The Girl Who Came to Supper 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 a book by Harry Kurnitz

Harry Kurnitz

Harry Kurnitz was an American playwright, novelist, and prolific screenwriter who wrote swashbucklers for Errol Flynn and comedies for Danny Kaye.-Early years:...

 and music and lyrics by Noël Coward

Noël Coward

Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...

.

Based on Terence Rattigan

Terence Rattigan

Sir Terence Mervyn Rattigan CBE was one of England's most popular 20th-century dramatists. His plays are generally set in an upper-middle-class background...

's 1953 play The Sleeping Prince, it is set in 1911 London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 at the time of George V

George V of the United Kingdom

George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....

's coronation. American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

-born chorus girl Mary Morgan becomes involved with not only Balkan archduke

Archduke

The title of Archduke denotes a noble rank above Duke and below King, used only by princes of the Houses of Habsburg and Habsburg-Lorraine....

 Charles, the Prince Regent

Prince Regent

A prince regent is a prince who rules a monarchy as regent instead of a monarch, e.g., due to the Sovereign's incapacity or absence ....

 of Carpathia, after he sees a performance of her West End

West End theatre

West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...

 musical The Coconut Girl, but his teenaged son Nicholas and the Queen Mother, as well. A peripheral character, fish-and-chips peddler Ada Cockle, appears to be present solely to entertain the audience with a rousing fifteen-minute rendition of traditional Cockney

Cockney

The term Cockney has both geographical and linguistic associations. Geographically and culturally, it often refers to working class Londoners, particularly those in the East End...

 tunes.

Background

Rattigan's play had been staged in London with Laurence Olivier

Laurence Olivier

Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...

 and Vivien Leigh

Vivien Leigh

Vivien Leigh, Lady Olivier was an English actress. She won the Best Actress Academy Award for her portrayal of Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire , a role she also played on stage in London's West End, as well as for her portrayal of the southern belle Scarlett O'Hara, alongside Clark...

, on 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...

 with Michael Redgrave

Michael Redgrave

Sir Michael Scudamore Redgrave, CBE was an English stage and film actor, director, manager and author.-Youth and education:...

 and Barbara Bel Geddes

Barbara Bel Geddes

Barbara Bel Geddes was an American actress, artist and children's author. She is best known for her role in the television drama series Dallas as matriarch Eleanor "Miss Ellie" Ewing. Bel Geddes also starred in the original Broadway production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in the role of Maggie...

, and filmed as The Prince and the Showgirl

The Prince and the Showgirl

The Prince and the Showgirl is a 1957 American film produced at Pinewood Studios starring Marilyn Monroe and co-starring Laurence Olivier who also served as director and producer.The film was released on 13 June 1957...

with Olivier and Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....

, so its story was a fairly familiar one. The musical opened to rave reviews in Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

 but was received less favorably by the critics in Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

. During its Philadelphia run, President Kennedy

John F. Kennedy

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....

 was assassinated

Assassination

To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...

, necessitating the replacement of the opening number, "Long Live the King (If He Can)". Theatregoers were still in a somber mood when the show moved to New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

.

After four previews, the Broadway production, directed and choreographed by Joe Layton

Joe Layton

Joe Layton was an American director and choreographer known primarily for his work on Broadway.-Biography:Born Joseph Lichtman in Brooklyn, New York, Layton began his career as a dancer in Wonderful Town , and he appeared uncredited in the ensemble of the original live TV production of Rodgers and...

, opened on December 8, 1963 at The Broadway Theatre

The Broadway Theatre

The Broadway Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 1681 Broadway in midtown-Manhattan....

, where it ran for 112 performances. The cast included Florence Henderson

Florence Henderson

Florence Agnes Henderson is an American actress and singer. She is perhaps best known for her role of Carol Brady on the ABC sitcom The Brady Bunch from 1969 to 1974...

 as Mary, José Ferrer

José Ferrer

José Vicente Ferrer de Otero y Cintrón , best known as José Ferrer, was a Puerto Rican actor, as well as a theater and film director...

 as Charles, Irene Browne

Irene Browne

Irene Browne was an English stage and film actress and singer who appeared in plays and musicals such as No, No, Nanette. Later in her career, she became particularly associated with the works of Noel Coward and acted in films....

 as the Queen Mother, Sean Scully

Sean Scully (actor)

Sean Scully Sean Scully Sean Scully (born 28 September 1947 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia is an actor.-Career:Scully began his acting career at the age of 12, going on 13, in the 1960 Children’s Film Foundation film Hunted in Holland, which won the Diploma of Honour at the Cannes Film...

 as Nicholas, Tessie O'Shea

Tessie O'Shea

Teresa Mary "Tessie" O'Shea was a Welsh entertainer and actress.Born in Cardiff to Nellie Theresa and James Peter O'Shea, a soldier who was the son of Irish emigrants, Tessie was reared in the British music hall tradition, appearing on stage as "The Wonder of Wales" as early as the age of six...

 as Ada Cockle, and Roderick Cook

Roderick Cook

Roderick Cook was an English playwright, writer, theatre director and actor of stage, television and film...

 as Peter Northbrook.

Henderson and O'Shea were singled out for praise by the critics - the former for her one-woman delivery of an abridged version of The Coconut Girl, the latter for her extended song-and-dance routine - but the review by the highly influential critic Walter Kerr

Walter Kerr

For the RN admiral see Lord Walter KerrWalter Francis Kerr was an American writer and Broadway theater critic. He also was the writer, lyricist, and/or director of several Broadway plays and musicals.-Biography:...

 was mostly negative. He and others felt the show was an unsuccessful attempt to duplicate the success of the earlier My Fair Lady

My Fair Lady

My Fair Lady is a musical based upon George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion and with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe...

.

O'Shea won the Tony Award

Tony Award

The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...

 for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. Nominations went to Coward and Kurnitz for Best Author of a Musical and Irene Sharaff

Irene Sharaff

Irene Sharaff was an American costume designer for stage and screen. Her work earned her five Academy Awards and a Tony Award.- Background :...

 for Best Costume Design.

The show proved to be the last with a Coward score and the only one of his musicals never produced in London.

An original cast recording is available on the Sony

Sony

, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....

label.

Song list

Act I

• Swing Song
• Yasni Kozkolai (Carpathian National Anthem)
• My Family Tree
• I've Been Invited to a Party
• Waltz
• I've Been Invited to a Party (Reprise)
• When Foreign Princes Come to Visit Us
• Sir or Ma'am
• Soliloquies
• Lonely
• London is a Little Bit of All Right
• What Ho, Mrs. Brisket
• Don't Take Our Charlie for the Army
• Saturday Night at the Rose and Crown
• London Is a Little Bit of All Right (Reprise)
• Here and Now
• I've Been Invited to a Party (Reprise)
• Soliloquies (Reprise)

Act II

• Coronation Chorale
• How Do You Do, Middle Age?
• Here and Now (Reprise)
• The Stingaree
• Curt, Clear and Concise
• Tango
• Welcome to Pootzie Van Doyle
• The Coconut Girl
• Paddy MacNeill and His Automobile
• Swing Song (Reprise)
• Six Lillies of the Valley
• The Walla Walla Boola
• This Time It's True Love
• I'll Remember Her

External links

• Time Magazine review
• Synopsis at The Guide to Musical Theatre
• Synopsis and other information at Noel Coward Music.com
• "The Girl Who Came to Supper" at MusicalTheatre.net
• Ovrtur.com Listing