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''Primrose'' is a musical in three acts with a book by Guy Bolton and George Grossmith Jr., lyrics by Desmond Carter and Ira Gershwin, and music by George Gershwin. It centers on a writer whose story-within-a-story forms the basis of the plot. It was written expressly for the London stage, where it ran for 255 performances in 1924 and 1925. The musical was not performed in the United States until more than half a century after it was written.〔1987 sleeve notes by John McGlinn to EMI recording CDC 7 47977 2〕 George Gershwin, at 25 years old, was an established songwriter by 1924 when Grossmith and his producing partners, J. A. E. Malone and Edward Laurillard, hired him to produce the score for ''Primrose'' for them in London. The musical is the first in which Gershwin wrote some of the orchestrations himself.〔(Profile of the musical from Allmusic )〕 The year was one of the busiest for Gershwin, as it also included his ''Rhapsody in Blue'' and two other musicals. Gershwin's score, and the book by Bolton are old-fashioned for their time, with more in common with the frothy Edwardian musical comedies than with the later Gershwin musicals. Nevertheless, Desmond Carter's witty lyrics and the show's farcical book have been praised by reviewers, while Gershwin's score has been compared with Gilbert and Sullivan.〔(Information about the Musicals Tonight! concerts )〕〔(''Village Voice'' review dated December 10-16, 2003 )〕 ==Production history== ''Primrose'' was produced by Grossmith and J. A. E. Malone, who wanted to follow up on their earlier successes composed by Jerome Kern.〔 It opened at the Winter Garden Theatre in London on 11 September 1924 only two months before the Gershwins’ ''Lady, Be Good!'' debuted on Broadway. The cast featured comedian Leslie Henson and also included Claude Hulbert, Heather Thatcher and Percy Heming. The director was Charles A. Maynard, and the choreographer was Laddie Cliff.〔''The Times'' 12 September 1924, p. 8〕〔(crew and cast list )〕 The show was not brought to Broadway, where it would have competed with ''Lady, Be Good!''. In fact, the American première of ''Primrose'' did not take place until 1987, when a concert production at the Coolidge Auditorium of the Library of Congress was given together with another Gershwin score, ''Pardon My English'' (1933), both conducted by John McGlinn.〔(Holden, Stephen, "2 by Gershwin" in the ''New York Times'', May 18, 1987 )〕 Soloists included Rebecca Luker and Kim Criswell. The next performance in North America was not until 2003, when Musicals Tonight! presented a series of staged concerts at the 14th Street YMCA in New York City's Greenwich Village, with dialogue, directed by Thomas Mills and starring Gavin Esham, Cristin Mortenson and Brynn O'Malley.〔 Extensive excerpts from the score were recorded with original 1924 cast members conducted by Ansell, and have been re-released on CD. P. G. Wodehouse rewrote the lyric of 'When Toby is out of Town' as 'The Twenties are Here to Stay', interpolated into a 1960 revival of Gershwin's ''Oh, Kay!'' In their joint memoir ''Bring on the Girls!'', Wodehouse and Bolton relate a story about Grossmith holding auditions for ''Primrose'', where he made a routine request of Sylvia Hawkes, a beautiful young dancer, who later married a series of famous men:〔("Lady Sylvia Ashley (née Hawkes)" ), National Portrait Gallery, accessed 26 April 2012〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Primrose (musical)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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