Lily Elsie

I had a lovely day yesterday in the company of the George Edwardes Musical Comedy society. We all gathered at Westminster Reference Library to celebrate the Edwardian theatre star Lily Elsie, who made her name in the first London production of The Merry Widow at Daly's Theatre in 1907. There was a talk by Steve Bartlett on Lily's life, accompanied by numerous illustrations from his large post-card collection. And then one by Ken Reeves (the president of the society) on the theatre of that period. Ken showed some marvellous images of the Strand Theatre which used to stand where the disused tube station now is on the corner of the Strand and Surrey Street. Here Lily Elsie scored an early hit in 'A Chinese Honeymoon' in 1903. Ken showed several beautiful souvenier programmes from the show, as well as many other images of George Edwardes shows of the period from the Gaiety, the Strand, the Prince of Wales, Dalys, and the Palace theatres. The pictures were originally published in The Play Pictorial, which can be found in Westminster Ref Library. The George Edwardes Musical Comedy Society meet often in an upstairs room of the library, and engage in the rather eccentric ritual of reading through one of these Edwardian shows. Each person present is given a script and takes a part. When they come to a number, Ken puts on a cassette of the piano accompaniment to the song, and everyone joins in as soon as they can - even though nobody has heard the tune before. The songs are simple and catchy and have plenty of choruses so they are quite easy to pick up, but the experience of singing a song you've never heard before is quite bizarre. Yesterday we read through an early Lily Elsie show, 'Lady Madcap' from 1904. Like many fan groups, The George Edwardes Musical Comedy Society has a small but passionate membership, and some members are also involved in the Bognor Regis music society, which is planning a full concert version of 'A Chinese Honeymoon' this June. The 'Lily Elsie Celebration Day' ended with a screening of Maurice Elvey's 1919 film 'Comradeship' which features Lily as a nurse in love with an ex-servicemen who has been blinded in the war and is thus reluctant to declare his love for her. A charming volunteer accompanied the screening on the electric piano with selections from Albert Ketelbey. Some of the members were less than impressed with the film, possibly not being used to silent British Cinema which is as much of an acquired taste as Edwardian Musicals. I loved the film though. And sitting in the upstairs room in St Martin's Street, with the window blinds drawn against the bright sunlight, and the strains of Ketelbey competing with the road-works in the street below, surrounded by dedicated followers of a theatre star who's big success was well over a century ago, I felt very content. The next read-through will be of the 1898 Gaiety theatre hit 'The Runaway Girl' on September 28th, this time at Wesley's Chapel in City Road http://www.musicalcomedysociety.co.uk/home/events-1