CDs: Four from Must Close Saturday Records
From the '20s to the '50s, one of England's outstanding musical-theatre composers was Vivian Ellis, whose major West End shows include Mr. Cinders 1929, with the hit song "Spread a Little Happiness", Bless the Bride 1947, and The Water Gypsies 1955.
In addition to its recent reissues of the London cast recordings of Stop the World-I Want to Get Off and the little-known gem Virtue in Danger, the U.K. label Must Close Saturday Records has released a combination of two Ellis scores, both from 1934, the revue Streamline and the book show Jill Darling.
One of producer Charles B. Cochran's better revues, Streamline played the Palace Theatre for 178 performances. With words by A.P. Herbert and Ronald Jeans, Streamline starred glamorous comedienne-impersonator Florence Desmond. The show's most celebrated number, delivered by Norah Howard, was "Other People's Babies," a sentimental song offering the viewpoint of a quintessential British nanny.
With the numbers introduced by Cochran himself, the Streamline recordings include Desmond's spoof of British aviatrix Amy Johnson in "A British Mother's Big Flight," and Desmond's impersonations including Jimmy Durante and Mae West in "Be Yourself." There are pretty ballads in "Kiss Me, Dear" and "You Turned Your Head." And the longest track is devoted to "Perseverance," a send-up of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas.
With lyrics by Desmond Carter, Ellis' Jill Darling lasted 242 performances at the Saville Theatre. The show was a vehicle for Frances Day, who played an English girl impersonating a Hungarian cabaret star. Opposite her, leading man Arthur Riscoe appeared in a dual role, playing a parliamentary candidate and his double.
The six original-cast tracks recorded from Jill Darling include four Day numbers, two of them with Riscoe, and two duets for dancers Louise Browne and John Mills, the latter to become one of England's most distinguished actors. He can be seen as Old Deuteronomy on the television video of Cats. The most celebrated Jill Darling number is the Mills-Browne "I'm on a See-Saw," which was also the title of Ellis' autobiography. The other Mills-Browne number, "Nonny Nonny No," is also a toe-tapper.
During the same period that saw Ellis' successes, there was always Noel Coward, a far more famous theatre composer, probably because he was an international figure who was also a lyricist, librettist, playwright, director, star actor, and singing entertainer.
Must Close Saturday has also just released Noel Coward and Harry Noble Sing Coward, another combination CD, this one offering two obscure LP albums, both recorded in 1954, and each including nine songs, with three numbers in common. I'll See You Again, originally on Philips, features the Master himself in the last British recordings that Coward made, accompanied by musical director/orchestrator Wally Stott and his orchestra.
This is followed by little-known U.S. singer-actor Noble's World Weary: The Songs of Noel Coward, originally a Heritage LP. Noble seems to have been the first artist other than Coward himself to attempt an entire LP of Coward songs, and Noble includes the rarely performed "Imagine the Duchess's Feelings When Her Youngest Son Went Red" and "Something to Do With Spring." Noble is accompanied by Stuart Ross at the piano.
Even with his vocal limitations, Coward was an incomparable interpreter of his material, and his many recordings are treasures. You may be familiar with DRG's reissues of Noel Coward in New York and Las Vegas, and I'll See You Again, recorded in the same period, is in a similar vein and equally enjoyable.
Unlike Coward, Noble is a legit singer, who offers an attractive, light, high baritone that sometimes sounds like a tenor. But he also delivers the lyrics nimbly. In fact, he's an elegant singer, and his World Weary recital is lovely.
Another Must Close Saturday solo recital with piano accompaniment this one also features a double bass is Gabrielle Bell's performance of songs by composer Harry Parr Davies. But this disc is newly recorded, a follow-up to the same label's 2004 CD No More Love Songs: Songs from British Musicals 1950-1975, which also featured Bell accompanied by Rex Walford.
Beginning his career by writing film songs for beloved English star Gracie Fields, Harry Parr Davies went on to contribute songs to British revues and book musicals from the late '30s through the early '50s. His shows include the dramatic Lisbon Story, the farcical Blue for a Boy, and Dear Miss Phoebe, based on J.M. Barrie's Quality Street.
Bell performs twenty Parr Davies compositions, delivering them in a clear, unadorned, and appealing soprano. The Lisbon Story, which concerned a French opera singer rescuing an atomic scientist from the Gestapo, gets six selections, although absent is the score's best-known number, "Pedro the Fisherman." Eight of Bell's performances here rank as premiere recordings.
London's Players Theatre is remembered in musical-theatre history as the venue where Sandy Wilson's The Boy Friend had its world premiere. The company was also involved in the production of such West End musicals as The Crooked Mile, Johnny the Priest, and Twenty Minutes South. But the Players was best known as a home for English music hall entertainment.
Must Close Saturday's Late Joys is a reissue of a recording made live at the Players in 1964, offering a recreation of an evening of Victorian music hall, with traditional songs of the period introduced by "chairman" Don Gemmell the West End producer of The Crooked Mile, Johnny the Priest, and Divorce Me, Darling! and accompanied by the twin pianos of Peter Greenwell composer of The Crooked Mile and Twenty Minutes South and Geoffrey Brawn.
The singers, who are greeted in rowdy fashion by an enthusiastic audience, include Carry On film regular Hattie Jacques and such West End performers as Joan Sterndale Bennett the original Mme. Dubonnet in The Boy Friend, Stella Moray, Josephine Gordon, Patsy Rowlands, and Daphne Anderson. It's a spirited show, if likely to be of peripheral interest to show fans.