Ernest in Love
Encyclopedia
Ernest in Love is a musical
with a book and lyrics by Anne Croswell and music by Lee Pockriss
. It is based on The Importance of Being Earnest
, Oscar Wilde
's classic comedy of manners
.
in 1957.
The 1959-1960 Off-Broadway
season included a dozen musicals and revues including Little Mary Sunshine
, The Fantasticks
(based on an obscure 1894 work by Edmond Rostand (of Cyrano fame), and Ernest in Love, a musicalization of Oscar Wilde
's 1895 hit. The production was directed by Harold Stone and choreographed by Frank Derbas. It opened on May 4, 1960, at the Gramercy Arts Theatre, where it was warmly received by the critics but ran for only 103 performances. The cast included Louis Edmonds
as Algernon, John Irving as Jack, Leila Martin as Gwendolen, Gerrianne Raphael as Cecily, Sara Seegar as Lady Bracknell, Lucy Landau as Miss Prism, George Hall as Dr. Chausable, Christina Gillespie as Effie, and Alan Shayne as Lane. It was then revived thereafter in stock and amateur productions, at least into the early 1960s.
An original cast recording was released by Columbia Records
. In 2003, a compact disc
transfer was issued on the DRG label.
The Japan
ese all-female musical theatre troupe Takarazuka Revue
staged the musical in 2005 in two productions, one by Moon Troupe (featuring the debut of Jun Sena
and Kanami Ayano
) and the other one by Flower Troupe (the last production for Sakiho Juri
for the company).
In 2010, an Off Broadway revival of Earnest in Love was presented by the Irish Repertory Theatre.
In Victorian era
London, tradesmen and valets debate the upper class's failure to pay their bills on time, with the tradesmen accusing, and the valets fervently defending, their employers ("Come Raise Your Cup"). Lane, a valet, returns home to find his master, Ernest Worthing, rehearsing the proper words to say to Miss Gwendolen Fairfax, to whom he intends to propose that afternoon ("How Do You Find the Words?"). Gwendolen, meanwhile, with the help of her maid Alice, is searching for "The Hat" that will impress Mr. Worthing enough to elicit a proposal.
Ernest visits his friend Algernon Moncrieff, who accuses him of leading a double-life. While in the country, where he lives, Ernest goes by the name of Jack (which he believes to be his real name) and pretends that he has a wastrel brother named Ernest, who lives in London and requires his frequent attention. Jack must assume a serious attitude for the benefit of his young ward, Cecily, an 18-year old heiress and granddaughter of Jack's late adoptive father. When in the city, he becomes the profligate Ernest. Algernon explains to Jack that he has an imaginary friend named Bunbury who lives in the country and is frequently in ill health: whenever Algernon wants to avoid an unwelcome social obligation, or just get away for the weekend, he "visits his sick friend". He calls this delightful practice "Bunburying" ("Mr. Bunbury").
Gwendolen and her mother Lady Bracknell come to call, and Jack proposes to Gwendolen ("Perfection"). She joyously accepts, but Jack is worried that Gwendolen seems to love him largely for his name, Ernest, which she thinks the most beautiful name in the world. In addition, Gwendolen's mother, the terrifying Lady Bracknell, does not approve of Ernest and is further horrified to learn that he was adopted as a baby after being discovered in a handbag at a railway station ("A Handbag is not a Proper Mother"). She advises him to find one or both parents before the season is out. Meanwhile, Jack's description of his pretty ward Cecily has so appealed to Algernon that he resolves to meet her, in spite of Jack's firm opposition.
Assuming the identity of Ernest, Algernon visits Jack's house in the country. Cecily has for some time imagined herself in love with the mysterious Ernest, whom Jack has told her is "A Wicked Man". Her governess, Miss Prism, is easily distrated by the attentions of the clergyman Dr. Chasuble ("Metaphorically Speaking"). Jack, meanwhile, has decided to put his life as Ernest behind him. He is forced to abandon his intention to declare that his brother Ernest has died in Paris by the presence of Algernon in the role of "Ernest", who threatens to expose Jack's double life if the latter doesn't play along.
Act II
Lane, the valet, and Cecily's maid Effie, lament the way the upper classes make love so difficult ("You Can't Make Love"); as servants, they find it much easier together. Cecily is swept off her feet by Algernon, and she accepts his proposal ("Lost"). Cecily admits to her "Ernest" that she loves him at least in part for his name. Algernon and Jack, unbeknownst to each other, each ask the local rector, Rev Canon Chasuble, to be baptised as "Ernest".
