Gay's The Word 1950 Ivor Novello

Dr. Pitt-Payne in London UK - 22 Apr 2002

GAY'S THE WORD
Book and music
by Ivor Novello.
Lyrics by Alan Melville
Premiered at the Palace Theatre, Manchester
Seventeenth October NineteenFifty
Transferred to the Saville Theatre
Sixteenth February NineteenFiftyOne
Five Hundred and Four Performances
Gay's The Word is really a series
of set pieces linked with dialogue
and sub plot.
The Story: Gay Daventry is to bring
a musical to London but which,
in the event, it turns out to be
a flop. It was a "Novellotype" musical
and the authorcomposer started the show
with a satire on his own work.
After a Novello love song, Gay leaves
the theatre to muse on the show's
unlikely prospects. The ingénue of the show
offers Gay Two Thousand Pounds
to set up a drama school which she does
in Folkestone. A subplot follows
the fortunes of a couple of smugglers
who are anxious to use the school
as a front for their operations.
Teaching her students ballet,
Gay drums into her pupils
the recipe for success is "Vitality".
Act Two: takes place as the endofterm show
at the Town Hall. The school's dance teacher
having resigned means that Gay
has to go on stage as a Greek dancer.
Other scenes include an auction scene
in which Gay, disguised as an auctioneer
sells off the contents of her basement,
including a trunk used by the smugglers
to conceal their contraband.
The final scene is the new show
which gets Gay and her pupils
back on to the professional stage.
W. MacQueenPope writes:
he wrote and composed another,
specially designed for that great artiste,
Cecily Courtneidge.
That play is 'Gay's the Word'.
It is an outstanding success and
triumph for Miss Courtneidge.
Ivor was now fiftyeight years old
and doing his finest work.
Immediately after Christmas
in NineteenFifty, Ivor went for
a holiday in Jamaica, where he had a house
which he loved. He adored the sunshine.
He caught a chill on the way home
he arrived back to bitter winter weather,
with a cough that wracked him.
Arrangements made for his return to
'King's Rhapsody' had to be postponed.
He was ill. But nothing would stop him
attending the first night of
'Gay's the Word' at the Saville Theatre
on Sixteenth February, NineteenFiftyOne.
He had a temperature,
he should not have gone
but who was to say him nay? It was his show,
he had written and composed it, he had
not been 'in front' at a first night of
a play of his own since 'Fresh Fields'
eighteen years before. He went
he sat in a box
he saw his play succeed.
He heard the cheers, and in response
to calls for a speech he stood in his box,
leaned towards the stage and paid tribute
to the triumph of Cicely Courtneidge.
'Don't look at me,' he said, 'look at her
she has done it'. He went back to bed.
But he returned to 'King's Rhapsody',
the play he loved perhaps best of all
equal to 'Glamorous Night', that inspired
work of his which had put the crown
on his head. He reappeared on the
evening of Monday TwentySixth February.
He got a royal welcome and made one of
those almost shy, very grateful little
speeches of his.
He played in that show for a week.
He entered the Palace stage door for the
last time on the evening
of Monday, March Fifth.
He had come up from 'Redroofs'. He told
Bill Wright, his valet, that he had
had pains in his arm and his side.
They decided it was rheumatism.
He played as usual;
Then he went home to his flat at
No. II Aldwych, over the Strand Theatre,
where he had lived for so many years.
All theatrical London knew it simply as
'The Flat'. He had supper
with his friend and partner, Tom Arnold.
He was taken ill but the attack
passed off or so it seemed.
And then the pains came again.
Olive Gilbert and Robert Andrews
were with him, the doctor came
speeding to his aid but shortly
after Two a.m. on the morning
of March Sixth, NineteenFiftyOne
Ivor Novello answered his last 'call'.

Ivor Novello passed away in his flat
at No. ll Aldwych, over the Strand Theatre,
where he had lived for so many years.

Piano Sequence by James PittPayne
London UK
Monday TwentySecond April
Two Thousand and Two

Soft karaoke
Words
treble clef 1
treble clef 2
lyric line
bass
*
Gay's The Word 1950 Piano Selection
Music by Ivor Novello
Lyrics by Alan Melville
copyright MCML by Chappell and Co. Ltd., London
*
Tom Arnold presents
Cicely Courtneidge
in a new Musical Play
written and composed by Ivor Novello
from an idea by Jack Hulbert
produced by Jack Hulbert
*
Piano sequence by Dr. Pitt-Payne in London UK
on Monday 22 April 2002 at 15.54
in association with Doug Grierson
*

Gay's The Word 1950
Music by Ivor Novello
His Last show
Andante Maestoso
Allegro Marziale
Gaiety Glad
Andante Moderato
If Only He'd Looked My Way
Tempo di Valse
A Matter of Minutes
Allegretto Moderato
Bees Are Buzzin'
Andante Expressivo
Finder Please Return
Allegro con brio
Vitality
On Such A Night As This
If Only He'd Looked My Way (reprise)