The principal storyline concerns Dolly Gibbs, a spoilt rich girl who has run away and joined a theatre company so as to escape from Tommy Chester, a rich young ass who has been pestering her to marry him. Tommy tracks her down and they meet at the theatre, but only shortly before their respective parents arrive in hot pursuit. A secondary plot concerns the theatre company itself, and is said to spoof the American show business industry which manufactures mindless shows 'to meet the needs of its tired business men' (Age 20 December 1915, 9).
Stop Your Nonsense begins with the manager of the Highty Flighty Theatre (David Burlesko) telling the author of the play that is about to premiere that he has changed his mind and is now going in for vaudeville. "What about my beautiful play?" says the indignant playwright, Pinero Jones. "If it hadn't been for you I could have had it done by J. C. Williamson - or Harry Clay" (Theatre Magazine September 1915, p.12). The Bulletin's theatre critic proposes that what follows is not unlike the treatment a musical burlesque receives. It 'is generally understood to be the mere bleeding remnants of what its author originally produced. The nice new script is torn to pieces in rehearsal by stage staff and players; the mince is then mined and bombed after hours by author, producer and stage manager in collaboration; and finally the torn and teased and sundered thing is stuffed into a new sausage skin by all hands, including the musical director and the call boy' (19 August 1915, p.9).
[Source: Australian Variety Theatre Archive]
1915: Theatre Royal, Sydney; 14 August - 3 September.
1915: King's Theatre, Melbourne; 18 December 1915 - 7 January 1916
This entry has been sourced from on-going historical research into Australian-written music theatre being conducted by Dr Clay Djubal.
