Howard Talbot

[3] For some years, although Talbot had had works staged by amateurs in Hunstanton, Oxford and King's Lynn, professionally he only succeeded in having a few of his individual songs performed in other people's productions.

Despite a strong London cast including Jessie Bond, Courtice Pounds and Richard Temple from the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, the show was not well received in the West End and closed after one month.

[7] At this time, Talbot earned the bulk of his living from conducting both in London and for provincial touring productions, such as The Lady Slavey, where managers appreciated his "cheery, goodnatured" attitude.

[9] The most successful shows that he conducted in London during this period were The Sorrows of Satan (1897) at the Shaftesbury Theatre and two Arthur Roberts vehicles, Dandy Dan the Lifeguardsman (1897), which included his song "Someone Ought to Speak to Millie Simpson", and Milord Sir Smith (1898).

A Chinese Honeymoon went on to become the first work of musical theatre in history to run for over 1,000 consecutive performances and found large audiences around the world.

[7] The careers of other major composers of the Edwardian era (for example, Sidney Jones), began to fade by World War I when they failed to adopt the new American dance rhythms and styles, such as ragtime.

[4] However, in 1917, Talbot and Monckton were hired to write the score for the musical The Boy, based on Pinero's The Magistrate, a vehicle for American comedian Bill Berry, who had been the star of High Jinks.

[10][14] His nephew, Howard Carr, was also a theatre conductor and composer, and at one stage he directed and conducted performances of A Chinese Honeymoon in London.