It is based on the series of novels and short stories by P. G. Wodehouse that centre around the character of Bertie Wooster and his loyal valet, Jeeves.
[1] Eventually Lloyd Webber teamed up with famed British playwright Alan Ayckbourn, and the two of them began work with the personal blessing of Wodehouse.
Bertie recounts how he managed to become engaged to three ladies simultaneously and how his valet Jeeves (through ingenious intervention) unravelled the complications.
[3] Rows broke out about the presence of an all-male singing sextet accompanying Bertie Wooster and the realization that the first woman did not appear on stage until thirty-five minutes had passed.
[4] Lloyd Webber wrote a period score that eschewed all traces of the pop inflections of his work on Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Jesus Christ Superstar.
The sound of trumpets, banjos and saxophones for this score were written by a group of arrangers: Keith Amos, Don Walker, Lloyd Webber himself and his future orchestrator, David Cullen.
The show opened in London on 22 April 1975 at Her Majesty's Theatre, starring David Hemmings as Bertie Wooster and Michael Aldridge as Jeeves.
Other cast members included Debbie Bowen, Gordon Clyde, Angela Easterling, John Turner, Bill Wallis and David Wood.
Lloyd Webber, reportedly acting on the advice of American theatre director Harold Prince, withdrew the recording in order to be able to reuse some of the musical material in subsequent shows.
[8] A song similar to "Female Of The Species", sung by Stiffy, was originally planned to be incorporated in the 1996 revival, but was eventually replaced with "Love's Maze".
The melody of "Female of the Species" appeared earlier than its Jeeves incarnation, with lyrics written and sung by Tim Rice as "The Ballad of Robert and Peter" in 1973 (for private recording purposes).
[citation needed] In 1996, Lloyd Webber and Ayckbourn decided to revisit the show, jettisoning most of the score and the entire original book.
Retitled By Jeeves (so as to dispel all previous associations with the original production), the character of Roderick Spode and his fascistic intentions were eliminated from the plot.
Only three songs from the original show remained lyrically intact: "Banjo Boy", "Half a Moment" and "Travel Hopefully", as well as the chorus for Code of the Woosters.
By Jeeves re-opened on 1 May 1996 at the Stephen Joseph Theatre-in-the-round in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, an English seaside resort.
Audience reaction was generally enthusiastic so the show moved on 2 July 1996 to London for a 12-week season at the fairly intimate Duke of York's Theatre.
The 1996 cast recording has an unusual format, taking a track between every song where Bertie and Jeeves humorously summarize the plot.
[14] The show had its United States premiere on 12 November 1996, at the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam Connecticut.
Directed by Ayckbourn, the cast featured Scherer (Bertie), James Kall (Gussie) and Martin Jarvis (Jeeves) (who received the Theatre World Award).
[19] In the 2011 production of the musical at the Landor Theatre in Clapham, London, Kevin Trainor played Bertie Wooster, with Paul M. Meston as Jeeves.
[6] A charity banjo concert is to be performed in a church by Bertie Wooster, an amiable gentleman who often finds himself involved in various misadventures from which he is saved by his intelligent valet Jeeves.
In the story, Bertie faces the magistrate Sir Watkyn Bassett in court after taking a constable's helmet as a boyish prank.
Madeline helped come up with this plan and invited Gussie to Sir Watkyn's country house, Totleigh Towers.
While driving to Totleigh, Bertie remains optimistic and also sees his friend Bingo Little, who loves the formidable Honoria Glossop ("Travel Hopefully").
Bertie introduces himself, accidentally using his real name, to forthright American businessman Cyrus Budge III Jr., a guest at Totleigh who wants to court Madeline.
To make Bertie stay and help, she points out that Gussie will be in trouble when Sir Watkyn reads the engagement announcement in The Times.
At the start of the second act, Sir Watkyn is confused about the identities of his guests, Bertie is concerned about Stiffy's scheming, and Bingo and Gussie want to be united with Honoria and Madeline respectively.
He ends up climbing into the wrong room, and is chased by multiple characters through the house, since they think he is really a masked burglar ("It's A Pig!").
While chasing Bertie through Totleigh Towers, Gussie reunites with Madeline by coming to help her, and Bingo bonds with Honoria.
[30] F. Wade Russo was the musical director for the film and was also the pianist, who is referred to by characters on stage as Oswald "Ozzie" Nutledge.