Felice Lascelles (née Felicia Madge Lessels; 19 July 1904 – 29 April 1961) was a British musical comedy actress, singer and dancer who performed on stage in the UK and Ireland from the early 1920s to 1940, under the managements of Charles Cochran, Jack Buchanan, Leslie Henson,[9] and Lee Ephraim.
After simply turning up at the Winter Garden Theatre in London, she was offered a place in the chorus and gained experience in her chosen profession under the stage name of Felice Lascelles.
[33][34][iii] Lascelles played the role of Phyllis in Boodle,[36] which opened at the Prince of Wales Theatre, Birmingham, on 26 December 1924, where it remained until 17 January 1925.
[37] Later that year, Lascelles joined the cast of Charles B. Cochran's On With the Dance, which starred Alice Delysia and Leonid Massine, and included songs by Noël Coward.
A preview, published in the Weekly Dispatch on 15 November, included her photo, captioned: "Felice Lascelles, to appear in Still Dancing, the new revue at the Pavilion.
[45] After the performances of Kid Boots at the Liverpool Empire Theatre, Lascelles changed roles again and switched to playing the part of Beth on 27 September for the rest of the tour,[46] which closed at the Hippodrome, Golders Green, on 29 January 1927.
[48] The cast included Max Kirby (in Buchanan's original role of Jim Demming[51]), Rex Rodgers, Naylor Grimson, George Neil, Ethel Stewart, Kathleen Burgess, and Iris White as principal dancer.
The whole company was deemed about the strongest on the road, with over 70 people: performers, bandsmen, stage carpenters, baggage men, flymen, wardrobe women and dressmakers.
"[19] For most of 1931, Lascelles joined the national tour of Darling, I Love You, a musical comedy starring Gus McNaughton, in which she played Peggy Sylvester, the show's heroin, after taking over from Elsie Arnold[69] for her first performance in that role at the Theatre Royal, Huddersfield, on 19 January.
[73] In that role, she sang solo: "Tie a little string about your finger", "Prince Charming", and "All Change for Happiness", as well as duets with Lister: "For You" and "Close Your Eyes".
[85] For the second of these three shows, opening on 2 January 1933, Lascelles debuted her role of Moya Malone in That's a Good Girl, with Fawcett as Bill Barrow and Ethel Stewart as Joy Dean.
[100][101][102] Lascelles was Mizzi in Venus In Silk (1938),[103][104] a musical comedy written by Robert Stolz and starring Carl Brisson, Kitty Reidy, Leo Franklyn, and Arthur Rigby.
[108] When World War II broke out in September 1939, Lascelles had been in South Africa with Leslie Henson's Gaiety Company since June of that year,[109] performing in Going Greek and Swing Along,[110] on a tour that was scheduled to end in late autumn.
[112][110] Back in England, Lascelles played the role of Tilly in The Fleet's Lit Up, which opened at the Hippodrome, Birmingham, on 20 November 1939,[113] and closed at the Empire Theatre, Nottingham, on 9 December, after 39 performances.
[1] From a second marriage to Archibald Kennedy Irvine in 1941, Lascelles gave birth on 14 June 1942 to a son, Andrew, who started out as a child actor in 1950 and performed on stage, in film, and on TV.
[117] As a teenager, he also studied classical guitar[118] and eventually moved to Ireland in 1962, where he carried on acting for a while before changing careers to become a popular folk musician, known as Andy Irvine.