THE PEARL GIRL A musical comedy in 3 acts by Basil Hood. Music by Howard Talbot and Hugo Felix Shaftesbury Theatre, London - 25th September, 1913 - 15th May, 1914 (254 perfs SYNOPSIS The fabulously wealthy Madame Alvarez has come to London for the season, bringing with her a fortune in pearls. Hearing of a plot to steal her jewels, she resolves to have a duplicate set made and she visits Messrs Palmyra Pearls to order them. Mr Jecks, the director of Palmyra, is overjoyed, for Mme Alvarez' pearls are sure to be the talking point of the season, but his jubilation is cut short when the lady decides suddenly to return to the Argentine in pursuit of a handsome naval officer and cancels her order. Leaving a large sum of money with the company's lady secretary to pay her bills, Mme Alvarez vanishes from the London scene. Then the secretary has a bright idea: no one in London has yet seen the millionairess so why should not she, Miranda Peploe, 'do the season' as Mme Alvarez, wearing the Palmyra pearls and gaining the firm priceless publicity? Supported by Mr Jecks (disguised as her Spanish uncle), Miranda Peploe/ Alvarez is launched with great showy splendour upon London society and in society she finds true love in the form of the young Duke of Trent. Jecks, too, finds his fate in the arms of the wealthy, nouveau-riche, Mrs Baxter-Browne, and a third love affair, between Lady Betty Biddulph and the Duke's agent, Robert Jaffray all of wich ends happily with the inevitable denouement. MUSICAL NUMBERS ACT I - Scene 1 - In the Dukeries (a district in the county of Nottinghamshire.) • Pastorale • Song - Duke and Chorus - "Now bless ye the day-break in May or in June, when the hound and the horn together make tune! Oh, who can lie still..." • Duet - Mabel and Duke - "You will find your Southern lady never learnt in English schools; fascinating, palpitating with a pulse her passion rules! ..." • Finale Scene 1 - "No doubt you've heard Palmyra Pearls are absolute perfection; we advertise them 'any size', inviting your inspection! ..." ACT I - Scene 2 - Palmyra Pearl Premises in Bond Street, West London. • Entrance of Pearl Girls - "We are the Pearl girls of Palmyra fame! At ten o'clock we muster, arrayed from top to toe in pearls of lambent lustre, to wander..." • Song - Hopkins and Chorus - "Listen to a shop-man on the topic of his trade, and forgive him if the subject doesn't drop; for a shop-man is a showman..." • Duet - Miranda and Jecks - "Are you capable of crossing to the Continent alone? With the Channel steamer tossing, could you stand it on your own? ..." • Duet - Miranda and Byles - "O, ever since the world began has man's mistake been this: to think a miss must take a man ... And not take man a-miss..." • Scena - "A multi-millionairess comes, the mistress of gigantic sums; I think that we should welcome her as though a Royal customer! ... I think so too!..."
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