The Arcadians is an Edwardian musical comedy styled a "Fantastic Musical Play" in three acts with a book by Mark Ambient and Alexander M. Thompson, lyrics by Arthur Wimperis, and music by Lionel Monckton and Howard Talbot. The story concerns some idyllic Arcadians who wish to transform wicked London to a land of truth and simplicity.
First produced by Robert Courtneidge, the musical opened at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London, on 29 April 1909, and ran for 809 performances. This was the third longest run for any musical theatre piece up to that time. The production starred Phyllis Dare, Dan Rolyat and Florence Smithson. A Broadway production opened in 1910 and ran for 193 performances. The piece was toured extensively, revived professionally in Britain, and a silent film version was made in 1927. It was popular with amateur theatre groups, particularly in Britain, throughout the 20th century. 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.
The work is regarded by theatre historians as the finest example of its genre, with Monckton's melodic talent supported by Talbot's technical skill. The score contains elements characteristic of the Savoy Operas of the previous generation as well as broader numbers reminiscent of the music hall.
Arcadia, a legendary land of rural perfection peopled by beautiful virtuous innocents, first described by the Ancient Greeks, was a popular setting for writers of the 19th century, notably W. S. Gilbert (in Happy Arcadia and Iolanthe). The development of aviation and flying in the early years of the 20th century captivated the public's attention. Writers fantasised about the strange adventures that might befall those who ventured to travel by the new-fangled aeroplane. A forced landing, perhaps, in some long-forgotten land where time has stood still. These stories laid the basis for The Arcadians.[1]
By 1909, Lionel Monckton and Howard Talbot had each had met considerable success writing songs and scores for Edwardian musical comedies. 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.[2] Talbot had a monstrous hit with A Chinese Honeymoon and had written such other long-running musicals as The Girl from Kays. He had worked with writer Alexander M. Thompson and producer Robert Courtneidge previously, including on The Blue Moon.[3]
Historically, musically and dramatically, The Arcadians and the other Edwardian musical comedies sit between the fading world of British comic opera, like the Gilbert and Sullivan works, and the later styles of musical comedy and music hall. The Arcadians particularly illustrates this, with the innocent Arcadians representing the older style, and the brash Londoners embodying the new. This contrast between simplicity and cynicism drive the plot and its humour, a contrast personified in the character of Smith, who is magically transformed during the piece.[4] In 1999, Raymond McCall observed that theatre historians have variously referred to the work as an operetta or a musical comedy, commenting:
The piece was commissioned and staged by the impresario Robert Courtneidge, at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London. The production opened on 29 April 1909 and ran for 809 performances.[5] Only two musical shows had previously had longer runs: Dorothy (1886) and A Chinese Honeymoon (1901), which ran for 931 and 1,075 performances respectively.[6] The show starred Phyllis Dare as Eileen, Dan Rolyat as Smith, Harry Welchman as Jack, and Florence Smithson as Sombra. Cicely Courtneidge, the producer's daughter, later took over the role of Eileen.[7] The musical director was Arthur Wood.[8] The costumes were by Wilhelm, who 27 years earlier had designed the Arcadian costumes for Iolanthe.
A Broadway production opened at the Liberty Theatre in 1910, and ran for 193 performances, starring Frank Moulan, Connie Ediss and Julia Sanderson.[9] Courtneidge assembled a touring company, which played the piece in the British provinces for ten years.[10] He revived the show in 1915 in London, with success. 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.[11]
The piece was popular with amateur theatre groups throughout the 20th century, particularly in Britain, where it received more than 225 productions.[12] 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.[13]
The score was substantially revised during the original run, with new numbers interpolated. The numbers listed in the table are from a 1909 vocal score.[14]
| Words by | Music by | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Act I | ||||
| 1. | Introduction and opening chorus – "Arcadians are we" | Wimperis | Talbot | |
| 2. | "I quite forgot Arcadia" – Father Time and Chorus | Wimperis | Monckton | |
| 3. | "The Joy of Life" – Sombra, Chrysæa, Strephon and Astrophel | Wimperis | Talbot | |
| 4. | "Look what hovers there above us" – Chorus | Wimperis | Talbot | |
