Our Miss Gibbs is an Edwardian musical comedy in two acts by 'Cryptos' and James T. Tanner, with lyrics by Adrian Ross and Percy Greenbank, music by Ivan Caryll and Lionel Monckton. Produced by George Edwardes, it opened at the Gaiety Theatre in London on 23 January 1909 and ran for an extremely successful 636 performances. It starred Gertie Millar, Edmund Payne and George Grossmith, Jr. The young Gladys Cooper played the small role of Lady Connie, with Jean Rhys in the chorus.[1]
The show also had a short Broadway run in 1910.[2] It was revived at the Finborough Theatre, London, in May 2006. This was the first professional London production since 1910. The piece was regularly revived by amateur theatre groups, particularly in Britain, from the 1920s into the 1950s but it has been produced only rarely since then.[3] Our Miss Gibbs was revived by the Lyric Theatre in July and August 2011 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts and the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek, California. The revival featured a cast of 22 and a 9-piece orchestra.
Roles and original cast
edit- The Hon. Hughie Pierrepoint (An Amateur Criminal) – George Grossmith, Jr.
- Slithers (A Professional Crook) – Robert Hale
- Mr. Toplady (Manager at Garrod's) – Arthur Hatherton
- Lord Eynsford (In Love with Mary) – J. Edward Fraser
- Mr. Amalfy (The Director-General of the White City) – H. B. Burcher
- Timothy Gibbs (Mary's Yorkshire Cousin) – Edmund Payne
- Lady Elizabeth Thanet (Engaged to Lord Eynsford) – Denise Orme
- Madame Jeanne (Modiste at Garrod's) – Jean Aylwin
- Mrs. Farquhar (An Impecunious Woman of Fashion) – Maisie Gay
- Lady Connie – Gladys Cooper
- Miss Gibbs (Mary) – Gertie Millar
- Lady Sybil Julia James - Blanche Stocker
Synopsis
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- Act I
Mary Gibbs is a Yorkshire lass who, in 1908, has found work at Garrods in London as a shop girl, selling candy. The young men are making themselves ill eating the sweets they buy to gain the attention of the beautiful, but no-nonsense Mary, who disapproves of their attempts at familiarity. Miss Gibbs has fallen in love with a young bank clerk who is actually the son of an Earl, Lord Eynsford, in disguise. His father would not consent to his marrying a shop girl. When she discovers that young Eynsford has lied to her, she breaks up with him.
Mary's cousin Timothy travels from Yorkshire to play in the town band for a contest at the Crystal Palace. He is a very unsophisticated country boy, and he has a variety of humorous big city adventures. Timothy gets entangled in a crime by mistakenly picking up a bag. Inside the bag is the Ascot Gold Cup (the trophy for Britain's most prestigious long-distance horse race). The cup has just been stolen by the Hon. Hughie Pierrepoint.
- Act II
At the Franco-British Exhibition in White City, Timothy worries that the police will find him and accuse him of the crime. He disguises himself as a contestant in the Olympic marathon race. When he staggers into the stadium, he is mistakenly declared to be the winner. The Gold Cup is eventually recovered and returned to its owner, who is coincidentally Lord Eynsford. He is now so enchanted with Mary that he is eager for her to become his daughter-in-law, and all ends happily.
Musical numbers
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Australian production
editJ.C. Williamson Ltd. presented the first Australian production of Our Miss Gibbs, which opened at Her Majesty's Theatre, Sydney on 24 September 1910 and was directed by Gerard Coventry.[4] The English actress Blanche Browne played Miss Gibbs, with Langford Kirby as the Hon. Hughie Pierrepoint, Fred Leslie as Slithers and Bertie Wright as Timothy Gibbs.[5] The young actress, Vera Pearce, then aged fifteen, also appeared and won early acclaim in what was a formative role in her career.[6] In April 1911 the production reached its 200th performance,[7] marked by the issue of a souvenir programme, which the Sunday Times reported as "a new Australian long-run record". The production became a staple of the J.C. Williamson repertoire and was revived by the firm in 1915, 1916 and 1917.[8] It was again revived in 1933 starring Madge Elliott and Cyril Ritchard.[9]
Reviewing the opening The Sydney Morning Herald called it "a typical Gaiety piece" and described the staging as "magnificently put on", with scenery by the J.C. Williamson firm's artists Little, Board and John "Jack" Gordon (son of scenic artist, George Gordon), who was responsible for a second-act table reproducing the Court of Honour at the Franco-British Exhibition (1908).[10]
Notes
edit- ↑ Jean Rhys: Life and Work, Carole Angier, 1990, Little, Brown and Co, page 53
- ↑ IBDB entry for the 1910 Broadway production
- ↑ Bond, Ian. "Rarely Produced Shows" Archived 2011-07-16 at the Wayback Machine. St. David's Players, accessed 22 July 2010
- ↑ ""Our Miss Gibbs"". The Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney. 26 September 1910. p. 3. Retrieved 10 June 2026 – via Trove.
- ↑ ""Our Miss Gibbs"". The Daily Telegraph. Sydney. 17 September 1910. p. 15. Retrieved 10 June 2026 – via Trove.
- ↑ Murphy, Lynne (1995). "Vera Pearce". In Parsons, Philip (ed.). Companion to Theatre in Australia. Sydney: Currency Press. p. 429.
- ↑ "Theatre Royal—"Our Miss Gibbs"". Sunday Times. Sydney. 26 February 1911. p. 2. Retrieved 10 June 2026 – via Trove.
- ↑ "J. C. Williamson's — performances". AusStage. Flinders University. Retrieved 10 June 2026.
- ↑ "Thus Far: The Story of My Life (Part 6)". On Stage. Theatre Heritage Australia. Retrieved 10 June 2026.
- ↑ ""Our Miss Gibbs"". The Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney. 26 September 1910. p. 3. Retrieved 10 June 2026 – via Trove.
External links
edit- Midi files, lyrics and cast list
- Synopsis, list of roles and musical numbers
- Information about Millar in Our Miss Gibbs
- Details of the Finborough Theatre production of Our Miss Gibbs in 2006
- Details of an August 2011 Staged concert revival of Our Miss Gibbs in California
- List of longest running plays in London and New York Archived 13 June 2020 at the Wayback Machine
- Programme from the show