AustLit

Revusical.

One of the earliest of Jim Gerald's revusicals, 1914-1918 was a fleshed-out adaptation of his musical sketch 'The New Recruit' (1919), with additional musical sequences, comic scenes, and characters. The action is developed over three settings ('A Training Camp', 'Aboard a Transport Ship', and 'Armistice Day in the Trenches'), with the incidents purportedly drawn from his three years' active service.

The characters include the red-nosed raw recruit Private Muggins (played by Gerald), who is 'gifted with a shrewd and ready tongue' (Sydney Morning Herald 11 September 1922, p.5); a sergeant-major; a captain; a regimental cook (played by Lance Vane, who presented him on the lines of 'Old Bill'); a fellow-recruit (an 'effeminate station-hand', played by Reg Hawthorne); and several Red Cross sisters. After his training is completed, Gerald's Private Muggins is made a cook's mate, which the Brisbane Courier's theatre critic records 'afforded him a wide field for fun-making' (27 February 1928, p.6). The location of the camps changed according to the city that Gerald's troupe was then playing. In Sydney, for example, this was the Liverpool Camp, while the Melbourne setting was the Broadmeadows Camp.

The Brisbane Courier theatre critic writes, in 1922, 'Enlisting in 1914 [Mr Gerald's] period as a recruit at Liverpool Camp was one of "persecution" at the hands of Sergeant Major Bluff (Mr Howard Hall) from whose gruff person he got nothing but hostility and abuse. Muggins' discomfiture was further provoked by the austere Captain Aynsley (Mr Ernest Crawford). On board the transport and finally in the trenches Private Muggins was always to the fore' (13 Nov. 1922, p.13). In later years, Brisbane's Telegraph newspaper records that although Gerald availed himself of many and varied humorous situations, 'the comedy was not forced, nor was it carried out to a farcical extreme, but the incidents portrayed were faithful representations of happenings familiar to every digger who enlisted "for the duration"' (20 February 1928, n. pag.). The same review makes special note of the scenery, which is described as having been of a high standard and 'aided by effective lighting'. According to the critic, the most striking scene was the finale, which Gerald set in the trenches at the time of the signing of the Armistice in 1918 (20 February 1928, n. pag.). A 1928 review also notes that the final scene 'developed an unexpected note of pathos and dramatic intensity' (Brisbane Courier 27 February 1928, p.6).

A ballet titled 'On Parade' is known to have been presented during the 1926 Bijou Theatre season. The musical program for the 1928 Brisbane production included such songs as 'You Might Break the Heart of My Dear Old Mother' (sung by Essie Jennings and Jim Gerald), 'Minstrel Boy' (Shannon Raye), 'The Trumpeter' (Ernest Crawford), and 'Dream Girl' (Howard Hall).