The Girl Who Came To Supper

Book by Harry Kurnitz, based on the play The Sleeping Prince by Terence Rattigan. Music and lyrics by Noel Coward

Original Broadway cast: Jose Ferrer, Florence Henderson, Irene Browne, Tessie O'Shea, Roderick Cook, Sean Scully, Carey Nairnes md Jay Blackton

 

Carpathian National Anthem; My Family Tree; I've Been Invited To A Party; When Foreign Princes Come To Visit Us; Sir Or Ma'am; Soliloquies; Lonely; London Is A Little Bit Of All Right [sequence]; Here And Now; Coronation Chorale; How Do You Do, Middle Age?; Curt, Clear And Concise; The Coconut Girl [sequence]; This Time It's True Love; I'll Remember Her.

 

Noel Coward sings his score for 'The Girl Who Came To Supper' includes numbers on original cast recording, as well as: Time Will Tell; Long Live The King - If He Can; If Only Mrs Applejohn Were Here; I'm A Lonely Man; What's The Matter With A Nice Beef Stew? [ from 'London' sequence of songs]; Just People.

 

As always, when confronted with his own work, Noel Coward had the highest opinion of his songs for the musical that opened on Broadway in December 1963 and hung around for 112 showings: he merely thought that everyone else should have given it more 'heart'. In his final score, he seized the opportunity to write material that seemed to fit a story set in London around the time of the coronation of George V in 1911, without penning anything very memorable.

 

The most welcome moments in this romance between the Grand Duke Charles (Jose Ferrer) and a chorus girl, Mary Morgan (Florence Henderson), were when Coward dropped the attempted wit and opened his own 'heart'. It all seemed too reminiscent of My Fair Lady without coming near that work's quality; perhaps it was no surprise that its announced Theatre Royal Drury Lane opening did not happen, for the show's inadequacy would have been cruelly exposed.

 

The songs have more than their fair share of meandering, apparently witty lyrics, delivered with the required crispness, but they don't add up to anything much. There is even 'My Family Tree', a revamping of 'Countess Mitzi' from Coward's faded 1938 operetta Operette. Ferrer, cast after Rex Harrison had refused the role, is competent if unappealing, rolling his 'r's in typical Coward style through the depressingly titled 'Lonely'(with its irritating gypsy violin accompaniment) and 'How Do You Do, Middle Age'. The songs sound like the work of an old man; they are the work of an old man.

 

Henderson, much praised for her stage performance, comes across as highly professional and steely charming in her solos, radiant of voice in 'Here And Now' and nicely relating her excitement that 'I've Been Invited To A Party'. When she gives a potted version and medley of the musical 'The Coconut Girl' in which she is appearing, she bursts into something beyond the insipid soprano. Her antics in this lovely little pastiche of a certain type of English show (beautifully written by Coward and nicely orchestrated by Robert Russell Bennett) are entrancing: listen to her part-singing of 'Six Lilies Of The Valley' - with all the other parts missing.

 

And of course there is Tessie O'Shea who, as Ada Cockle (a character not found in Rattigan's original), is given a sequence of East End knees-up songs 'London Is A Little Bit Of All Right'. The arrangements may be unattractive, and the repeat choruses sung by the chorus interminable, but through it all O'Shea shines like the star she never was. It is an incandescent performance, a little gem that O'Shea, with her innate understanding of the microphone, transforms into high art. What heart would not melt at O'Shea's dialogue when she hears the striking of Big Ben? The photograph of her listening to the playback with record producer Goddard Lieberson is infinitely touching, too, for we see the face of a classic clown (and sad woman, for O'Shea's personal life was not of the happiest). It is small wonder that it was she who took the notices from the billed leads, who mostly are little more than proficient. Alas, O'Shea was only to return once more to Broadway, for the even more short-lived A Time For Singing. It is only she and Henderson (when she gets her hands on The Coconut Girl) who make The Girl Who Came To Supper
worthwhile.

Coward, of course, sings the stuff impeccably and fully in a valuable issue containing his demo recordings of the score. The sessions included several numbers subsequently unused or cut during the show's progress to Broadway. 'Long Live The King - If He Can' had to be cut when President Kennedy was assassinated. In truth, these forgotten songs don't add up to much, but as a historical document this is a fascinating recording.

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