We are proud to announce our revival of George Gershwin’s Primrose - its North American premiere production.
This Gershwin rarity opened in London in 1924 and ran for nearly a year. The little-known musical gems include: "Mary Queen Of Scots," "Boy Wanted," "Naughty Baby," "That Far Away Someone," "Berkeley Square," and "Kew."
The year that Primose was produced in London, 1924, was particularly significant for George Gershwin. On February 12th at the Aeolian Hall in New York, Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra premiered Rhapsody in Blue - with the composer at the piano. The end of that year was to see Lady, Be Good! open on Broadway and become his first unquestioned success in combination with his brother Ira.
In between came Primrose. George and Ira accepted an invitation to go to London and work with co-lyricist Desmond Carter and book writers George Grossmith and Guy Bolton (who had sketched most of the story on a previous trip to America). The show was a joint production of the Gershwins’ American producers - Aarons and Freedley and their London counterparts - Grossmith and Laurillard.
Primrose opened at the Winter Garden Theatre on September 11, 1924 and ran for 225 performances.
Hilary Vane (Michael Shawn Lewis), a successful author, is taking a working holiday at Little Ferry-on-Thames. His neighbor, Sir Barnaby (Ron Lee Savin), intends to marry his ward, Joan (Cristin Mortenson), to his nephew, Freddie (Jeremy Leiner), for reasons of estate, not love. Freddie loves their neighbor May (Carey Anderson). Joan also wants out of the engagement and hopes Hilary’s serialized love novel will yield clues to her escape – and it does indirectly - she falls for the novelist and vise versa.
The comedy relief is provided by Toby (Gavin Esham), who rashly proposes to Pinky (Brynn O’Malley) and then tries to enlist his friend Hilary’s help to extricate himself. Pinky’s thuggish brother, Mike (Chris Hartl), tries to keep Toby by force. Toby’s mother (Verna Pierce), a fading Victorian is transformed by Pinkie into a blooming Edwardian.
As one reviewer in 1924 wrote: "Needless to say, by the end, the various love interests have been satisfactorily resolved, and all is genuinely ‘primrose’ time within the walls of the Winter Garden Theatre".
Joining in this charming farce are Jacqueline Carnahan, Jeffrey Correia, Morgan James, Gavin Lodge, Annie Ramsey, Dee Roscioli, Kevin David Thomas, and Nathan Zubal.
Songs like "That Far Away Someone," "Four Little Sirens"and "Boy Wanted" were based on earlier Gershwin material and others like "Wait a Bit, Susie" would be modified in later work. Other little-known musical gems include: "Mary Queen of Scots," "Naughty Baby" and "Berkeley Square and Kew."
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