The Arcadians (musical)
Recordings of some of its numbers were made in 1909 and 1915 by original members of the London cast, and more substantial excerpts and one complete performance have been released on compact disc.
Monckton had contributed to many hit George Edwardes shows, including The Geisha and Our Miss Gibbs, and written complete scores to successes like A Country Girl and The Cingalee.
[4] In 1999, Raymond McCall observed that theatre historians have variously referred to the work as an operetta or a musical comedy, commenting: The score itself contributes to the discrepancy in labeling.
Simplicitas, like Bunthorne [in Patience] saunters down Piccadilly, but the tune is definitely not pre-Raphaelite"[5]The piece was commissioned and staged by the impresario Robert Courtneidge, at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London.
[n 1] A Broadway production opened at the Liberty Theatre in 1910, and ran for 193 performances, starring Frank Moulan, Connie Ediss and Julia Sanderson.
The cast included Welchman, Alfred Lester and H. C. Pearce from the original production; other members were Cicely Courtneidge, Jack Hulbert, Hope Charteris and Dan Agar.
[15] In modern productions it has become customary to amend some of Ambient and Thompson's dialogue, which is full of topical references and old fashioned puns, but the gentle satire of the pretensions and follies of high society has not dated.
He reluctantly agrees and causes the amateur aviator James Smith, an ageing London restaurateur with passions for aeroplanes and philandering, to crash land in Arcadia, where no one tells lies or grows older, where money is unknown, and employment is unnecessary.
Far from impressed, the Arcadians immerse him in the Well of Truth, from which he emerges transformed into a young man, wearing the scanty costume of Arcadia, with a luxuriant head of hair but minus his mutton-chop whiskers.
His hosts dispatch him with missionary zeal, and two agelessly beautiful Arcadian nymphs, Sombra and her sister, Chrysea, to wicked London to "set up the truth in England for ever more, and banish the lie."
The Observer, though noting that an Arcadian theme was bound to provoke comparisons with Gilbert, found that the new piece "stands out among other plays of its class" with "moments to be remembered with joy".
[8] The Manchester Guardian, commenting that the piece would be "welcomed by patrons of musical comedy who had had their full dose of the Merry Widow", praised the originality of the writing, and called the score "simple and unpretentious, but melodious and pleasing".
[23] The Times said that Monckton and Talbot had surpassed themselves in their music, and that Courtneidge's production "showed ingenuity, care and to some extent originality, so that familiar elements took on an unfamiliar look and that new things had their full effect.
[26] In 2006, Oxford University Press's Encyclopedia of Popular Music commented, "The show had a truly memorable score, and was full of engaging songs such as 'The Pipes of Pan', 'The Joy of Life' and 'Arcadia Is Ever Young', all sung by Florence Smithson; 'The Girl with the Brogue' (Phyllis Dare), 'Charming Weather' and 'Half Past Two' (Dare and Harry Welchman), 'Somewhere' (Dan Rolyat), and 'My Motter', which is sung in typically gloomy fashion by Alfred Lister.
[27] The critic Andrew Lamb writes that The Arcadians is the best known of the works in which Talbot's greater technical expertise complemented the melodic talent of his collaborators such as Monckton.
[29] In 1913 the Edison Light Opera Company made wax cylinder recordings of "Arcadians are we", "The girl with a brogue", "Arcady is ever young", "Charming weather", "Bring me a rose" and "Truth is so beautiful.
"[30] In 1968 most of the score[n 4] was recorded in stereo by EMI, with Vilém Tauský conducting a cast headed by June Bronhill, Ann Howard, Michael Burgess and Jon Pertwee.
It featured Ben Blue as Smith, Jeanne de Casalis as his wife, Vesta Sylva as Eileen, John Longden as Jack, Gibb McLaughlin as Doody, Doris Bransgrove as Sombra and Nancy Rigg as Chrysea.
