AustLit

Revusical.

Revusical.

Ike Cohen (Bert Le Blanc) and Morris Levi (Jake Mack) run a far-from-successful pawnshop that an't help being a place of riotous fun, singing, dancing, and joking. One of the comic incidents in the story involves the selling, for 1s.6d., of an old waistcoat that has £1,000 in one of the pockets. The other characters include Mr Bailey (a theatrical manager), a prima donna of a burlesque company, a show girl, Klondike Mike, Rose Cohen, and a 'lost son and heir' (Age 7 Oct. 1918, p.9).

The musicals numbers inserted into the narrative for the 1917 Brisbane season included 'What a Wonderful Love that Would Be' (sung by Ivy Moore), 'Sailing on the Nancy Lee' and 'The Lights of My Home Town' (Carlton Chase), and 'A Million Dollars Worth of Love' (Queenie Paul).

For the 1918 Brisbane production the songs presented included 'Sailing on the Nancy Lee' and 'My Old Lady' (sung by Mike Connors), 'They're all Good Australian Names' (Mack, Le Blanc, and Connors), 'Gillee Gallah Galloo' (Olga Ray), and 'There's a Garden in Old Italy'.

Revusical.

The songs, dances, and improvised 'business' are loosely tied to a story concerning two Jewish sailors, Ike Cohen (Le Blanc) and Morris Levi (Mack), who are wrecked on the languorous island of Bong. They fall asleep and dream of becoming king and grand secretary respectively, and have, as one review notes, 'a right royal time' (Brisbane Courier 3 December 1917, p.9). For the 1919 Brisbane season, Le Blanc and Mack appeared as a couple of soldiers.

One of the songs incorporated into the 1917 Brisbane season was 'By the Blue Aegean Sea', sung in commemoration of the 'brave men who fell at Gallipoli and in recognition of Heroes Day' (Brisbane Courier 3 December 1917, p.9). The Brisbane Courier notes that in the 1919 production, 'the opening number "Gee! This is a Lonesome Town", seemed to be the key to a very dull proposition, but there was little lonesomeness in the air when things began to develop' (p.9). Other songs incorporated into the storyline included 'Great Big Wonderful Baby' and 'I Want to Go to Tokyo'.

Revusical.

Billed as 'the musical comedy revue of the season [with] delightful novelties, tuneful melodies, new spectacular scenery, exquisite costumes, hilarious situations [and] beautiful concerted numbers' (Truth 26 March 1916, p.7), this revusical sees Bert Le Blanc as Ike Cohen (a man of money) and Jake Mack as Morris Levi (after the money). Complications and much hilarity arise, however, as Mrs Cohen sees to it that she spends the money. The Truth theatre critic wrote of the 1916 Brisbane production:

Full of real humour, [The Gay Mrs Cohen] introduces many novelties and abounding as it is in tuneful melodies and sparkling songs, gives ample scope for the leading lights to show their abilities (26 Mar. 1916, p.7).

For the 1915 Perth season, Glenville Jones and Jack Quinlan, of the New York Comedy Four, impersonated well-known theatrical personalities Martin Brennan (Australian Variety editor) and Sid Russell. Australian Variety records that one of the 'absolute screams' of the 1916 Adelaide production was the Le Blanc/Mack sketch 'The Dying Gladiator' (5 January 1916, n. pag.).

Revusical.

Set in Spain, but staged in 1915 under the cryptic title Central 3251, this one-act 'musical travesty' continues the adventures of Ike Cohen and Morris Levi amid 'a succession of laughable turns, merry dances and tuneful songs'. An Age critic further notes:

Messrs Bert Le Blanc and Jake Mack as Ike Cohen and Morris Levi [bear] the brunt of the travesty upon their shoulders ... Farcical interludes followed one another in rapid succession, [with] particular amusement being aroused by their fishing scene (12 July 1915, p.14).

The production was staged from 1916 onwards as the 'spicy, sparkling Spanish spree' In Old Seville (Brisbane Courier 5 January 1918, p.2). A Brisbane theatre critic indicates that Le Blanc (Ike) and his off-sider Jack Mack (Morris) play a pair of bullfighters. The review also refers to the production as a 'musical burlesque' (7 Jan. 1918, p.9).

The 1915 Melbourne production saw Carrie Moore garner much acclaim for 'My Bird of Paradise' (her 'latest song success') and the rousing patriotic ditty 'I Love You Australia' (performed as squadron after squadron of Light Horse marched across a cinematograph screen at the back of the stage). Along with Nellie Fallon's three well-received songs and dances and Carlton Chase's hit 'In the Heart of the City', the production's other musical sequences involved performances by the New York Comedy Four and the Pony Ballet's humorous 'Charlie Chaplin Ballet'. Four other ballets were staged by this troupe of dancers: 'The Quaint Pyjama Ballet', 'The Pretty Pierrot Ballet', 'The Novel Railroad Ballet', and 'The Clever Spanish Ballet' (Age 10 July 1915, p.16).

Revusical.

Arguably one of Bert Le Blanc's most popular creations, Fuzzy Wuzzy was staged regularly by his Travesty Stars between 1915 and ca. 1922. The action is set in a bank, with Ike Cohen and Morris Levi putting in and taking out 'mornings and evenings'. The Truth newspapers indicates that the narrative allowed 'good choruses, splendid solos, clever dancing and amusing patter [to be] worked in' (12 March 1916, p.7). As such, it was variously described as a 'revue', a 'musical extravaganza' (Truth 1 April 1916, p.7), 'the quintessence of musical comedy... crammed full with tuneful musical numbers' (Brisbane Courier 17 December 1917, p.11), and 'a musical travesty' (Brisbane Courier 9 December 1918, p.5).

