Cirrus@Austlit

Having a character become temporarily important or placed in a higher social station, for either a night or day, was a popular theme for minstrel farces, musical comedies, and revusicals. It is therefore unclear whether any relationship existed between Arthur Morley's production and earlier productions, including the following works:

• A 1907 two-act musical comedy called A Knight for a Day, first staged at Wallack's Theatre, New York, in December 1907. It was also staged in Australia prior to Morley's revusical (Her Majesty's Theatre, Sydney, 9 July 1910).

• Several minstrel farces known to have been staged in Australia the mid-to-late 1890s. One of these, A Lord for a (K)night, was presented in 1895 as part of a night of variety and 'refined minstrelsy' under the direction of Frank York and George A. Jones (Empire Theatre, Sydney, 24 August). The farce is likely to have involved the 'Australian team' of Tom Delohery, James Craydon, and Ted Holland, who were then engaged as the company's principal comedy-sketch team. A similarly titled farce, A Lord for a Night, was later staged by Delohery, Craydon, and Holland during their Elite Vaudeville Company season at the Brisbane Theatre Royal in 1899 (beginning 4 February).

• Ted Holland's An M.P. for a Night, first known to have been staged by Holland's Vaudeville Entertainers at the Brisbane Theatre Royal on 14 January 1905. Interestingly, Arthur Morley was engaged by Holland in Brisbane and Queensland during much of 1905.