The Girl in the Taxi is the English-language adaptation by Frederick Fenn and Arthur Wimperis of the operetta Die keusche Susanne (Chaste Susanne, 1910 in Magdeburg), with music by Jean Gilbert. The German original had a libretto by Georg Okonkowski and was, in turn, based on a French play, Fils à papa, by Antony Mars and Maurice Desvallières. The story begins with a man and a woman, both married, who flag the same taxi and then decide to share it, as they have the same restaurant destination. Various naughty supper rendezvous, and much hiding under tables or behind screens, ensue.
The musical opened at the Lyric Theatre in London, produced by Philip Michael Faraday, on 5 September 1912 and ran for 385 performances. It starred Yvonne Arnaud as Suzanne, Arthur Playfair as Baron Dauvray, and Charles H. Workman as M. Pomarel. B. W. Findon, writing in The Play Pictorial called this "The merriest of musical farces"[1] The piece toured internationally, including a production by J. C. Williamson's opera company in Australasia in 1915, starring Workman.[2]
Film versions were made in 1921 (an American film) and in 1937 (a British film). The musical was adapted back into French by Mars and Desvallières and produced in Paris and then Lyon in 1913 as La chaste Suzanne. It was also staged in South America in Italian (La casta Susana) and in Spanish (La chasta Suzanna), among other languages.[3]
- ^ Findon, B. W., The Play Pictorial, issue, no. 124, vol. XXI, 1912, pp. 2 and 3
- ^ "Grand Opera House". Evening Post (Wellington, New Zealand), vol. XC, no. 86, 9 October 1915, p. 2
- ^ Letellier, Robert Ignatius. Operetta: A Sourcebook, Volume II, Cambridge Scholars Publishing (2015), pp. 695–697