Pacific 1860

Book music and lyrics by Noel Coward

Original London cast: Mary Martin, Graham Payn, Sylvia Cecil, Daphne Anderson, Rose Hignall, Maidie Andrews, Gwen Bateman, Pat McGrath, Maria Perilli, Winefride Ingham md Mantovani

His Excellency Regrets; Dear Madame Salvador; My Horse Has Cast A Shoe; Invitation To The Waltz; I Saw No Shadow; Pretty Little Bridesmaids; Mothers' Lament; Bright Was The Day; I Wish I Wasn't Quite Such A Big Girl; One, Two, Three; I Never Knew; If I Were A Man; Uncle Harry; This Is A Changing World; Fumfumbolo; This Is A Night For Lovers; The Toast Music

Coward had the highest hopes for his 'musical romance' that re-opened the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in December 1946. He found Mary Martin (making her British debut) adorable, was ecstatic about having the Lane, and sure that his Home and Colonial piece would be a great success. Before the show opened, he had fallen out with Martin, the Lane proved to be inhospitable and freezing cold, and the show a major flop with critics and audiences.

A.E. Wilson considered it 'a beautifully-staged, but disappointingly tepid affair emotion was never aroused and humour was almost entirely absent. The lyrics had a certain crisp neatness.' Even the kindly Theatre World suggested that Coward's muse had deserted him, adding, in a devastating review, that 'The play is devoid of wit and humour, and there is not a single melody vivid enough to haunt the memory afterwards.

Throughout the evening the music seems to be paving the way for the big number that never happens. It is never used to heighten the situations of the plot. No wonder we are disappointed with the tame entertainment provided by Mr Coward for the re-opening of Garrick's playhouse and for the debut of so glamorous a star [Martin]. "I want to enjoy myself," says one of the bored bridesmaids in the last act. So do we' Pacific 1860 ran only 129 performances.

Fortunately, the larger part of the score was laid down on 78s, where it is not necessary to concern ourselves with the tedious plot about Martin's prima donna lighting on the Southern Pacific island of Samolo and falling in love with handsome young Kerry Stirling (Graham Payn). The score finds Coward at his most meandering and ill-disciplined, with seemingly interminable rhymes and numbers that chunter their way to a breathless conclusion. This is simply old fashioned operetta; as if Oklahoma! had never happened.

Martin has the plums of the romantic material, but there is something depressing about 'I Saw No Shadow', and something faintly ludicrous about the very clipped tones she is forced to adopt for the galloping 'One, Two, Three'. One wonders if any of the songs carried the vast expanses of the Lane. By opening night she had refused to sing another of Coward's numbers, 'Alice Is At It Again', apparently finding it too suggestive.

With relief one turns to Martin's main duet with Payn, 'Bright Was The Day', which is pleasing without being in the least distinguished. Payn makes a faint leading man, sounding more polite than star-like, with his brisk Cowardy enunciation, for once again he had been forced into a leading role by his lover and - sadly - Payn was not equipped to storm a stage. Payn's singing of the never-ending 'Fumfumbolo' seems almost a punishment inflicted both on him and on us. There are several revue-like moments, including Daphne Anderson's admission that 'I Wish I Wasn't Quite Such A Big Girl': nothing to do with the plot, the idea wears thin all too quickly. As compensation, there is that most statuesque of sopranos Sylvia Cecil, playing Rosa Cariatanza, who is given the best song of the score 'This Is A Changing World (My Dear)'. Theatre World noted that 'it stirs the audience to a semblance of life'. Perhaps Miss Cecil was not such a favourite with other members of the cast. Chorus members used to pass her dressing room singing 'This is your change of life, my dear.'

 

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