Herbert Farjeon's LITTLE REVUE

Book and Lyrics by Herbert Farjeon

Music by Walter Leigh

This theatrical revue opened at the Little Theatre, London on April 21, 1939 and ran for 415 performances.  This was Joyce Grenfell's professional stage debut; heading the cast were Hermione Baddeley and Cyril Ritchard.

Writing in the September 1939 issue of THEATRE WORLD, D.C.F. observed:

As a successor to NINE SHARP, which put the Little Theatre on the map as the ideal home of revue intime, we have HERBERT FARJEON'S LITTLE REVUE, with the same cast (representing the cream of revue talent) and Mr. Farjeon's witty and erudite mind to fashion another entertainment of rare quality.

Many idiosyncrasies of the moment come within the range of his astringent satire. A VERY NICE PAPER depicts a very nice contrast between the executives of the sensational press, gloating unctuously over the latest rape, and their rivals, spreading sunshine and uplift and rhapsodizing over King Baby.

PRUSSIC CLASSICS consists of four play parodies. GEORGE AND MARGARET is raised to the nth degree of domestic triviality under the title, FAMILY RACKET. Hermione Baddeley is in tremendous form as the Cornish sex-maniac in THE ANSWER'S A LEHMANN. A Tchehov parody shows a woeful quartette, seated on a railway platform, yearning for Manchester but tearing up their tickets immediately the train arrives. MAGYAR MALADY should be the romantic musical play to end romantic musical plays–though, of course, it won't.

GLYNDEBOURNE, GLORIOUS GLYNDEBOURNE (it must be good, we've come so far!) punctures the affectations of musical snobs. WINTER IN TORQUAY presents Hermione Baddeley as a professional invalid reveling in a narrative of her more revolting complaints. This superb comedienne finds further scope in HOW TO GET THERE, in which a suburban family lecture a long-suffering guest on bus and tram routes; and as a fading bloom in LONELY LITTLE LOTUS and as Mlle. Parapluie in GREAT UMBRELLA FESTIVAL.

Cyril Ritchard is another tower of strength to the revue. Best of all I liked his Martha, Woman of the Plains, in GALA DANCE MATINEE, a gaunt, angular creature with a technique terrifyingly authentic. After that, his dashing jeune premier of 1912 musical comedy, surrounded by a roguish, hobble-skirted chorus, and his passé film actress in QUEEN OF THE THRILLS.

Everything this clever pair undertake is a joy to behold, yet there is no question of the revue being all stars and no support, for all the members of the company pull their weight. George Benson's character studies make his every apperance a delight. Charlotte Leigh, notably in a genteel Cuckoo song, and as the gushing organizer of the Gala Dance Matinee, is vastly amusing. Betty Ann Davies makes her pasty faced schoolgirl, overburdened by homework, a genuine and moving figure. Joyce Grenfell, a clever newcomer, scores a success with her lecture on USEFUL AND ACCEPTABLE GIFTS, and her three studies of maternal solicitude.

By way of contrast to the pervading note of lightness and gaiety, there is the savage irony of THE MERRY WIDOW, a vignette of Vienna under the Nazi heel, and a sidelight on East End intolerance called DAISY GOES OUT WITH BERT.

And when the evening is over–all too soon–the parting exhortation of the company COME TO THE LITTLE AGAIN, seems superfluous indeed.

I am indebted to Ray Stanley, of Australia, for additional details of some of the cast and writers.  He informs me Betty Ann Davies was a '30s film star and took over from Vivien Leigh in the stage version of A STREET CAR NAMED DESIRE.  I see she was in BELLES OF ST. TRINIAN'S with Joyce in 1954, the first of the St. Trinian's films.   Ray also says WINTER IN TORQUAY was rewritten by Hermione Gingold and shows up on the CD of JOHN MURRAY ANDERSON'S ALMANAC as WINTER IN PALM SPRINGS.

Bernard Miles appeared early in his career at the Players Theatre, a mock Victorian music hall; and was in LATE JOYS at the Little Theatre in April 1939 and also appeared in the DIVERSION revues (Joyce Grenfell was in one of these) and recorded some rustic monologues.

Ray believes the characters Flotsam and Gypsum in the Magyar Malady sketch were a take-off of Mr. Flotsam (B.C. Hilliam) and Mr. Jetsam (Malcolm McEaarchern), a famous vocal duo, very popular in England in the 30s.

Nicholas Phipps, who contributed lyrics to Lonely Little Lotus, was Joyce Grenfell's cousin (she was born Joyce Phipps) and had a long film career; he contributed lyrics to many revues, but generally Joyce wrote her own material.  Ray informs me he was a playwright as well.

Victor Clinton Clinton-Baddeley, who wrong Spring Song,  wrote the book THE BURLESQUE TRADITION IN THE ENGLISH THEATRE AFTER 1660 (1954) and ALL RIGHT ON THE NIGHT (1952), several pantomimes including CINDERELLA , JACK AND THE BEANSTALK, ALADDIN, SLEEPING BEAUTY and DICK WHITTINGTON.  Leonard Rossiter appeared in a revival of the latter. Clinton-Baddeley also wrote the mystery novel DEATH'S BRIGHT DART (1967).  He was known as "a master elocutionist and dyed-in-the-wool Dickensian".  He wrote the 1937 film BORN THAT WAY and appeared in the film HIS LORDSHIP (1932) for which he and Eric Maschwitz supplied the music.  He wrote the lyrics and cowrote the book with Scobie Mackenzie to JOLLY ROGER OR THE ADMIRAL'S DAUGHTER, a 1933 comic opera. He wrote the lyrics and cowrote the book with Scobie Mackenzie to THE PRIDE OF THE REGIMENT OR CASHIERED FOR HIS COUNTRY (1932), another comic opera.

Magyar Malady was  a skit on Hungarian musical operetta and possibly a parody of a musical of that title which opened on January 20, 1939 at the His Majesty's Theatre and ran for 105 performances. According to Ray Stanley, this was an operetta-ish romance which starred Binnie Hale with the book and lyrics by Eric Maschwitz and music by George Posford.  Ray informs me the BBC made one of its first experiments in televising a complete musical play from the theatre for this production.

Compiled by Judy Harris

Visit my Joyce Grenfell webpage at http://judyharris.net/grenfell.htm

or my Cyril Ritchard webpage at http://judyharris.net/cyril.htm

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