The principal characters are Ike Cohen and Morris Levi (on business and pleasure), General Steele and his four daughters, Percy Cheatem (a bad-un), Harvard Yale (educated), and the society women Lady Grafter and Lady Fleecem.

Although there would likely have been quite a number of changes to the revusical over the years, the latter versions probably share a foundation with the 1915 production. Specific comedy routines and songs, however, would have been reworked in order to provide topicality and social relevance.

Songs incorporated into the 1918 production included 'Dance that Dengozo with Me' and 'In a Bungalow Where the Red Roses Grow' (sung by Lilian Colenzo); 'Lonesome Baby' (Olga Ray); 'The Strains of a Wedding March', 'Where the River Shannon Flows', and 'Summer Moon' (Mike Connors); and 'The Deathless Army' (Will Raynor).

A dramatic recreation of the events surrounding the infamous murderer Dr Hawley Crippen, including his attempt to flee from England to America by ship, his capture by a Scotland Yard detective in a Canadian port and his eventual trial and execution in London.

Although attributed to 'Anson Grave' the authorship was in fact a play the names Anderson (Anson) and Redgrave (Grave). This is supported by a brief note in the Adelaide Advertiser which reads: 'The new drama founded on the Crippen case (to be staged at the King's Theatre, Melbourne) is written by Messrs. William Anderson and Roy Redgrave' (1 October 1910, p9).

The two biggest scenes, according to the Advertiser were set in London's Royal Music Hall and aboard the R.M.S. "Richmond" at sea (22 October 1910, p20). Chief among the "thrills" and incidents played out in the drama, too, was "an ocean fight for the possession of a wireless apparatus" (Queenslander 29 October 1910, p3). Redgrave naturally played Crippen, with George Cross as Inspector Walter Dew (Scotland Yard), and Max Clifton as the ship's captain. Other principal parts were taken by Bert Bailey, Edmund Duggan, Fred Kehoe and Olive Wilton. The music hall scene is believed to have incorporated vaudeville performances from several artists including Ida Gresham.

The advertised scenes are:

• Scene 1. Interior of the Royal Music-hall, London. The Message from Mid-Channel.
• Scene 2. Outside 105 Camberwell Road.
• Scene 3. Interior of 105 Camberwell Road. The Wireless in the Cellar - The Discovery. The Murder.
• Scene 4. Room in Dr Crippen's house.
• Scene 5. Outside Charing Cross Station.
• Scene 6. Entrance Hall of the Hotel des Frides. Bloodhounds on the trail.
• Scene 7. The R.M.S. Richmond at the Quay.
• Scene 8. The Richmond in Mid-ocean. The Struggle at the Masthead for the Mastery of the Wireless. One of the Most Thrilling Sensations Ever Presented.
• Scene 9. Crippen's Cell in the Old Bailey.
• Scene 10. Corridor in the Old Bailey.
• Scene 11. Court-room in the Old Bailey. The Trial - Ethel speaks in her own defence - Dr Crippen's big move - The Verdict.

Little is known about the plot of this play.

In reviewing the 1909 Melbourne premiere, the Age records that this version of The Babes in the Wood had 'a decidedly Australian flavour' (28 December 1909, p.6). The chief characters include the two children, Jack (the miller's son), Maria (the children's governess), the two robbers (described as 'a robber bold and a robber bolder'), Baron Steakanchips, Phyllis (the baron's daughter), the Demon King, and Titania (the Fairy Queen). The cast, as advertised in the West Australian, included some 250 people, playing such characters as goblins, fairies, bathers, sailors, imps, demons, birds, huntsmen, sprites, will-o-the-wisps, and giants.

The Argus also reports that the prologue, 'a story in itself', takes place in

'a veritable palace of mammoth toys, in which soldiers, teddy bears, Noah's Arks, golly-wogs and storybooks figure prominently. Santa Claus [also] arrives in his aeroplane amongst the wondering youngsters who are thinking out the pantomime they would like. The magic book opens and shows them successively Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Sinbad and last, The Babes in the Wood, which the youngsters acclaim with glee in a song and dance "The Baby Park Parade." The pantomime proper then begins in the icy regions around the North Pole where the Demon King lives' (28 December 1909, p.7).

Songs known to have been incorporated into the narrative included 'Australia's Got a Navy of Her Own', 'Ship Ahoy', 'The Silvery Moon', and 'Banish Sorrow' (sung by Lilian Lea); 'By the Blue Lagoon' (Lilian Lea and Alice Bennetto); 'What, What, What' (James Foreman and Peter Fannan); 'The Grand Hotel', 'Vodka Be Mine', and 'When Mr Poverty Comes Knocking at Your Door' (Nat Clifford); 'Bottle O' and 'Up in an Aeroplane' (Jack Hagan); 'Policeman Moon' (Alice Bennetto); 'Oh Ah Oh Ah' (Nat Clifford and George Dean); and a song sung to the final tableaux, 'Australia's Pride' (James Hughes).

The spectacular highlights of the production are said to have been 'The Baby Park Parade', 'The Fairy Picture Book', 'The Iceberg of the Fairy Queen', 'The Children's Palace of Toys', 'The Big Hat Parade', 'Australia's Navy', 'The Burlesque Fight of the Robbers', and 'Revels at the Seaside.' Miss Margaret Kloss also performed a dance to the ballet 'Vision of Salome Waltz.'