- The Girl Who Came to Supper
Infobox Musical
name= The Girl Who Came to Supper
subtitle=
caption= Original Cast Recording
music=Noël Coward
lyrics=Noël Coward
book=Harry Kurnitz
basis=Terrence Rattigan 's play "The Sleeping Prince"
productions=1963 Broadway
awards="The Girl Who Came to Supper" is a musical with a book by
Harry Kurnitz and music and lyrics byNoël Coward .Based on
Terrence Rattigan 's 1953 play "The Sleeping Prince", it is set in 1911London at the time of George V's coronation. American-born chorus girl Mary Morgan becomes involved with not onlyBalkan archduke Charles, thePrince Regent of Carpathia, after he sees a performance of her West End musical "The Coconut Girl", but his teenaged son Nicholas and the Queen Mother, as well. A peripheral character, fish-and-chips peddler Ada Cockle, appears to be present solely to entertain the audience with a rousing fifteen-minute rendition of traditionalCockney tunes.Rattigan's play had been staged in London with
Laurence Olivier andVivien Leigh , on Broadway withMichael Redgrave andBarbara Bel Geddes , and filmed as "The Prince and the Showgirl " with Olivier andMarilyn Monroe , so its story was a fairly familiar one. The musical opened to rave reviews inBoston but was received less favorably by the critics inToronto . Durings itsPhiladelphia run, President Kennedy was assassinated, necessitating the opening number, "Long Live the King (If He Can)," to be replaced. Theatregoers no doubt were still in a somber move when the show moved toNew York City .After four previews, the Broadway production, directed and
choreographed byJoe Layton , opened onDecember 8 1963 atThe Broadway Theatre , where it ran for 112 performances. The cast includedFlorence Henderson as Mary,José Ferrer as Charles,Irene Browne as the Queen Mother, Sean Scully as Nicholas, andTessie O'Shea as Ada Cockle.Henderson and O'Shea were singled out for praise by the critics - the former for her one-woman delivery of an abridged version of "The Coconut Girl", the latter for her extended song-and-dance routine - but the highly influential
Walter Kerr 's review was negative for the most part. He and others felt the show was an unsuccessful attempt to duplicate the success of the earlier "My Fair Lady ".O'Shea won the
Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. Nominations went to Coward and Kurnitz for Best Author of a Musical andIrene Sharaff for Best Costume Design.The show proved to be the last with a Coward score and the only one of his musicals never produced in London.
An original cast recording is available on the
Sony label.ong list
;Act I
* Swing Song
* Yasni Kozkolai (Carpathian National Anthem)
* My Family Tree
* I've Been Invited to a Party
* Waltz
* I've Been Invited to a Party (Reprise)
* When Foreign Princes Come to Visit Us
* Sir or Ma'am
* Soliloquies
* Lonely
* London is a Little Bit of All Right
* What Ho, Mrs. Brisket
* Don't Take Our Charlie for the Army
* Saturday Night at the Rose and Crown
* London Is a Little Bit of All Right (Reprise)
* Here and Now
* I've Been Invited to a Party (Reprise)
* Soliloquies (Reprise);Act II
* Coronation Chorale
* How Do You Do, Middle Age?
* Here and Now (Reprise)
* The Stingaree
* Curt, Clear and Concise
* Tango
* Welcome to Pootzie Van Doyle
* The Coconut Girl
* Paddy MacNeill and His Automobile
* Swing Song (Reprise)
* Six Lillies of the Valley
* The Walla Walla Boola
* This Time It's True Love
* I'll Remember HerReferences
"Not Since Carrie: Forty Years of Broadway Musical Flops" by
Ken Mandelbaum , published bySt. Martin's Press (1991), pages 120-23 (ISBN 0-312-06428-4)External links
*
* [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,938996,00.html Time Magazine review]
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