Ever Green is a musical

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 music by Richard Rodgers

Richard Rodgers

Richard Charles Rodgers was an American composer of music for more than 900 songs and for 43 Broadway musicals. He also composed music for films and television. He is best known for his songwriting partnerships with the lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II...

, lyrics by Lorenz Hart

Lorenz Hart

Lorenz "Larry" Milton Hart was the lyricist half of the famed Broadway songwriting team Rodgers and Hart...

 and a book by Benn Levy

Benn Levy

Benn Wolfe Levy was a Labour Party Member of Parliament in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom...

, based on an idea by Rodgers and Hart. This was the last of three musicals written by Rodgers and Hart

Rodgers and Hart

Rodgers and Hart were an American songwriting partnership of composer Richard Rodgers and the lyricist Lorenz Hart...

 in London.

The musical premiered on 3 December 1930 at the newly-renovated Adelphi Theatre

Adelphi Theatre

The Adelphi Theatre is a 1500-seat West End theatre, located on the Strand in the City of Westminster. The present building is the fourth on the site. The theatre has specialised in comedy and musical theatre, and today it is a receiving house for a variety of productions, including many musicals...

, London. It was produced by Charles B. Cochran

Charles B. Cochran

Sir Charles Blake Cochran , generally known as C. B. Cochran, was an English theatrical manager. He produced some of the most successful musical revues, musicals and plays of the 1920s and 1930s, becoming associated with Noel Coward and his works.-Biography:Cochran was born in Sussex and educated...

 and directed by Frank Collins with choreography by Buddy Bradley and Billy Pierce. It starred dancer Jessie Matthews

Jessie Matthews

Jessie Matthews, OBE was an English actress, dancer and singer of the 1930s, whose career continued into the post-war period.-Early life:...

 (who played both the mother and the daughter) and comedian Sonnie Hale

Sonnie Hale

Sonnie Hale was an English theatre and cinema actor and director.John Robert Hale-Monro was born in London, the son of Robert Hale and Belle Reynolds. His father and sister, Binnie Hale were actors. He worked chiefly in musical and revue theatre, but also acted in several films with occasional...

, who married her the following year. It also featured Joyce Barbour and Jean Cadell

Jean Cadell

Jean Cadell was a Scottish character actress.Born in Edinburgh, she performed in the cinema and on the stage. One of her best known cinema roles was in the Ealing Studios comedy Whisky Galore! . She once performed opposite W.C. Fields in Hollywood, cast as Mrs...

.

The lavish production was noted for the setpiece "Dancing on the Ceiling" that used London's first revolving stage. In this, the two stars danced around a huge chandelier that was standing up from the floor, simulating the ceiling. Matthews subsequently adopted "Dancing on the Ceiling" (also known as "He dances overhead") as her signature tune. The show was Matthews' biggest stage success and led to her renowned film career.

The musical garnered critical and box office success, running for 254 performances. It was later adapted into a successful 1934 film

Evergreen (film)

Evergreen is a 1934 Gaumont British musical film, starring Jessie Matthews as a music hall singer, based on the 1930 musical Ever Green, also starring Matthews. Matthews had a dual role as both mother and daughter....

 also starring Matthews.

Synopsis

Harriet Green, a music hall

Music hall

Music Hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment which was popular between 1850 and 1960. The term can refer to:# A particular form of variety entertainment involving a mixture of popular song, comedy and speciality acts...

 star of the Edwardian period

Edwardian period

The Edwardian era or Edwardian period in the United Kingdom is the period covering the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910.The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 and the succession of her son Edward marked the end of the Victorian era...

, has given birth, out of wedlock, to a daughter. Harriet flees to South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

 to raise her daughter away from the spotlight. The years pass, and now her daughter, Harriet Hawkes, returns to London to try to enter showbusiness. A publicity man, Tommy, sees that young Harriet is a dead ringer for her famous mother and convinces a theatre producer to star her in a new revue

Revue

A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century American popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own during its golden years from 1916 to 1932...

as a miraculously youthful Harriet Green. The public believes the ruse, but also believes that Tommy is her son. This leads to complications, because Harriet and Tommy fall in love.

Musical numbers

• "Harlemania"
• "Doing a Little Clog Dance"
• "Dear, Dear"
• "Nobody Looks at the Man"
• "Waiting for the Leaves to Fall"
• "No Place but Home"
• "The Lion King"
• "Grand Notre Vieux Monde Etait Tout Neuf"
• "La Femme a Toujours Vingt Ans!"
• "The Colour of Her Eyes"
• "In the Cool of the Evening"
• "Dancing on the Ceiling"
• "Je M'en Fiche du Sex Appeal!"
• "Hot Blues"
• "If I Give in to You"