''Primrose'' is a musical in three acts with a book by

Guy Bolton Guy Reginald Bolton (23 November 1884 – 4 September 1979) was an Anglo-American playwright and writer of musical comedies. Born in England and educated in France and the US, he trained as an architect but turned to writing. Bolton preferred ...

and George Grossmith Jr., lyrics by Desmond Carter and Ira Gershwin, and music by

George Gershwin George Gershwin (; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned popular, jazz and classical genres. Among his best-known works are the orchestral compositions ' ...

. It centres 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 played in Australia,Reilly, Lucas
"A Forgotten George Gershwin Musical Just Made Its American Debut"
''

Mental Floss ''Mental Floss'' (stylized as ''mental_floss'') is an online magazine and its related American digital, print, and e-commerce media company focused on millennials. It is owned by Minute Media and based in New York City, United States. mentalfloss ...

'', 8 July 2017 but it was not performed in the United States until more than half a century after it was written.1987 sleeve notes by John McGlinn to EMI recording CDC 7 47977 2 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 ''Rhapsody in Blue'' is a 1924 musical composition written by George Gershwin for solo piano and jazz band, which combines elements of classical music with jazz-influenced effects. Commissioned by bandleader Paul Whiteman, the work premiered i ...

'' 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 Edwardian musical comedy was a form of British musical theatre that extended beyond the reign of King Edward VII in both directions, beginning in the early 1890s, when the Gilbert and Sullivan operas' dominance had ended, until the rise of the Ame ...

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."Reviews: ''Primrose''"
Musicals Tonight!" 2004, accessed 10 July 2017 A piano vocal edition of the score was published in London in 1924, but Gershwin's manuscript was considered lost until it was found in America in 1982.

Production history

''Primrose'' was produced by Grossmith and J. A. E. Malone, who wanted to follow up on their earlier successes composed by

Jerome Kern Jerome David Kern (January 27, 1885 – November 11, 1945) 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 ove ...

. It opened at the

Winter Garden Theatre The Winter Garden Theatre is a Broadway theatre at 1634 Broadway in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. It opened in 1911 under designs by architect William Albert Swasey. The Winter Garden's current design dates to 1922, when ...

in London on 11 September 1924 only two months before the Gershwins’ '' Lady, Be Good!'' debuted on

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

. The cast featured comedian

Leslie Henson Leslie Lincoln Henson (3 August 1891 – 2 December 1957) 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 come ...

and also included

Claude Hulbert Claude Noel Hulbert (25 December 1900 – 23 January 1964) was a mid-20th century English stage, radio and cinema comic actor. Early life Claude Hulbert was born in Fulham in West London on Christmas Day 1900. He was the younger brother of J ...

Heather Thatcher Heather Thatcher (3 September 1896 – 15 January 1987) was an English actress in theatre and films. Dancer By 1922, Thatcher was a dancer. She was especially noted for her interpretation of an Egyptian harem dance. Her exotic clothes were desi ...

and opera baritone Percy Heming. The director was Charles A. Maynard, and the choreographer was Laddie Cliff. 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 Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, ( ; 15 October 188114 February 1975) was an English author and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Jeeve ...

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'', where he made a routine request of Sylvia Hawkes, a beautiful young dancer, who later married a series of famous men: An Australian production with Maude Fane and Alfred Frith opened in Melbourne, at His Majesty's Theatre in April 1925, before touring nationally. It was produced by J. C. Williamson's company. The show was not produced on Broadway, where it would have competed with ''Lady, Be Good!''. The American première of ''Primrose'' did not take place until 1987, when an unstaged concert production at the Coolidge Auditorium of the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...

was given, without dialogue, together with another Gershwin score, ''

Pardon My English ''Pardon My English'' is a musical with a book by Herbert Fields and Morrie Ryskind, lyrics by Ira Gershwin, and music by George Gershwin. Set in 1933 Dresden, the farcical plot satirizes the Prohibition era. Production history Producers Alex ...

'' (1933), both conducted by John McGlinn. Soloists included

Rebecca Luker Rebecca Luker (April 17, 1961 – December 23, 2020) was an American actress, singer, and recording artist, noted for her "crystal clear operatic soprano" and for maintaining long runs in Broadway musicals over the course of her three-decade-lo ...

and

Kim Criswell Kim Criswell (born July 19, 1957) is an American musical entertainer and actress. Life and career Criswell was born in Hampton, Virginia, United States, and grew up in Chattanooga, Tennessee. After she graduated from Hixson High School in subur ...

. The next performance in North America was in 2003, when Musicals Tonight! presented a series of staged concerts at the 14th Street YMCA in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

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, with dialogue, but accompanied only by piano, directed by Thomas Mills.

Ohio Light Opera The Ohio Light Opera is a professional opera company based in Wooster, Ohio that performs the light opera repertory, including Gilbert and Sullivan, American, British and continental operettas, and other musical theatre works, especially of the lat ...

mounted the first fully staged American production of the show in 2017."2017 Festival Season: June 17–August 12"
OhioLightOpera.org, accessed 5 July 2017

Roles and original cast

*Jason – Ernest Graham *Freddie Falls –

*May Rooker – Vera Lennox *Sir Benjamin Falls – Guy Vane *Joan – Margery Hicklin *Hilary Vane – Percy Heming *Toby Mopham –

*Michael – Thomas Weguelin *Manager of hotel – Harold Bradley *Pinkie Peach (Mdme Frazeline) –

*Lady Sophia Mopham – Murial Barnby *Pritchard – Sylvia Hawkes

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 amateur golfer May Rooker. Joan, a naive, pretty young socialite, loves dashing Hilary Vane, a successful author of romantic yarns who lives on a houseboat. Hilary is writing a story whose heroine, Miss Primrose, is at a similar impasse. Hilary returns Joan's love, but Freddie and Joan are under the thumb of Sir Barnaby Falls – Joan's guardian and Freddie's uncle – who, for financial reasons, refuses consent to their marrying anyone except each other. The romance of aristocratic Toby Mopham and the vulgar but ambitious beautician Pinkie Peach is impeded by Toby's second thoughts after rashly proposing; he enlists Hilary's to pretend to woo Pinkie so that 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 *Leaving Town While We May (The Countryside) – Chorus *Till I Meet Someone Like You – Freddie and May *Isn't it Wonderful – Joan and chorus of men *This Is the Life for a Man – Hilary *When Toby Is out of Town – Toby and chorus of women *Some Far-Away Someone – Joan and Hilary *The Mophams – Toby, Pinkie and Michael *Finale, Act I – Company *Opening chorus – Chorus *Four Little Sirens – Quartet *Berkeley Square and Kew – Freddie and Joan *Boy Wanted – Pinkie and chorus *Mary Queen of Scots – Freddie and Toby *Wait a Bit, Susie – Hilary, Joan and chorus *Naughty Baby – Joan and chorus of men *Finale, Act II – Company *Ballet – Orchestral *That New Fangled Mother of Mine – Toby *I Make Hay when the Moon Shines – Pinkie *Beau Brummell – Hilary and chorus *Finale, Act III – Company

Notes

References

* *

External links

Piano/vocal scoreFull cast list of the London castCast recording listing at Discogs.comRare original cast recordings and information about the musical
{{Authority control 1924 musicals West End musicals Musicals by George and Ira Gershwin