The Girl Who Came to Supper

The Girl Who Came to Supper.

The Girl Who Came to Supper is a stage musical based on Terrence Rattigan's play The Sleeping Prince

Cast

• José Ferrer - Grand Duke Charles, The Prince Regent
• Florence Henderson - Mary Morgan
• Tessie O'Shea - Ada Cockle
• Roderick Cook - Peter Northbrook
• Marian Haraldson - Jessie Maynard
• Jack Eddleman - Tony Morelli
• Ilona Murai - Lady Sunningdale
• Sean Scully - King Nicholas III
• Carey Nairnes - Major-Domo

Plot

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.

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.

Musical numbers

Act I

• "Swing Song" - Jessie Maynard, Tony Morelli and Ensemble
• "Yasni Kozkolai (Carpathian National Anthem)" - Ensemble
• "My Family Tree" - Prince Regent, Northbrook and Regent's Aides
• "I've Been Invited to a Party" - Mary
• "I've Been Invited to a Party" (Reprise) - Mary
• "When Foreign Princes Come to Visit Us" - Major-Domo and Footmen
• "Sir or Ma'am" - Northbrook
• "Soliloquies" - Prince Regent and Mary
• "Lonely" - Prince Regent
• "London Is a Little Bit of Alright/What Ho, Mrs. Brisket/Don't Take Our Charlie for the Army" - Ada Cockle and Ensemble
• "Saturday Night at the Rose and Crown" - Ada Cockle, King Nicholas and Ensemble
• "London Is a Little Bit of Alright" (Reprise) - Ada Cockle
• "Here and Now" - Mary
• "I've Been Invited to a Party" (Reprise) - Mary
• "Soliloquies" (Reprise) - Prince Regent and Mary

Act II

• "Coronation Chorale" - Mary, Prince Regent, Principals and Ensemble
• "How Do You Do, Middle Age?" - Prince Regent
• "Here and Now" (Reprise) - Mary
• "The Stingaree" - Prince Regent, Lady Sunningdale and Ensemble
• "Curt, Clear and Concise .... Prince Regent and Northbrook
• "Welcome to Pootzie Van Doyle/Paddy MacNeil and His Automobile/Six Lillies of the Valley/The Walla Walla Boola (The Coconut Girl)" - Mary
• "This Time It's True Love" - Mary and Prince Regent
• "I'll Remember Her" - Prince Regent