Described in advertising as a 'mosaic in music and mime', this successor to Asche's immensely popular theatrical extravaganza Chu Chin Chow similarly unfolds around passion and poetry, love and hate, tender slave girls and ardent princes, delicate love, romance, and bacchanalian frenzy in the days of fierce intrigue and savagery.
The story concerns Ali Shar, a wrestler whose daughter Zummurud catches the attention of the young and handsome sultan (Al Malik-al-Nasir) during one of his trips (in disguise) through the city. Prince Nur-al-Din, a crafty villain who covets the throne, orders the death of his sister's child and tricks Ali Shar into attempting to kill the sultan in a wrestling match, by telling him that the sultan intends to add Zummurud to his harem. The sultan eludes Ali's killer grip and then orders the wrestler to make a pilgrimage to Mecca as an atonement. While on his way to Mecca, Ali falls in with a band of pilgrims who are taken prisoner by the prince, who has also taken Zummurud as his hostage. Pretending to be dumb, Ali enters the service of the prince's sister, Sharazad, and together they plot to rescue Zummurud and bring the prince to justice. Zummurud accidentally betrays her father, and he is sold as a slave. He is able to escape, however, and subsequently kills the prince. The sultan and Zummurud are then reunited.
Cairo incorporated ten songs into its narrative: 'From Bagdad We Come', 'Story of the Sphinx', 'My King of Love', 'A Fool There Was', 'When Love Knocked', 'Chinaman's Song', 'Hast Thou Been to Mecca', 'Dance Poem', 'The King of Nur-Al-Din', and 'Love in my Breast'.
Cairo premiered in New York in 1920 as Mecca (without Asche or Lily Brayton in the cast), taking on its alternative title for the London premiere almost exactly one year later. Alexander Woollcott, writing for the New York Times, suggested that not only was Mecca 'a great achievement' and a 'gorgeous and gargantuan show', but that the 'long heralded successor to Chu Chin Chow proved to be as rich and sumptuous an adventure in pageantry as the American theatre has known' (5 October 1920, p.12).
The London premiere attracted a good deal of controversy over one particular scene, with London's Daily Express writing, 'All London will be talking to-day about the greatest anatomical exhibition ever seen on the stage' (qtd Pall Mall Gazette 17 October 1921, p.7). The Daily Mail went further, describing the scene as 'indecent both in conception and in execution... the Prince summons his dancers to entertain his guests, and the dancers re-create all the lustfulness of Cleopatra's day... [working] up to a riot of sensuality... in an abandonment of animal passion' (qtd Green Room November 1921, p.23). Asche responsed to the 'allegations of stark sensuality', arguing that 'It is British, that's why it is criticised. Had it been Russian all would have been well' (Pall Mall Gazzette 17 October 1921, p.7). That no obvious moral outrage emanated from the American public or critics suggests that Asche must have made some signficant staging changes to the London production. Interestingly, the British censor, who found no objection with the display of flesh, did, on the other hand, prohibit the production going ahead with the original title Mecca, because this was deemed to be offensive to 'Mahometan susceptibilities' [sic] (Green Room November 1921, p.23).
Criticism of Percy Fletcher's music was largely unfavourable. A Green Room critic proposed, for example, that it was distinguished more 'by weirdness than by melodiousness' (October 1922, p.5), while a Times (London) reviewer wrote that was 'perhaps a little too ambitious, a little heavy for the occasion... and [that] the lead characters have unfortunately not been given any of the catchier tunes'. With regard to the story itself, the same reviewer proposed that Asche had 'produced a huge, confused, spectacular entertainment with many stupendous and some beautiful things in it. It lacks form and it lacks style; but perhaps these qualities will not be missed by the public that made a success of Chu Chin Chow' (qtd Pall Mall Gazette 17 October 1921, p.8).
Manuscripts with the titles 'Cairo' and 'Ali Shar' are held in the Lord Chamberlain's Collection, British Library. See also the souvenir for the Sydney production of Cairo, edited by Phil Finkelstein (1922).
A novelised version by William A. Page, entitled Mecca: A Mosaic in Music and Mime, was published in 1920 by F. R. Comstock and M. Gest (New York).
1920: Century Theatre, New York, 4 October 1920 - 22 January 1921. Director E. Lyall Swete ; Producer F. Ray Comstock and Morris Gest ; Chorus Michel Fokine ; Cast incl. Lionel Braham (Ali Shar), Gladys Hanson (Sharazad) Herbert Grimwood (Prince Nur-al- Din), Orville R. Caldwell (The Sultan), John Nicholson (Abdullah), Hannah Toback (Zummurud), Arthur Barron (Gate Keeper), Richard Schwindler (Officer of the Guard/Patriaren), Robert Rhodes (Kataf), Julian Winters (Orange Seller), Genevieve Dolar (Old Woman), Basil Smith (Blind Man), Kate Mayhew (Zarlia), Edward Watson (Zaid), Harold Skinner (Wazir Al Khasih), John Horan (Abu Yaksan), John Merson (Wazir Abu Shamar), Thomas Leary (Wei San Wei), Ida Mulle (Wei Wa Shi), Martha Lowther (Dancing Girl), Walter Laye (Abram).
1921: His Majesty's Theatre, London (England), 15 October 1921 - 3 June 1922. Director Oscar Asche ; Cast incl. Oscar Asche (Ali Shar), Lily Brayton (Sharazd), Shayle Garner, Cecil Humphreys, Norman Williams, Conway Dixon, Julian Cross, Norman Harle, Hubert Carter, Frank Cochrane, Courtice Pounds, Espinosa, Fedora Rozelli, Bessie Major, Grace Leigh.
1922: Her Majesty's Theatre, Sydney, 16 September - 8 December. Director Oscar Asche ; Producer J. C. Williamson's Ltd ; Music Director Andrew McCunn ; Stage Manager Patrick Bellew ; Cast incl. Oscar Asche (Ali Shar), Gladys Mason (Sharazad), Cecil Humphries (Prince Nur-al-Din), Wensley Russell, Richard Hatteras (The Sultan), Mason Wood, George Ide (Abdullah), Dorothy Maude, Doris Champion, Edith Drayson (Zummurud), Miss Collins, Jessie Page, Eardley Turner, Walter Passmore, Mr Albert, Mr Morris, Mr Burneet, Gilbert McLean, Mr Cashman, Mr Green, Miss Cottey, Eve Gray, Miss Esmond, Miss Matthews, Miss O'Farrell.
1922: Her Majesty's Theatre, Melbourne, 23 December 1922 - 16 February 1923. Director Oscar Asche ; Producer J. C. Williamson's Ltd ; Cast and production mostly as for Sydney season.
This entry has been sourced from on-going historical research into Australian-written music theatre being conducted by Dr Clay Djubal.
