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[0:00] Paul Lazarus: Hi, this is Paul Lazarus. In the 1980s, I produced and hosted a radio series called Anything Goes, a celebration of the American musical theater. Now, the Broadway Podcast Network is bringing back these shows. This is the first of a three-part program devoted to turn-of-the-century composer, matinee idol, and occasional lyricist, Ivor Novello. My guest is noted operetta historian, Richard Traubner. This program originally aired in March of 1982 and featured commentary by Traubner and a detailed survey of Novello's distinguished career.

[0:43] ♪ Musical number: "Anything Goes" — performed by Unknown performer ♪

[5:13] Paul Lazarus: I'm your host, Paul Lazarus. You heard a selection of the songs from a show called Perchance to Dream, a show by Ivor Novello, an English composer, actor, and the subject of today's edition of Anything Goes. The songs in that selection conducted by the show's original orchestrator and conductor, Harry Akers, were Love is My Reason, When the Gentlemen Get Together, Highwayman Love, and one of Ivor Novello's most famous works, perhaps his most famous, Will Gather Lilacs, and Woman's Heart. Today, my guest on Anything Goes is Richard Traubner to help us with this look at the work of Ivor Novello. Richard has just completed a history of operetta, which is being published by Doubleday and Company.

Richard is one of America's leading operetta historians, with major articles contributed to the New York and London Times, Opera News, and the American Record Guide, just to name a few. He's written program notes for operetta productions around the world, including productions by the New York City Opera and the Santa Fe Opera. His record notes have appeared on major operetta releases of recent years on EMI Angel, CBS, Decca London, RCA, and Cadman Arabesque. He's also programmed seasons of operetta films for such institutions as the American Film Institute and Goethe House in New York. And in addition, he has been teaching for the last decade in several operetta courses at New York's New School. Welcome, Richard.

[6:46] Richard Traubner: Hello, Paul.

[6:48] Paul Lazarus: And Richard, you're the perfect person to bring on today to take a rather in-depth look at the work of a man that's very, very little known in this country, surprisingly little known, Ivor Novello. But I guess the main reason that he is so little known is that none of his shows, with the exception of one short run, I guess, at the St. Louis Municipal Opera was ever done. We're not even sure if that actually had a run, are we?

[7:17] Richard Traubner: Certainly nothing on Broadway, nothing complete. None of his famous shows at Drury Lane ever appeared on the Broadway stage.

[7:25] Paul Lazarus: And so little is known about him. Let's just talk about his background. He was one of these jack of all trades, master of all of them, another Noel Coward English theater person. Sort of a rival of Noel Coward, but not quite. I mean, they were very friendly and their shows were substantially different. Although we have to remember that Noel did write quite a few romantic operettas of this type, perhaps not as spectacular as Ivor's were, but the same kind. He was born in, he actually was not Italian. He was born in Wales in 1893 and his father was named David Davies and his mother was called Clara Novello Davies. And Ivor's original name was actually David Ivor Davies. His mother was very well known.

She was an organizer of Welsh choirs and they appeared in various festivals. She was quite famous. And he grew up in a very musical background. When they lived in London, he attended all the musicals at the turn of the century when he was growing up, all the Edwardian musical comedies and operettas, just like Noel Coward did when he was growing up. So they soaked this kind of thing up. And when he was 10, he was so good a boy soprano that he was sent to Oxford on a singing scholarship.

[8:47] Richard Traubner: It's funny because later on in life, he's not known for his singing talent.

[8:51] Paul Lazarus: No, no. After his voice broke, he really stopped singing altogether. And only in a few rare little snippets do you hear his voice. But he always managed to have these lovely sopranos surrounding him so that he just gazed at them romantically or played the piano while they were singing. He got away with it. He wrote songs quite early on. And then in 1914, he had his first big, big hit song. And this was Till the Boys Come Home, which was the British song of World War I, just like Over There was the American song of World War I. It was first performed at the Alhambra in London at the beginning of World War I. It was then put into various reviews and all that kind of thing. So it became very well known and lots of opera stars and other singers recorded it. It was sung in Oh, What a Lovely War, part of the amalgam of all the songs that were used in that show. It's one of the few times that an Ivor Novello show has appeared on the Broadway stage.

[9:59] Paul Lazarus: So we're going to play a version of it from a recording of the songs used in Oh, What a Lovely War, but to the period recordings of these songs.

[10:14] Richard Traubner: 1915. The people of the land are calling. While the humps are yelling, throw your heads down far away. They dream of home. There's a silver lining through the clouds shining. From the dark clouds inside out spills a voice of hope. Overseas their fame was fleeting, held the nation in distress. And we gave our glorious ladders on a date of tumult meant. For no gallant son of Britain to a foreign yoke shall bend. And no Englishman is silent to the sacred call of man. With the humps are calling, while the humps are yelling, throw your heads down far away. They dream of home. There's a silver lining through the dark clouds shining. From the dark clouds inside out spills a voice of hope. And we gave our glorious ladders on a date of tumult meant. For no gallant son of Britain to a foreign yoke shall bend.

