Leave It To Psmith 1930

The following link is to an article I wrote for the September 2019 edition of Wooster Sauce - The Journal of the P.G.Wodehouse Society on the 1930 production of the Wodehouse play Leave It To Psmith.

Link To Article

The following notes indicate the main sources I used for this article. The list is not exhaustive, please contact me if you want further details or with any comments/corrections.

The diaries of the "first nighter" Anthony Heap are held by the London Metropolitan Archives. The pocket diary for 1930 is Reference: ACC/2243/003. (We will be meeting Heap again in an article on a later Wodehouse production).

The main reference for basic data about London stage productions in the era is “The London stage 1930-1939: a calendar or productions, performers, and personnel” by J.P.Wearing (Published 2014). This reference omits the Streatham performances which I confirmed from contemporary newspapers.

Tony Ring’s excellent “Second Row, grand circle: a reference guide to the contribution of P.G.Wodehouse to the legitimate theatre” contains, in addition to the above basic data, summaries of the plots of the plays, quotations from them, a non-London performance history, cross-referenced material from other Wodehouse sources, and other interesting notes. I took the quote from a Wodehouse letter on the box-office takings from this book, also the mention of a post-war Broadway version. This reference omits the Glasgow performances which I confirmed from contemporary copies of The Stage theatrical newspaper which records touring schedules.

Biographical details on Basil Foster are taken from his obituaries in The Stage and elsewhere (for his acting career) and from “Extras, Wodehouse at the Wicket” by Murray Hedgcock (2011) (for his cricketing career and influence on Wodehouse).

Biographical details on Jane Baxter are taken from sources summarised in Wikipedia and from published newspaper obituaries.

The best starting source of information on Val St. Cyr is the website maintained by his nephew, the concert violinist Miles Golding.

The Edward Chapman “petition” anecdote is from “Desert Island Discs”: Flotsam and Jetsam” by Mitchell Symons (Random House 2012)