| 5. | "The Pipes of Pan are calling" – Sombra | Wimperis | Monckton | |
| 6. | "All a lie!" – Chorus | Wimperis | Talbot | |
| 7. | "Sweet Simplicitas" – Simplicitas and Chorus | Wimperis | Talbot | |
| 8. | Finale: "To all and each" – Sombra, Chrysæa, Strephon, Astrophel and Chorus | Wimperis | Talbot | |
| Act II | ||||
| 9. | "That's all over, bar the shouting" – Chorus | Wimperis | Monckton | |
| 10. | "Back your fancy" – Bobbie and Chorus | Wimperis | Monckton | |
| 11. | "The Girl with a Brogue" – Eileen and Chorus | Wimperis | Monckton | |
| 12. | Shower chorus – "This is really altogether too provoking" | Wimperis | Talbot | |
| 13. | "Arcady is ever young" – Sombra | Monckton and Wimperis | Monckton | |
| 14. | "Somewhere" – Simplicitas | Wimperis | Monckton | |
| 15. | "Fickle Fortune" – Jack and Chorus | Wimperis | Monckton | |
| 16. | "Charming Weather" – Eileen and Jack | Monckton and Wimperis | Monckton | |
| 17. | Finale – "The horses are out" | Wimperis | Talbot | |
| Act III | ||||
| 18. | "Plant your posies" – Chorus | Wimperis | Talbot | |
| 19. | "I like London" – Chrysæa | Wimperis | Talbot | |
| 20. | "My Motter" – Doody | Wimperis | Talbot | |
| 21. | Chorus of Belgravians – "Cheer for Simplicitas!" – Chorus | Wimperis | Monckton | |
| 22. | "Bring me a rose – Eileen | Monckton and Wimperis | Monckton | |
| 23. | "Truth is so beautiful" – Jack, Bobbie and Simplicitas | Wimperis | Monckton | |
| 24. | "Half-past two" – Eileen and Jack | Greenbank and Wimperis | Talbot | |
| 25. | "Light is my heart" – Sombra | Wimperis | Talbot | |
| 26. | Finale – "Truth is so beautiful" (reprise) | Wimperis | Monckton |
Numbers 15, 19, 22 and 25 were later cut, the last replaced by a waltz song for Sombra, "Here amid the city's clamour". Another edition of the vocal score, also dated 1909 but evidently printed later than that cited here, includes four new numbers: "I'm a case of complete reformation" (Simplicitas and Chorus, Act I, music by Talbot), which was later cut;[15] "The only girl alive" (Jack, Act III) and "Come back to Arcady" (Sombra, Act III), both with music by Talbot; and most notably one of the show's big hit songs, "All down Piccadilly" (Simplicitas and Chorus, Act II), with music by Monckton who also co-wrote the words with Wimperis.[16] Other numbers added during the run were "People often tell us luck and love are jealous" (Jack and Chorus) and "Little George Washington, once on a day, took out his hatchet and, so people say" (Simplicitas, Jack and Bobbie).[17]
The show received favourable reviews. 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".[18] 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".[19] 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."[20] The Daily Express observed, "surely it is a long time since an audience enjoyed a first night as much as this … [Courtneidge] has achieved the seemingly impossible. He has produced a 'new' musical comedy which really is new." The paper singled out for praise the songs, "The pipes of Pan", "Light is my heart", "The Girl with a Brogue", "Sweet Simplicitas", and "My motter".[21]
The Arcadians is widely regarded as the finest Edwardian musical comedy.[4] The historian Richard Traubner calls it "indisputably the greatest operetta (or musical comedy, if you will) of the Edwardian age".[22] 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. Another important song, 'All Down Piccadilly', was added at a later date, and became an accepted part of the score.[23] 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. Lamb observes that Talbot was particularly skilled at writing ensembles and finales and that such numbers as the opening chorus, 'I like London', 'My Motter' and 'Half-past Two' "testify to Talbot's inventiveness and craftsmanship."[24]
Members of the original cast recorded the following numbers from the show: "The pipes of Pan", "The girl with a brogue", "Arcady is ever young", "My motter", "Bring me a rose", "Come back to Arcady" and "Light is my heart". These recordings, made in 1909 and 1915, have been reissued on CD by EMI.[25] 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."[26]
In 1968 most of the score was recorded in stereo by EMI, with Vilém Tauský conducting a cast headed by June Bronhill, Ann Howard, Michael Burgess and Jon Pertwee.[25] The following year Gilbert Vinter conducted ten numbers from the show, also for EMI.[27] In 1999 a substantially complete score was recorded, with dialogue, by Ohio Light Opera, conducted by J. Lynn Thomson.[28] In 2003, Theatre Bel-Etage, conducted by Mart Sander, recorded fifteen tracks from the score.[29]
In 1927 Victor Saville directed a silent British film adaptation of the same name. 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. The music in the film was credited to Louis Levy.[30] [31]