[13:29] Richard Traubner: Well, it was very soon after that, during the First World War and our first big hit was a show called Theodore and Company, which played at the Gayety Theatre in 1916. And the star of this was George Grossmith, Jr., who was the son of the very famous originator. George Curran contributed several numbers to it. And this was what he was doing at the time. Curran had, as you know, interpolated many songs into these shows. And this is pre the Princess Theatre days. Well, no, actually this was done a year after Very Good Eddie. And one or two of the songs from Very Good Eddie appeared in Theodore and Company. So let's play the next selection, which is a medley again, which includes both Novello and Curran songs in it.

Right, maybe this is the Mayfair Orchestra instrumental recording of songs from Theodore and Company. Maybe I should just point out before we play it, who wrote what, the opening number, Isn't There a Crowd Everywhere, and I say opening number in terms of the recording, Isn't There a Crowd Everywhere was written by Novello. And the next is a Jerome Curran song, That Come Hither Look, followed again by two songs by Ivor Novello, What a Duke Should Be, Every Little Girl Can Teach Me Something New, and then the final selection is 365 Days by Jerome Curran.

[19:12] Richard Traubner: An instrumental selection of songs from a 1916 show, Theodore and Company, a show only done in England, never came to America, and featuring the work of both Ivor Novello and some interpolations by a youngish Jerome Curran, writing in England at the time. You're listening to Anything Goes with a look at the work of Ivor Novello. Novello contributed songs to several of the André Charleau reviews of the teens and 20s, Richard. I've mentioned the Charleau reviews before, especially in the context of talking about Noel Coward or Gertrude Lawrence. Can we describe the atmosphere of those reviews and the style of presentation a little bit?

[20:01] Richard Traubner: Well, I think what made them so unique, especially contrasted to Broadway, very lavish Broadway reviews in the early 20s, when they came over in 1924 with the first composite of numbers from various Charleau reviews with Jack Buchanan, with Gertrude Lawrence, with Beatrice Lilly, they were so tastefully done on a relatively small scale and so intimate and sophisticated.

[20:29] Richard Traubner: That they created a sensation, really. That's really what... I think that style of presentation is what we... has filtered down as the sort of Noël Coward review. It really became associated with him because many of the songs were by him. Right, but it's Ivor who was really... was contributing long before Noël had begun contributing. And his first show, I think, was in around 1916, Seesaw, and then there was a show in 1918 called Tabs. They had wonderful names, these reviews. They were these short, very catchy little words that they used. Rats, tabs, potluck, things like that. He wrote a song called I Said Goodbye for Tabs, which was created on the stage by B. Lilly. Right. And yet we have a recording of B. Lilly's understudy at the time.

No, I think she was an understudy. I know Gertrude Lawrence was performing at the same time. And I know at one point that Jesse Matthews was the understudy to Gertrude Lawrence, but I don't remember offhand whether Gertrude Lawrence was the understudy to B. Lilly, but they were all mixed up together in these reviews. And this is from the 1918 Charlotte Review, Tabs, I Said Goodbye, performed by Gertrude Lawrence.

[22:12] ♪ Musical number: "I Said Goodbye" — performed by Gertrude Lawrence ♪

[23:17] Paul Lazarus: Gertrude Lawrence singing a song by Ivor Novello and Ronald Jeans from an Andre Charlotte Review of 1918 entitled Tabs, and the song was I Said Goodbye. You're listening to Anything Goes with Paul Lazarus and an in-depth look at the work of composer Ivor Novello and my guest and authority on the world of operetta, Richard Traubner. Well, there was another musical comedy from the late teens called Who's Hooper, which starred W.H. Berry, who was a very famous comedian at the time, and it was adapted from an Arthur Winn-Panera farce. And unfortunately, the British didn't continue adapting musical comedies from their better comedies. It's something they should have done. Ivor's music for these musical comedies and for the reviews was comparatively light, but there was a very romantic side to his music, which started really to blossom in the 1920s. This is the side that he's probably most known for, isn't it, Richard? The lush, romantic quality.

[24:25] Richard Traubner: Right. That's a holdover from the Edwardian days and also from the World War I period, when the big hit of World War I was The Maid of the Mountains, which was a British operetta by Harold Fraser Simpson. And the star of that was this dark-haired beauty, Josie Collins.

[24:47] Paul Lazarus: Did that show come over ever?

[24:49] Richard Traubner: Yes, it did, but it was not nearly a success here as it was. It ran for hundreds and hundreds of performances at Daly's Theatre, but here it was no success. And she was sort of almost a female Ivor Novello. She had this dark hair, she looked sort of Mediterranean, and she was a very beautiful actress. Then they tried to do a sort of rehash of The Maid of the Mountains after the war called A Southern Maid, and that was also with a Harold Fraser Simpson score, and Ivor contributed two numbers to that. One of the Novello numbers, which is quite lovely, is Every Bit of Loving in the World.

[25:58] ♪ Musical number: "Every Bit of Loving in the World" — performed by Jesse Collins ♪

[29:38] Paul Lazarus: Jesse Collins singing Every Bit of Loving in the World. One of the two songs Ivor Novello contributed to a 1920 show, Southern Maid. Lyrics were by Douglas Ferber. You've been listening to Ivor Novello, Episode 1, the first of a three-part series. Anything Goes, backstage with Broadway's best, is produced and hosted by Paul Lazarus. For more information, visit anythinggoespl.com. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to rate and follow us. Thanks for listening.