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Ernest in Love

Ernest in Love is a musical with a book and lyrics by Anne Croswell and music by Lee Pockriss. It is based on The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde's classic 1895 comedy of manners.

Ernest in Love

Background[edit]

The two-act musical is an expanded version of the hour-long musical Who's Earnest? televised on The United States Steel Hour in 1957.[1]


The 1959-1960 Off-Broadway season included a dozen musicals and revues including Little Mary Sunshine, The Fantasticks (based on an obscure 1894 work by Edmond Rostand, of Cyrano fame), and Ernest in Love, a musicalization of Oscar Wilde's 1895 hit. The production was directed by Harold Stone and choreographed by Frank Derbas. It opened on May 4, 1960, at the Gramercy Arts Theatre, where it was warmly received by the critics but ran for only 103 performances. The cast included Louis Edmonds as Algernon, John Irving as Jack, Leila Martin as Gwendolen, Gerrianne Raphael as Cecily, Sara Seegar as Lady Bracknell, Lucy Landau as Miss Prism, George Hall as Dr. Chausable, Christina Gillespie as Effie, and Alan Shayne as Lane. It was then revived thereafter in stock and amateur productions, at least into the early 1960s.[1]


An original cast recording was released by Columbia Records. In 2003, a compact disc transfer was issued on the DRG label.


The Japanese all-female musical theatre troupe Takarazuka Revue staged the musical in 2005 in two productions, one by Moon Troupe (featuring the debut of Jun Sena and Kanami Ayano) the other one by Flower Troupe (the last production for Sakiho Juri for the company), and the other one by Flower Troupe (led by Rio Asumi and featuring the debut of Maria Kano).


In 2010, an Off Broadway revival of Earnest in Love was presented by the Irish Repertory Theatre.

Critical reception[edit]

In his review of the original 1960 production, Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times wrote that "Everything has been done in the most impeccable taste...Lee Pockriss's music is deft and droll. Ann Croswell's book and lyrics are clever...the whole performance radiates sly good nature."[2] Richard Watts, Jr. of the New York Post pronounced Ernest in Love "charming...a fresh and likable musical show..excellently played."[2] In the New York Herald Tribune, Judith Crist declared that "It has all the charm and pleasure of a spring bouquet."[2]


In reviewing the 2010 revival, The Wall Street Journal theater critic Terry Teachout said Earnest in Love was "presented with bewitching finesse. ... The Irish Rep's revival, the first of any significance ever to be mounted in New York, is so endearing that I can't help wonder why so delightful a show disappeared for so long." Teachout stated that the writers "managed between them to put a fresh and personal spin on "Earnest": They shifted the emphasis from Wilde's epigrams to his pretty-young-things-in-love plot. ... No, it's not Wilde, but if you can keep from breaking out in a cheek-to-cheek grin when Jack Worthing ... launches into a neat little soft shoe in the first scene, you're just a sour old crock." He noted that, while "the music is craftsmanlike but not quite memorable", the show "works flawlessly on its own modest terms."[3]

Lortel Archives listing

at the Music Theatre International website

Ernest in Love