Gwendolen flees London and her mother to be with her love. When she and Cecily meet for the first time, she declares that she can always recognize a lady and knows immediately that she and Cecily will be great friends ("My Very First Impression"). Upon discussing their engagements, though, each indignantly insists that she is the one engaged to "Ernest". This results in verbal conflict until Jack and Algernon appear and their deceptions are exposed. Since neither is named Ernest, the girls renounce their engagements and walk away, their noses in the air. Jack deplores their situation, but Algernon calmly consumes his tea ("The Muffin Song").
The couples soon reconcile when the girls learn of Jack and Algernon's plans to be christened. They all swear "Eternal Devotion". Lady Bracknell arrives in pursuit of her daughter. She meets Cecily and finds her as a suitable wife for Algernon, especially when the amount in her trust fund is revealed. However, Lady Bracknell still refuses to countenance Jack's marriage to Gwendolen, while he, in retaliation, denies his consent to the marriage of his heiress ward Cecily to her penniless nephew Algernon ("The Muffin Song (reprise)").
The impasse is broken by the appearance of Cecily's governess, Miss Prism. As she and Lady Bracknell recognize each other with horror, it is revealed that, when working many years previously as a nursemaid for Lady Bracknell's late sister, Miss Prism had disappeared with the sister's child, a baby boy. Miss Prism reveals that, in a moment of distraction, she had placed the baby in a handbag and put the manuscript of a novel she had been writing in the perambulator. The handbag was left at Victoria station and, when she realised her mistake, Miss Prism had fled. When Jack produces the handbag in which he was found, it becomes clear that he is Lady Bracknell's nephew and Algernon's older brother.
Dr. Chasuble remembers that Jack was named after his father, Ernest John. Jack, now truly Ernest, receives Gwendolen's forgiveness for the fact that he has been telling the truth all along. The happy couples embrace, including Miss Prism and her clerical admirer, the Reverend Canon Chasuble ("Ernest in Love").
Act II
In reviewing the 2010 revival, the Wall Street Journal theater critic Terry Teachout said Earnest in Love was "presented with bewitching finesse. ... The Irish Rep's revival, the first of any significance ever to be mounted in New York, is so endearing that I can't help wonder why so delightful a show disappeared for so long." Teachout stated that the writers "managed between them to put a fresh and personal spin on "Earnest": They shifted the emphasis from Wilde's epigrams to his pretty-young-things-in-love plot. ... No, it's not Wilde, but if you can keep from breaking out in a cheek-to-cheek grin when Jack Worthing ... launches into a neat little soft shoe in the first scene, you're just a sour old crock." He noted that, while "the music is craftsmanlike but not quite memorable", the show "works flawlessly on its own modest terms."
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
with a book and lyrics by Anne Croswell and music by Lee Pockriss
Lee Pockriss
Lee Julian Pockriss was an American songwriter who wrote many well-known popular songs and several scores for films and Broadway shows.-Early life and career:...
. It is based on The Importance of Being Earnest
The Importance of Being Earnest
The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People is a play by Oscar Wilde. First performed on 14 February 1895 at St. James's Theatre in London, it is a farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious personae in order to escape burdensome social obligations...
, Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
's classic comedy of manners
Comedy of manners
The comedy of manners is a genre of play/television/film which satirizes the manners and affectations of a social class, often represented by stock characters, such as the miles gloriosus in ancient times, the fop and the rake during the Restoration, or an old person pretending to be young...
.
Background
The two act musical is an expanded version of the hour-long musical Who's Earnest? televised on The United States Steel HourThe United States Steel Hour
The United States Steel Hour is an anthology series which brought hour-long dramas to television from 1953 to 1963. The television series and the radio program that preceded it were both sponsored by the United States Steel Corporation....
in 1957.
The 1959-1960 Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...
season included a dozen musicals and revues including Little Mary Sunshine
Little Mary Sunshine
Little Mary Sunshine is a musical that parodies old-fashioned operettas and musicals. The book, music, and lyrics are by Rick Besoyan. The musical should not be confused with the 1916 silent film of the same name ....
, The Fantasticks
The Fantasticks
The Fantasticks is a 1960 musical with music by Harvey Schmidt and lyrics by Tom Jones. It was produced by Lore Noto. It tells an allegorical story, loosely based on the play "The Romancers" by Edmond Rostand, concerning two neighboring fathers who trick their children, Luisa and Matt, into...
