AustLit

Musical comedy.

The Times critic wrote of the opening night:

'When the curtain rose, the scenery was promising... for we were introduced, straightaway, to one of those inns which Dickens loved to describe. To this inn came a series of the Dickensian characters that the programme had led us to expect [College Bloods, hunting ladies, hunting men and so on] - and there the promise ended. The piece started haltingly and ended haltingly. In the first act there were real horses, real hounds and a number of real hens; in the last act there were 26 real candles; but there was never a real atmosphere of the 'good old days,' and never a real musical comedy... we were never allowed to guess what it was all about'.

The critic added, 'Its music (by Mr Percy Fletcher) is rarely striking; its book, by Mr Oscar Asche, striking only when it falls into pantomime blank verse. The evening, in fact, was mainly interesting because of the unexpected naivete of the production' (28 October 1925, p.12).

Described in advertising as a 'mosaic in music and mime', this successor to Asche's immensely popular theatrical extravaganza Chu Chin Chow similarly unfolds around passion and poetry, love and hate, tender slave girls and ardent princes, delicate love, romance, and bacchanalian frenzy in the days of fierce intrigue and savagery.

The story concerns Ali Shar, a wrestler whose daughter Zummurud catches the attention of the young and handsome sultan (Al Malik-al-Nasir) during one of his trips (in disguise) through the city. Prince Nur-al-Din, a crafty villain who covets the throne, orders the death of his sister's child and tricks Ali Shar into attempting to kill the sultan in a wrestling match, by telling him that the sultan intends to add Zummurud to his harem. The sultan eludes Ali's killer grip and then orders the wrestler to make a pilgrimage to Mecca as an atonement. While on his way to Mecca, Ali falls in with a band of pilgrims who are taken prisoner by the prince, who has also taken Zummurud as his hostage. Pretending to be dumb, Ali enters the service of the prince's sister, Sharazad, and together they plot to rescue Zummurud and bring the prince to justice. Zummurud accidentally betrays her father, and he is sold as a slave. He is able to escape, however, and subsequently kills the prince. The sultan and Zummurud are then reunited.

Cairo incorporated ten songs into its narrative: 'From Bagdad We Come', 'Story of the Sphinx', 'My King of Love', 'A Fool There Was', 'When Love Knocked', 'Chinaman's Song', 'Hast Thou Been to Mecca', 'Dance Poem', 'The King of Nur-Al-Din', and 'Love in my Breast'.

Musical comedy.

Although described in pre-season advertising as a revue, Eastwood Ho! falls into the musical comedy genre due to its reliance on a dramatically organised plot. The narrative's basic premise has the various characters set sail from London (which includes a scene in Piccadilly) for the Middle East on a treasure hunt. One of the more spectacular scenes, according to the Times critic, was set in a Phoenician temple. The same critic was not overly impressed with the show, particularly the book, writing:

'It was rather a pity that Mr Oscar Asche's party of treasure seekers did not reach the East until the proceedings had not been particularly exciting.... When once we had got to Cairo things began to improve, mainly because Mr Asche at last had an opportunity of letting his imagination run riot... [but] the book is particularly weak, and it was really rather painful last night to see a host of clever people struggling with such material' (10 September 1919, p.8).

The Pall Mall Gazette critic was of a similar opinion, pointing to the temple scene (complete with livestock and 'Chu Chin Chow-ish Oriental medley') and the 'Dream of Babylon' as examples of the show's spectacular settings. The delays between scenes and the 'excuse for a plot' were deemed, however, as detrimental to the show's chance of success (10 September 1919, p.5).

Songs known to have been written for the production are 'Dreams', and 'Only I had Known', both sung by Violet Lorraine.

Musical extravaganza.

Presented in two acts, the story concerns Abu Hasan, an intrepid merchant-pirate who masquerades in various extravagant disguises (including that of a Hebrew Damascene and a Grecian prince), so that he and his forty brigands can plunder and humiliate the wealthy despots of the East, enriching Hasan's already overflowing and legendary cave. For this particular adventure, he becomes the great Chu Chin Chow of China as a means of gaining access to the palace of Kasim Baba. A secondary theme concerns the two lovely slave girls (Zahrat and Marjanah, the latter in love with Nur-Al-Hudra) who are determined to win their freedom. Zahat discovers Abu Hasan's true identity after 'Chu Chin Chow' kills Kasim, while Marjanah stumbles on the secret password for his hideout ('Open sesame'). She is then able to set in motion the opportunity they need. The women counter Chu Chin Chow's cunning with feminine guile and create the opportunity they need by bargaining with the brigand chieftain. Abu Hasan attempts to overcome their plan by attending the wedding of Marjanah and Nur disguised as a wealthy oil merchant, whose forty jars of 'oil' actually hold forty brigands. Zahat discovers both his identity and evil plans, and kills his men by pouring boiling oil over them. She then finishes the job by stabbing Abu Hasan to death.

