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First produced at the Savoy Theatre, London, under the Management of Mr. William Greet, on Thursday, January 22nd, 1903 for a run of 115 performances, closing on 16 May 1903.
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| Illustration from The Graphic, 31 January 1903 |
A Princess of Kensington was set in Kensington Gardens, where there is immortal trouble brewing. The Fairy Prince, Azuriel, has been suffering from jealousy for a thousand years over the love shared by the lovely fairy Kenna and the mortal Prince Albion. Although Albion is well and truly dead, the mischievous Puck has encouraged Azuriel's jealousy through the centuries and one day the latter determines that he shall see Albion safely married off to a maiden of his own kind - that very day.
To calm the angry fairy, Puck and Kenna have to produce a false wedding. For their false Albion they light on one William Jelf, a sailor from the H.M.S. Albion, and to provide a bride Puck disguises himself as Sir James Jellicoe, revokes his acceptance of the young Lieutenant Brook Green as a husband for his daughter Joy, and hands her over to Jelf for the necessary nuptials.
Complications ensue with the arrival on the scene of Mr Reddish and his daughter, Nell, to whom Jelf is actually engaged. Reddish is anxious to get Nell off his hands as she is a 'reformer' and has turned his pub into a coffee house, to the disgust of his cronies. Neither of them is any more pleased than the other mortals at the turn events have taken. Further complications ensue before Azuriel is finally convinced that Albion is no longer a threat and the fairies can return to fairyland, Joy to her lieutenant and Nell to the side of one of her father's friends who, she decides, needs the benefits of her reforming zeal. William Jelf goes back to sea, a highly relieved bachelor.
- Introduction — Article on Princess of Kensington from Kurt Gänzl's Encyclopedia of The Musical Theatre.
- Plot Summary — from Play-Pictorial Magazine
- Libretto — submitted to the Archive by Scott Farrell.
- Adobe Acrobat PDF File (465K File)
- Word File (465K File)
- Vocal Score [38.6Mb, PDF] scanned and submitted to the Archive by Arthur Robinson.
- Postcards of scenes from the production
- Original Cast MP3 Files
- MIDI Files
- Overture, sequenced by Clifton Coles
- MIDI files sequenced by Colin Johnson
- Stage Beauty Web Site — Princess of Kensington page on the Stage Beauty web site.
Page modified 31 December 2016