La Vie Parisienne

Church Hall, Barnes

December 1953

Producer – Patrick Scott

Musical Director – Bernard Osborne

Choreography – Helen May (a pupil of Pavlova)

La Vie Parisienne (Parisian life) is an opéra bouffe, or operetta, composed by Jacques Offenbach, with a libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy.

This work was Offenbach’s first full-length piece to portray contemporary Parisian life, unlike his earlier period pieces and mythological subjects. It became one of Offenbach’s most popular operettas.

This production was visited by one of the adapters of Offenbach’s original, Sir Alan Herbert, along with well known producer and impresario Mr George Hastings. The archive contains a programme signed by both gentlemen.

Can you help with more information? Please send any information you have over to archives@brostc.org.

CAST

George Farquharson – Geoffrey Needs

Gertrude Farquharson – Molly Mills

Julia Farquharson – Marjorie Didsbury

Robert Mainwaring – Tony Ayers

Geoffrey Mainwaring – Bernard Mitchell

Madamoiselle Antoinette de Tonac – Patricia Maxwell

Gustave – Edward Bellamy

Madame – Idena Johnson

Steward – Brian Orton

Chief Customs Officer & Gendarme – Ian Worth

Angele – Barbara Webster

Marcelle – June Ayers

Fifi – Lotta Mawhinney

Mimi – Marjorie Doughty

French & English Travellers, Sailors, Porters, Gendarme – Mavis Dew, Georgina Gray, Valerie Haynes, Eveleen Horsburgh, Anne Jeffrey, Odette Jobin, Doris Kemp, Eena Mulligan, Alice Newall, Elizabeth Rowe, Beryl Stare, Norah Thornton, Arthur Andrews, David Johnson, James Karnon, Bob Kirkby, Paul Rowe, Richard Stringer, Michael Tanner, George Tydeman

Can-Can Dancers – Dorothy Charge, Iris Churchill, Joan Noyes, Beryl Smallwood (leader)

CREW

Stage Manager – Everett Reeve

House Manager – Vincent Mulligan

Box Office – Mrs E G King