The Saturday Review wrote of Chu Chin Chow's London closing in 1921:

'He came, like another Eastern, King David, to a good old age, full of riches and honour. But none can ever reign in his stead. There is left a gap in the life of London, and indeed of the country, which nothing can adequately fill, for Chu Chin Chow had become in truth part of the national life. Country cousins set out upon the desperate adventure of their first visit to the metropolis with the firm determination to see it come else what may. It had supplanted in their hearts the place usually reserved for the Abbey or the Tower. It had become a tradition which nothing can adequately fill' (qtd in Brisbane Courier 24 September 1921, p.13).

Play with music.

Based on the novel Child of Storm (1913) by Sir H. Rider Haggard, the story revolves around Mameena, a young girl of both Zulu and English heritage, whose attempts to come to terms with both aspects of her identity - seen through her relationships with the white traders and black men of the tribe - creates a great deal of conflict for all.

Play with music.

Kismet's story is played out over the course of one day, with Act 1 set during the morning and Act 2 set during the evening. The epilogue contains a number of songs and dances and is played out in a street in front of the Mosque of the Carpenters.

Hajj, a beggar whom we soon gather was not always so, chances upon a bag of gold flung at him by his one-time enemy Sheikh Jawan, when he foolishly prophesises that the sheikh will meet his long-lost son before the day has ended. Meanwhile, the young Caliph Abdullah, who is in disguise, meets Hajj's only child, the beautiful Marsinah, and falls instantly in love with her. She, in turn, falls for him, but is under the impression he is the gardener's son. Puffed up with pride at having found a windfall, Hajj promises his daughter that she will have a rich marriage.

As the story progresses Hajj undergoes a series of adventures, which include tricking some tailors out of fine garments and end with him being hauled before the wicked Wazir Mansur on stealing charges. The wazir plies Hajj with wine and puffs up his pride even further, promising to marry Hajj's daughter if Hajj will kill the young Caliph Abdullah. In his state of stupor, Hajj agrees but when his attempt to kill the caliph fails, he is thrown into the same prison as Sheikh Jawan, whom he had denounced to Wazir Mansur as a robber. Hajj kills Jawan, breaks out of gaol in Jawan's clothes, rescues his daughter and the caliph, and kills the wazir (who proves to be Sheikh Jawan's long-lost son) by holding him under the water of his own women's bath. Although Hajj has helped the caliph and become his father-in-law, he is banished from the city, and the play ends with him returning to the market place (where only that morning he had been a beggar). As he begins his pilgrimage to Mecca to atone for his sins, Hajj surmises that 'many strange things may happen to men by the will of Allah between sunrise and sunset.'

Set in Paris in 1572 during one of the country's bloodiest eras, when 10,000 protestant citizens were murdered on St Bartholomew's Day (24 August) on the orders of Charles IX, his mother, Catherine de Medici, and the Duke of Guise. Leading up to the opening of the play the half crazy Charles IX's sister Marguerite de Valois is to marry Henry of Navarre so as to reconcile the two factions in France's civil war. The union is, however, a ruse to trick the Huguenots and bring about their slaughter. The play begins with the King absorbed in a game of cards. The conspiritors manage to obtain his signature to a decree ordering the massacre. Clohilde who knows of the plot is unable to tell her lover, Tigonville, of the plan but manages to get him to promise that he will visit the house next to the Golden Maid before midnight. There he finds assassins preparing for the night's hideous work. Each man is given a white band to tie on his arm so as to identify him and keep him form being killed by mistake. Tigonville is conscripted into the group against his will.

The second act sees the massacre carried out. That same evening Count Hannibal presses his intentions on Clothilde and offers to save Tigonville if she marries him instead. Tigonville has escaped, however, and enters the hotel whereupon he and Hannibal fight, having first agreed to a compact - the winner can take Clothilde as his wife. Tigonville is outsmarted in the fight and wounded, and the Count forces Clothilde to marry him agaisnt her will.

The final scene involves the attempted assassination of Count Hannibal's as he makes his way to the King with papers directing the murder of the Angers Huguenots. During the fight, carried out at the Angers Inn, Clothilde steals the papers. The finale is reached at the Castle of Vrillac, where a melee with the people of Angers occurs. The wounded Hannibal and his two faithful troopers escape and keep their spirits up by recounting stories of prowess in days long past. Clothidle appears in the end and gives Hannibal comfort by telling him that she did not really love Tigonville as she had said but instead loves him.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald theatre critic, Asche's dramatisation shows Tigonville as more of a hero than he appears in Weyman's original story. Asche also brought in the solemn reading of the marriage service, and follows the book by including the key scene between Hannibal and Clothilde in which the Count says : 'Shall it be a kiss or a blow between us?'

The Argus theatre critic wrote of the Melbourne premiere : 'Mr Oscar Asche, who is chiefly responsible for the dramatisation, has built up a bustling, moving play, rapid and realistic in character, and extremely palatable to those who delight in taking their evening's entertainment at the point of the sword. The production bristles with alarming incident, never leaving a moment's time for thought...' (17 January 1910, p9). The Sydney Morning Herald critic also noted the speed of the production, indicating that he or she was initially concerned that characterisation might suffer, especially as it also involved frequent fight scenes. The critic's appraisal, however, was that the dramatists had capably developed the story so that this was not an issue, and indeed commended Asche on being able to combine spectacle and plot so successfully (18 January 1910, p5).