- Jill Darling
Book by Marriott Edgar and Desmond Carter. Lyrics by Desmond
Carter
Music by Vivian Ellis
Original London cast: Frances Day, Arthur Riscoe, John Mills,
Louise Browne. Musical director: Francis M. Collinson
SONGS: Dancing With A Ghost; Pardon My English; We'll
Lay Our Heads Together; I'll Do The Most Extraordinary Things;
Nonny Nonny No; I'm On A See-Saw
-
- Jill Darling's original cast recorded only six songs after
its opening at the Saville Theatre in December 1934. Vivian Ellis's
agreeable vehicle for the alluring Frances Day lasted 242 performances.
Hers is a quality, ethereal, highly sexual, naughty but innocent,
that transfers directly to the gramophone, making something intensely
personal of the best of the material. In 'Dancing With A Ghost',
for instance, (and the ghost she danced with on stage was no
less than Frederick Ashton) there is no barrier between her and
the listener as she delivers this suitably haunting, floating
and rather flat melody. One can't imagine it being better done
by anyone else. Miss Day had a way with humour, too. In 'Pardon
My English' we hear a number sung when Jill (for some insubstantial
reason) impersonates a Hungarian actress. Ellis's words are so
deft, and his music so apposite that Miss Day simply plays on
top of them, transmitting a lyric in broken English imploring
that 'If you hear rumours/ That I am splitting my infinitives/
Pardon my bloomers, please.' Her duets with the laid-back Arthur
Riscoe (rather in the way of a working man's Jack Buchanan) tell
you all you need to know of her magic, and the pair does work
well together. There is spoken dialogue at the beginning of the
entrancing 'We'll Lay Our Heads Together' ('on some small pillow
some day') that I have never been able to make head or tail of,
but anything is forgivable in this company. The second leads,
John Mills and Louise Browne, got the only number that has really
survived, 'I'm On A See-Saw', a piece that perfectly catches
that unique feeling of child-like pleasure that Ellis revelled
in.
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