Marriage a la Carte was a three-act Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 musical comedy composed and written by C. M. S. McClellan and scored by Ivan Caryll

Ivan Caryll

Félix Marie Henri Tilkin , better known by his pen name Ivan Caryll, was a Belgian composer of operettas and Edwardian musical comedies in the English language...

.The play was staged by Austen Hurgon with musical direction provided by J. Sebastian Hiller and Carl H. Engel. Marriage a la Carte opened on January 2, 1911 at the Casino Theatre

Earl Carroll Theatre

Earl Carroll Theatre was the name of two important theaters owned by Broadway impresario and showman Earl Carroll. One was located on Broadway in New York City and the other on Sunset Blvd in Hollywood, California.-Broadway:...

 and had a run of 64 performances.

Synopsis

The play starred newcomer Emmy Wehlen

Emmy Wehlen

Emmy Wehlen was a German-born Edwardian musical comedy and silent film actress who vanished from the public eye while in her early thirties.-Biography:...

 and was set in England. The plot revolves around Mrs. Ponsonby de Coutts Wragge, recently engaged to Lord Mirables, and her former husbands (Ponsonby de Coutts Wragge and Napoleon Pettingill) who reappear in her life after a long absence.

Revue

Marriage a la Carte opened to mixed revues. The New York Times reported the play, “had charm, distinction, humor, pretty music, pretty girls and clever comedians. What more could one want from a musical comedy? And that is what Marriage a la Carte is, a real musical comedy.” A critic wrote in the March, 1911 issue of Theatre Magazine, “The title of the new musical comedy, "Marriage a la Carte," by C. M. S. McClellan, has in itself no meaning that we can discover, and there is nothing in the play itself to elucidate its meaning. The title is as silly and dull as the action which seeks in vain to unfold itself on the stage." The critic went on to comment on Wehlen's New York debut, ”A new face and a new force comes to us for the first time in the person of Miss Emmy Wehlen, trained in Germany mainly on the Munich stage, and for a year or so past active on the London stage. She is a blonde, blue-eyed person, with considerable grace and intelligence, who sings and dances well, and has charms that are distinctly individual and consequently new to us. Her best song is "Silly Cock-a-Doodle-Doo," which she dances with Dick (Mr. C. Morton Horne)."

Songs

• Thrifty Little Marel
• Of All Her Sex a Paragon
• For I’m Just I
• Smile, Smile, Smile
• Silly Cock-a-Doodle-Doo

• Such a Bore
• Oh, Rosalie
• It’s not the Same at All
• Pass it along to the Frog
• Marriage a la Carte (finale)

Cast

• Marie Ashton ..........Euryanthe Bowers
• Ida Barnard...........Primrose Farmilow
• Esther Bissett ........Sheila Wragge
• Norman A. Blume .......Jimmy Wragge
• Charles Brown .........Cuthbert Coddington
• Cyril Chadwick
  Cyril Chadwick
  Cyril Chadwick was an English actor of the silent era. He appeared in 70 films between 1913 and 1938. He was born in Kensington, London.-Selected filmography:*Temple Tower * The Thirteenth Chair...
  
   ....Ponsonby de Coutts Wragge
• Harry Conor ...........Napoleon Pettingill
• Maria Davis.......Mrs. Ponsonby de Coutts Wragge
• Joe Doner .............Thomas Bolingbroke Mullens
• A. W. Fleming .........Mr. Pink
• Jack Hagner ...........Young Micklethorpe

• Rosina Henley .........Molly
• Jack F. Henry .........Eustace Haws
• C. Morton Horne
  C. Morton Horne
  C. Morton Horne was an Irish writer and musical comedy performer who lost his life on a battlefield in France during the First World War.-Biography:...
  
   ...Hon. Richard Mirables
• Harry Kelly...........Footman
• Diane Otse ............Elsie Tattleby
• Frances Reeve .........Iseult Punchum
• Elsa Ryan.............Daisy Dimsy
• Quentin Todd
  Quentin Tod
  Quentin Tod , sometimes credited as Quentin Todd, was a British actor, dancer, choreographer, television pioneer, and a devotee of Meher Baba.- Biography :...
  
   ......Aubrey Hipps
• J. R. Torrens .........Gerald Gifford
• Harold Vizard .........Lord Mirables
• Emmy Wehlen
  Emmy Wehlen
  Emmy Wehlen was a German-born Edwardian musical comedy and silent film actress who vanished from the public eye while in her early thirties.-Biography:...
  
  ......Rosalie