(based on an obscure 1894 work by Edmond Rostand (of Cyrano fame), and Ernest in Love, a musicalization of Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
's 1895 hit. The production was directed by Harold Stone and choreographed by Frank Derbas. It opened on May 4, 1960, at the Gramercy Arts Theatre, where it was warmly received by the critics but ran for only 103 performances. The cast included Louis Edmonds
Louis Edmonds
Louis Edmonds was an American actor from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He was best known for his roles in Dark Shadows and All My Children....
as Algernon, John Irving as Jack, Leila Martin as Gwendolen, Gerrianne Raphael as Cecily, Sara Seegar as Lady Bracknell, Lucy Landau as Miss Prism, George Hall as Dr. Chausable, Christina Gillespie as Effie, and Alan Shayne as Lane. It was then revived thereafter in stock and amateur productions, at least into the early 1960s.
An original cast recording was released by Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
. In 2003, a compact disc
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
transfer was issued on the DRG label.
The Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese all-female musical theatre troupe Takarazuka Revue
Takarazuka Revue
The Takarazuka Revue is a Japanese all-female musical theater troupe based in Takarazuka, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. Women play all roles in lavish, Broadway-style productions of Western-style musicals, and sometimes stories adapted from shōjo manga and Japanese folktales. The troupe takes its name...
staged the musical in 2005 in two productions, one by Moon Troupe (featuring the debut of Jun Sena
Jun Sena
, is a Japanese actress and former top star of the Takarazuka Revue's Moon Troupe, a Japanese theatre organization in which women portray all parts. She was born April 1, 1974 and grew up in Suginami, Tokyo. During her time in the Revue, she was an otokoyaku, an actress who specializes in male roles...
and Kanami Ayano
Kanami Ayano
Kanami Ayano is a former top star for Moon Troupe of Takarazuka Revue. She joined the revue company in 1997 and became the top star along with Jun Sena, a former troupe mate from Flower Troupe...
) and the other one by Flower Troupe (the last production for Sakiho Juri
Sakiho Juri
is a Japanese performing artist and a former member of the Takarazuka Revue, where she specialized in playing male characters . She joined the revue in 1990 and resigned in 2005...
for the company).
In 2010, an Off Broadway revival of Earnest in Love was presented by the Irish Repertory Theatre.
Synopsis
Act IIn Victorian era
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
London, tradesmen and valets debate the upper class's failure to pay their bills on time, with the tradesmen accusing, and the valets fervently defending, their employers ("Come Raise Your Cup"). Lane, a valet, returns home to find his master, Ernest Worthing, rehearsing the proper words to say to Miss Gwendolen Fairfax, to whom he intends to propose that afternoon ("How Do You Find the Words?"). Gwendolen, meanwhile, with the help of her maid Alice, is searching for "The Hat" that will impress Mr. Worthing enough to elicit a proposal.
Ernest visits his friend Algernon Moncrieff, who accuses him of leading a double-life. While in the country, where he lives, Ernest goes by the name of Jack (which he believes to be his real name) and pretends that he has a wastrel brother named Ernest, who lives in London and requires his frequent attention. Jack must assume a serious attitude for the benefit of his young ward, Cecily, an 18-year old heiress and granddaughter of Jack's late adoptive father. When in the city, he becomes the profligate Ernest. Algernon explains to Jack that he has an imaginary friend named Bunbury who lives in the country and is frequently in ill health: whenever Algernon wants to avoid an unwelcome social obligation, or just get away for the weekend, he "visits his sick friend". He calls this delightful practice "Bunburying" ("Mr. Bunbury").
Gwendolen and her mother Lady Bracknell come to call, and Jack proposes to Gwendolen ("Perfection"). She joyously accepts, but Jack is worried that Gwendolen seems to love him largely for his name, Ernest, which she thinks the most beautiful name in the world. In addition, Gwendolen's mother, the terrifying Lady Bracknell, does not approve of Ernest and is further horrified to learn that he was adopted as a baby after being discovered in a handbag at a railway station ("A Handbag is not a Proper Mother"). She advises him to find one or both parents before the season is out. Meanwhile, Jack's description of his pretty ward Cecily has so appealed to Algernon that he resolves to meet her, in spite of Jack's firm opposition.
