Introduction Homepage Backstage Bite Borrowed and Stolen CD Reviews Writers & Composers Email & Chat Room In Depth Just-the-Ticket Links Music Library Overtures and Beginners Record Cabinet Reviews Scrapbook Stout-hearted Men Theatre World Unsung Heroines Year By Year	Musicals adapted from other sources   Half In Earnest When the Duchess of Kent opened the new Belgrade Theatre in Coventry on 27 March 1958, she attended a performance of the first production, the premiere of an adaptation of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest with music, book and lyrics by Vivian Ellis. It was a choice of presentation nicely described by Winifred Bannister in Theatre World as 'dictated by the present need to find something acceptable to young and old without creating dissension at a christening'. With a four-piece orchestra, pretty sets by Peter Rice and direction by Bryan Bailey - 'skilful, especially at the joins' according to the very particular Miss Bannister! - Half in Ernest played out its short season without transferring to Shaftesbury Avenue. Over to Miss Bannister for a perceptive account of what went on on stage - 'The acting was excellent in most cases. I shall never see Lady Bracknell again in my mental vision without hearing Marie Löhr booming 'The cloakroom at Victoria - that grim phantasmagoria .' and picturing a host of red-faced little Ernests rocking pitifully in their handbags. Miss Löhr played the part as if it had never been played before and got away with it; her acting was magnificent. At her first entrance the play really began to take the audience   seriously and were Miss Löhr to sweep all 18 lyrics into the intervals, the worst that would happen to Mr Ellis is that not a soul would leave for further refreshment. Miss Löhr has a voice for her Lady Bracknell that reminds one of a September gale. No wonder the lyrics fell like leaves untimely dropped.' Miss Bannister's little essay makes one wish she had written volumes of theatre criticism. Accompanying Miss Löhr on this occasion were Bryan Johnson (he of that old favourite 'Looking High, High, High') as Algernon, Brian Reece (who had already appeared in two other Ellis musicals, Bless the Bride and Tough at the Top) as Ernest, Stephanie Voss as Cecily, Pamela Jordan as Gwendolyn, Phyllada Sewell as the luckless Miss Prism and Henry Manning as Dr Chasuble.   Sadly, there is no extant recording of Half in Ernest. The published piano selection (with lyrics) is a medley of 'Tea Time', 'So Romantic!', 'The Cloakroom at Victoria', 'Foolish Love', 'The German Lesson', 'How Do You Propose to Propose?' and 'There's No Friend Like a New Friend'. She Smiled at Me ----- Two Versions of 'Caste'   'What on earth induced them to do it? Why couldn't they have left it alone?'   The questions must often have been asked by a bewildered audience leaving the auditorium after watching a performance of a British musical adapted from a book or a play. There seemed to be a positive rash of such pieces in the 50s and 60s, many of which vanished almost without trace. As a solidly made Victorian play, Caste by Tom Robertson had long held the stage without recourse to pipe and timbrel. Until the Sussex composer Allon Bacon came along and thought 'I'll make a musical of it.' Caste kept its original title for the musical adaptation produced at the Connaught Theatre, Worthing for a week's run in October 1955, with a cast led by Cherry Lind as Esther Eccles and Peter Byrne (always remembered as Andy Crawford, the dutiful son of good old George Dixon in the BBC's Dixon of Dock Green) as the Hon. George d'Alroy.   Revised and now named She Smiled at Me the musical re-opened at the Connaught in January 1956 with a much altered cast list, and with Jean Kent replacing Lind in the female lead. It transferred to the St. Martin's Theatre on 2 February under the management of Melville Gillam.   The cast included Hugh Paddick making a rare appearance in a musical play as Sam Gerridge, Robin Bailey [London only] as Captain Hawtree and Mercy Haystead as Polly Eccles. Peter Byrne recalls going back to Jean Kent's flat on the afternoon of the first night. Kent slept on the sofa and he slept on the floor. They both dreaded going to the theatre, knowing it would be a disaster. It was. The gallery booed. On the first Saturday the closing notice was posted. Kent pleaded for it to be taken down. The man from the management said he would have posted it earlier but he hadn't had time, and She Smiled at Me was gone after 4 showings. Is there a recording somewhere? Did an enterprising individual press a switch and recapture it all? There seems almost nothing left by which to remember this unfortunate little piece, except a piano selection of its songs. The titles don't suggest works of Sondheim-like depth, but it would be good to hear this score. The piano medley is made up of 'A Military Man', 'Wouldn't It Be Fun?', 'Marry For Love', 'Shall We Fall In Love?', 'She Smiled At Me', 'Life Is An Empty Thing' and 'Music Hall'.   Strange but true ... on the very same night that Allon Bacon's original edition of his musical of Caste opened in Worthing, another version, also called Caste, premiered at the Theatre Royal, Windsor. It had book and lyrics by Bill Owen and music by Ronald Hill and ran for two weeks (only four performances less than the Bacon version's three manifestations!). It seems utterly to have vanished, leaving not a wrack behind it. But its cast sounds a deal more promising than the Worthing collection. At Windsor, Leslie Henson played Eccles, Sara Gregory was Esther, Betty Paul (one of the most unjustly forgotten ladies of British musicals) was Polly, Bill Shine was Captain Hawtree and Bill Owen played Sam Gerridge, with d'Alroy played by Oliver Neville. It was this production (not the Worthing one) that was at first taken up for a London showing, but the Worthing one made it to the West End first, and the Owen-Hill adaptation was destined for oblivion.   In 1957 Allon Bacon wrote 'Found in a Handbag', a version of The Importance of being Earnest, for a Margate production, but there were to be no more West End sprees for Mr Bacon.   Piano selection of the short-lived 'She Smiled at Me'.   Copyright Adrian Wright [CONTACT ] Webmaster John Knowles EMAIL