 THE GIRL WHO CAME TO SUPPER
A Musical Comedy in Two Acts, 16 Scenes. Book by Harry Kurnitz. Based
on the play The Sleeping Prince by Terence Rattigan. Music
and lyrics by Noel Coward.
Broadway Theatre, New York - 8 December, 1963 (112 perfs)
Synopsis
ACT I
On the night before the coronation of George V in 1911,
London is in a gala mood. At the Majestic Theatre, the first act finale
of a charming period musical The Coconut Girl ends. At its conclusion,
the Grand Duke Charles - Prince Regent of Carpathia - visits the company,
who honour him by singing the Carpathian National anthem, while his body
guards in patriotic fervour fly into a czardas. The Prince Regent then
explains his colorful ancestral background.
Chorus girl Mary Morgan has caught the Regent's eye,
and Northbrook, assigned by the British government to the Carpathian
retinue during their stay in London, brings Mary an invitation from the
Prince Regent to dine at the Carpathian Embassy after the show. Mary
imagines herself as the toast of the international set, cleverly and
wittily dazzling all the guests. At the Carpathian Embassy, the normal
routine is somewhat upset. The Prince Regent arrives, perturbed by reports
of riots in his homeland. Northbrook enters with Mary, who is nervous
about how to behave in the presence of nobility. Northbrook instructs
her to address royalty as Sir or Ma'am and to obey the rules of protocol.
She is suspicious of the prepared supper for two; however, after Northbrook
refers to closer Anglo-Carpathian relations, the Congress of Vienna and
balance of power, she agrees to stay-for only forty-five minutes.
When the Prince Regent and Mary are alone, they seem
pleased with one another. He plies her with vodka but is soon interrupted
by a series of arrivals: the elderly Queen Mother of Carpathia comes
to plead with her son for greater leniency toward his teenage son, King
Nicolas, who has been conspiring with the rebels at home against his
father's autocratic rule. Further interruptions include a telephone call
reporting the arrest of Carpathia's opposition leader, a verbatim recital
by Mary of the Bill of Rights, and the arrival of King Nicolas protesting
his arrest. When they are alone at last, the Prince Regent pleads that
he is lonely, but Mary, who has had too much vodka, passes out.
Mingling with the people in St. Martin's Lane, Nicolas
meets Ada Cockle, Cockney extraordinaire, peddler of fish and chips,
glowing lover of life and London, who belts out Cockney ballads.
The next morning, Mary, clad in a bedspread and under
the euphoric misconception that she has given all for love, proclaims
her newborn love for the Prince Regent. Her "darlings"
addressed to him bring only an icy "Miss Morgan" in return,
and her rapturous references to last night are met with the acid comment
that he was unfortunately unable to be present. Mary dresses hurriedly,
and, when Nicholas returns, tells him she is rooting for him against
the "mean, stubborn tyrant." She is only partially flattered
by the boy's worldly compliment
that he likes her better than any of his father's other mistresses.
Northbrook's attempts to smuggle Mary out of the Embassy
are intercepted by a fanfare and the Carpathian royal retinue in full
regalia on their way to the coronation. However, when her lady-in-waiting
becomes ill, the Queen Mother appoints Mary to the position for the occasion
and bedecks her in diamonds and sable, while the infuriated Prince Regent
is forced to invest Mary with the Order of Perseverance, given only for
personal service to the head of state.
ACT II
At Westminster Abbey, the assembled nobles lament their
boredom, punctuated by Mary's enthrallment. Mary goes back to the Embassy
to return the jewels but is interrupted by Nicholas, who prevails upon
her to place a conspiratorial phone call for him to the German ambassador.
The call is cut short, however, by the arrival of the Regent, who has
had the wires tapped and places his son under house arrest. Mary delivers
a lecture on fatherly love, then is dismissed by the Regent, who finds,
for the first time, that he has lost the mastery of a situation.
The Prince Regent relents enough to command Nicolas
to attend the Foreign Office Ball and orders him to have a good time,
while the Queen Mother drafts Mary to accompany Nicolas. The Regent has
invited the elegantly beautiful and compliant Lady Sunningdale to supper
after the ball. She has every virtue but virtue itself.
Strolling through the streets after the ball, Mary entertains
Nicolas with the hilariously complex plot of The Coconut Girl,
the touching story of a nut tycoon and his daughter, The Coconut Girl,
who becomes involved variously with two Yale men, an Italian villa, a
garden swing, some gambling casino chorus girls, a coconut blight and
a dance called The Walla Bolla Boola. Back at the Embassy, Mary confounds
the Prince Regent by reading him a proclamation she has drafted for Nicolas,
renouncing his conspiracy with the Germans to overthrow his father, who
insists that firmness toward his son has brought order to Carpathian
chaos. Mary's comforting sympathy elicits the Prince Regent's happy admission
that this is the time for true love.
In the morning, the Prince Regent, a new man, makes
arrangements for Mary's return with him to Carpathia and decrees free
elections at home. But Mary realises the impossibility of his happy plans.
With tender longing the lovers bid adieu, with the frail hope that someday
- perhaps in Paris - they will be reunited. Weary now of the power he
had clung to so fiercely, the Prince Regent wistfully reflects that he
will remember her and leaves. As all the gilt and grandeur about her
silently recedes, Mary departs, lingering only to pluck one rose, fragrant
with memories.
Taken from original notes by Curtis F Brown
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