Assuming the identity of Ernest, Algernon visits Jack's house in the country. Cecily has for some time imagined herself in love with the mysterious Ernest, whom Jack has told her is "A Wicked Man". Her governess, Miss Prism, is easily distrated by the attentions of the clergyman Dr. Chasuble ("Metaphorically Speaking"). Jack, meanwhile, has decided to put his life as Ernest behind him. He is forced to abandon his intention to declare that his brother Ernest has died in Paris by the presence of Algernon in the role of "Ernest", who threatens to expose Jack's double life if the latter doesn't play along.
Act II
Lane, the valet, and Cecily's maid Effie, lament the way the upper classes make love so difficult ("You Can't Make Love"); as servants, they find it much easier together. Cecily is swept off her feet by Algernon, and she accepts his proposal ("Lost"). Cecily admits to her "Ernest" that she loves him at least in part for his name. Algernon and Jack, unbeknownst to each other, each ask the local rector, Rev Canon Chasuble, to be baptised as "Ernest".
Gwendolen flees London and her mother to be with her love. When she and Cecily meet for the first time, she declares that she can always recognize a lady and knows immediately that she and Cecily will be great friends ("My Very First Impression"). Upon discussing their engagements, though, each indignantly insists that she is the one engaged to "Ernest". This results in verbal conflict until Jack and Algernon appear and their deceptions are exposed. Since neither is named Ernest, the girls renounce their engagements and walk away, their noses in the air. Jack deplores their situation, but Algernon calmly consumes his tea ("The Muffin Song").
The couples soon reconcile when the girls learn of Jack and Algernon's plans to be christened. They all swear "Eternal Devotion". Lady Bracknell arrives in pursuit of her daughter. She meets Cecily and finds her as a suitable wife for Algernon, especially when the amount in her trust fund is revealed. However, Lady Bracknell still refuses to countenance Jack's marriage to Gwendolen, while he, in retaliation, denies his consent to the marriage of his heiress ward Cecily to her penniless nephew Algernon ("The Muffin Song (reprise)").
The impasse is broken by the appearance of Cecily's governess, Miss Prism. As she and Lady Bracknell recognize each other with horror, it is revealed that, when working many years previously as a nursemaid for Lady Bracknell's late sister, Miss Prism had disappeared with the sister's child, a baby boy. Miss Prism reveals that, in a moment of distraction, she had placed the baby in a handbag and put the manuscript of a novel she had been writing in the perambulator. The handbag was left at Victoria station and, when she realised her mistake, Miss Prism had fled. When Jack produces the handbag in which he was found, it becomes clear that he is Lady Bracknell's nephew and Algernon's older brother.
Dr. Chasuble remembers that Jack was named after his father, Ernest John. Jack, now truly Ernest, receives Gwendolen's forgiveness for the fact that he has been telling the truth all along. The happy couples embrace, including Miss Prism and her clerical admirer, the Reverend Canon Chasuble ("Ernest in Love").
Songs
Act I- Come Raise Your Cup
- How Do You Find the Words?
- The Hat
- Mr. Bunbury
- Perfection
- A Handbag is Not a Proper Mother
- Mr. Bunbury (Reprise)
- A Wicked Man
- Metaphorically Speaking
- A Wicked Man (Reprise)
Act II
- You Can't Make Love
- Lost
- My Very First Impression
- The Muffin Song
- Eternal Devotion
- A Handbag is Not a Proper Mother (Reprise)
- The Muffin Song (Reprise)
- Ernest In Love
Critical reception
In his review of the original 1960 production, Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times wrote that "Everything has been done in the most impeccable taste...Lee Pockriss's music is deft and droll. Ann Croswell's book and lyrics are clever...the whole performance radiates sly good nature." Richard Watts, Jr. of the New York Post pronounced Ernest in Love "charming...a fresh and likable musical show..excellently played." In the New York Herald Tribune, Judith Crist declared that "It has all the charm and pleasure of a spring bouquet."In reviewing the 2010 revival, the Wall Street Journal theater critic Terry Teachout said Earnest in Love was "presented with bewitching finesse. ... The Irish Rep's revival, the first of any significance ever to be mounted in New York, is so endearing that I can't help wonder why so delightful a show disappeared for so long." Teachout stated that the writers "managed between them to put a fresh and personal spin on "Earnest": They shifted the emphasis from Wilde's epigrams to his pretty-young-things-in-love plot. ... No, it's not Wilde, but if you can keep from breaking out in a cheek-to-cheek grin when Jack Worthing ... launches into a neat little soft shoe in the first scene, you're just a sour old crock." He noted that, while "the music is craftsmanlike but not quite memorable", the show "works flawlessly on its own modest terms."