Where Are the Songs We Sung?'
The show is set in the year 1906 at the Jubilee theatre. The story concerns an ageing Viennese operetta star, who warns the young ingenue not to marry a nobleman. The piece premiered in 1938. Coward's attempt to follow up the mittel-European nostalgia of his hit operetta Bitter Sweet (1929) was not a success and ran for only 132 performances. It nevertheless contained songs that endured, in Coward's cabaret act and elsewhere, such as "The Stately Homes of England".
The Book
In a play within a play (an Edwardian musical comedy, The Model Maid), Liesl Haren, an aging Viennese operetta star, has another chance at stardom.
Young Rozanne Grey, a member of the sextet of The Model Maid, falls in love with Nigel Vaynham, a nobleman serving in the army. Liesl counsels the younger woman not to marry him. Rozanne gains the leading role and stardom, but Nigel returns to the army, realising that a marriage to an actress would destroy his social reputation.
Musical Numbers
Prologue
The Opening Chorus
Pom-pom
Countess Mitzi
Dearest love
Foolish virgins
The stately homes of England
Where are the songs we sung?
The island of Bollamazoo
Prologue, Act II
Sing for joy
My dear Miss Dale
Operette
The NCMI, drawing on performing statistics from the publishers and the Performing Rights Society, ranks "The Stately Homes of England" as among Coward's ten most popular songs.
Recordings
1) CD: EMI 7243 5 21808 2 ('Noël Coward 'The Great Shows')
Operette (Fritzi Massary with Sextet), Countess Mitzi (Fritzi Massary with Chorus), Where Are The Songs We Sung?* (Peggy Wood)
Operette with Fritzi Massary with Sextet
2) CD: Flapper PAST CD 7080 ('The Songs of Noël Coward')
Dearest Love (*Peggy Wood), The Stately Homes of England (Hugh French, Ross Landon, John Gatrell, Kenneth Carten)
The Stately Homes of England
All the above His Majesty's Theatre Orch. cond. Benjamin Frankel. Orchestrations by Charles Prentice (*but with some embellishments, possibly by Frankel?) [25 March 1938] *items also on CD: PLATCD 118
Reviews
Ivor Brown in The Sketch:
"It is odd to think nowadys that Mr. Noël Coward was once regarded as the spirit of flaming and audacious youth. His new piece is modishly nostalgic, gently romantic, and shows a definite dislike, except in one song, for smartness and brilliance. Operette, at His Majesty's, is not a work of scholarship, except in so far as it deals (most amusingly) with the archtectural atmospheric, and sanitary details of the 'Stately Homes of England'. But for the rest it can be accepted with calm at the Athenaeum Club, whither I am told Mr Coward has gone to join eminents of College, Church and State. Mr. Coward now tells the tale of the officer and the actress, who, at risk of breaking her heart, refused to ruin his career and to embarras his family uxoriosly implanting herself, as he demanded in the full glory of a nobelman's seat.
Cast
The stars were Fritzi Massary and Peggy Wood with strong support from Griffith Jones and Irene Vanbrugh.
Cast:
Maisie Welbey – Phyllis Monkman
Eddie Gosling – Edward Cooper
Grace Menteith – Pamela Randell
Rozanne Gray – Peggy Wood
Liesl Haren – Fritzi Massary
Paul Trevor – Max Oldaker
Elsie Jewell – Muriel Baron
Nigel Vaynham – Griffith Jones
David Messiter – Peter Vokes
Lady Messiter – Irene Vanbrugh
There were 35 speaking parts in the musical and in the original production there was a company of 80 performers.
