Originally published 20 December 2015 Lyricist C. M. S. McLellan | Playwright C. M. S. McLellan Composer Ivan Caryll | |
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Similar The Belle of New York, The Girls of Gottenberg, The Circus Girl, The Gay Parisienne, A Chinese Honeymoon | ||
The Pink Lady is an Edwardian musical comedy composed by Ivan Caryll, which ran for a very successful 312 performances on Broadway in 1911 before becoming an ongoing favorite of regional producers in the Midwest. The story and lyrics by C.M.S. McLellan, about an antiques dealer, were adapted from a French farce, The Satyr, by Georges Berr and Marcel Guiltemand
Contents
The musical premiered at the New Amsterdam Theatre in New York, running for 312 performances from March 13, 1911 to December 9, 1911 and, after a brief London run at the Globe Theatre from April 11, 1912, it returned to the New Amsterdam for a further 24 performances from August 26, 1912 to September 14, 1912. The leading lady, Hazel Dawn, from Ogden, Utah, was nineteen years old when the show opened. She had studied music and voice while living with her family in Europe and played the violin in the show. The original production was directed by Herbert Gresham and choreographed by Julian P. Mitchell. The original run set record for receipts and attendance at the theatre and soon toured successfully. The show was so popular that its costume designs inspired some ladies' fashions.
Unlike most Edwardian musicals, wrote the New York Times critic, the show's "fun is developed logically out of its situations, and so are its songs. In the second act, for instance, not a musical number occurs which does not carry the plot along further, instead of halting it, and yet no songs in the piece were more persistently applauded than these."
Plot
The maidens in a European village not far from Paris are frightened, but secretly thrilled, by a mysterious man called Satyr, who kisses and embraces them if they venture into the woods to pick mushrooms. Lucien, an engaged young man arrives, soon followed by his fiancée, Angele, and her idiot-savant cousin, Bebe. Lucien wishes to have one last fling with his mistress, Claudine, before he marries; he has made up a man named Dondidier, like Algernon's Bunbury, so that he may visit him in the country. His bride-to-be has a jealous admirer, Maurice, who persuades her to follow her future husband to witness his philandering.
Angele insists on meeting Dondidier, whom Lucien identifies as the Satyr. Angele sees Lucien having lunch with Claudine. Angele vows to marry Bebe, although she is not attracted to him and plans to be a cold and unloving wife. Lucien says that Claudine is Dondidier's wife, but Angele is not fooled ... until Claudine appears and backs up this story. Angele demands to know where in Paris Claudine and her husband reside. Claudine smoothly gives her an address, adding that Mr. Dondidier is an antiques dealer. It turns out that Bebe provided Claudine with the necessary facts, so that Angele would go ahead and marry Lucien. Having overheard Lucien claim that Dondidier is the Satyr, everyone wishes to meet him in Paris.
In Paris at the home of the curmudgeonly little antique dealer, his wife and the townswomen encourage the mousy man to demonstrate his talents as the famous Satyr. Two Greek statues, one of Aphrodite, the other of a satyr, have mysteriously disappeared from his shop.
At the Ball of the Nymphs and Satyrs, the Pink Lady resolves all of the complications, so that Lucien eventually marries Angele, Bebe remains faithful to his Canadian girlfriend, and Dondidier becomes more of a man to his wife.