Vanity Fair

Examiner of Plays' Summary:

This revue is fairly amusing and some of it will probably be pretty. So far as the script indicates, there is practically nothing to annoy anyone from a moral point of view. More likely is annoyance from the remarks about politicians and others, which are sometimes bitter in tone; but with only one or two exceptions they are merely expressions of opinion which cannot be prevented. No minister or other such person is brought on or guyed personally. Scene 1 does not exist: this is a rather feeble joke not worth explaining here. Scene II is in Piccadilly Circus. It starts with chaff of General Smith-Dorrien’s crusade. That is to be expected and can hardly be complained of. I think, however, the remark on p.7 is in stupidly bad taste because it might be taken in a vague way to be depreciatory of him as a soldier. I hardly think, though, it can very well be cut out by authority. On p.13 I have marked a song about ‘Lady Di’, inoffensive in itself, because it may be thought objectionable as a possible reference to Lady Diana Manners, about whose introduction into a revue there was some complaint before. Lady Diana having become a sort of public character by the innumerable pictures of her in the papers, it might no doubt be taken to apply to her, but I hardly think there ought to be any sensitiveness about that. Scene III has not come in yet. Scene IV and V are without dialogue, merely pretty affairs of dressing up and dances. Scene VII is a comic interlude of a young man, in want of adventure, being told by a married man to try Balham but he goes to Clapham by mistake, strikes up acquaintance with the other man’s wife and is found in his house. Nothing worse than kissing is indicated, and it seems to me harmless fun. Scene VI is on Plymouth hoe, with a middy or ‘snotty’ flirting with several girls and a comic ‘flag’ scene. Scene VIII is wordless; a woman dressed as a dragon-fly and a man as a grass-hopper dance about and flirt and then get into a big plant called ‘honeymoon hotel’, with various effects of light. It is evidently designed merely for prettiness scene IX is a tube station episode, with various types, chaff and incidents of a familiar sort. Scene X and last. This is chiefly taken up by the three chief ladies doing men’s jobs and so on. I have marked on p.10 a verse of a song with a joke about a baby and the job a man ‘can do, after all’. I think it would be squeamish to object to such an obvious bit of fun, but it is the sort of thing some people think improper. On p.18 of this scene there is an allusion to Greece and America, but not in my opinion beyond fair criticism. With these possible, but in my opinion unnecessary reservations and with the exception of Scene III and some lyrics not yet received the piece is recommended for license. G. S. Street. The missing lyrics have been sent I and I find nothing to object to in them. [...] G. S. S. Vanity Fair - Additional Scene. This begins with a chorus of girls al la ‘ten little nigger boys’: there follows a scene of jokes between two charwomen, and then the play fair is introduced as a pavement artist and Mr Logan as a man about town with various jokes, and the scene concludes with the latter and Miss Palerme. A song is to follow later. p.1 in the chorus of girls I have marked two passages which have an offensive air and are gratuitously personal. P.8 is a joke about Mrs Cornwallis West. I have queried it but personally I think it too strict to forbid comment on notorious and public cases. Recommended for license. G. S. Street [...] Vanity Fair - Additional Matter, Palace Theatre, 2 April 1917. This is a burlesque playlet in 2 scenes. The plot is the old aristocrat forcing his daughter to marry the rich German Jew instead of the poor doctor, and the death of the German Jew in an accident. The principal fun is derived from the contrast of the mock-tragic stage situations and dialogue, with the players seen chatting ‘off’ with the dressers etc. It is quite harmless. Recommended for licence. G. S. Street. Vanity Fair, Additional Matter, 28th March 1917. Two new scenes. The first is a topical rendering of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ with Mlle Flory as France, a Boche wolf, and Miss Mannering as a highland soldier who comes to her rescue. It concludes with a dance. The second is a brief burlesque of ‘The Aristocrat’. It is fairly amusing, but it contains - see p.6 - a piece of bad taste at the expense of Sir G. Alexander, the passage glancing at his early life in commerce. This seems to me snobbish and regrettable, but I do not think it calls for interference. Recommended for licence. G. S. Street