P.G. Wodehouse’s appeal is timeless because humour itself is timeless, a relative of the master humorist, who probably has more admirers in India than in the UK, said in Calcutta.
“Love for Wodehouse is a rite of passage in India. I have heard so many stories. In Indian families, you are presented with your first P.G. Wodehouse.... It is like, ‘Now I give it to you because you are ready’,” Hal Cazalet, step-great-grandson of Wodehouse, told this newspaper.
“These are so treasured, this type of literature. It is of its time, of course, but it is also timeless because humour is timeless.”
Cazalet, a British opera singer, is in Calcutta for a performance that is part
of the Exide Kolkata Literary Meet, partnered by The Telegraph.
On Saturday, at the Calcutta School of Music, he will take the audience through Wodehouse’s musical years on Broadway, “tracing the wit, rhythm and theatricality that shaped his work beyond the page”. He will be accompanied on the piano by Simon Beck.
PG Wodehouse
Wodehouse had a highly successful and influential, and often overlooked, stint as a lyricist on Broadway, primarily between 1915 and 1919.
Wodehouse helped revolutionise American musical comedy. Working alongside composers Jerome Kern and librettist Guy Bolton, he helped create the “Princess Theatre musicals”, known for their intimate, character-driven and cohesive narratives.
In the run-up to his show, in the lobby of the Taj Bengal, Cazalet chatted with this newspaper.
Lasting appeal
Wodehouse was married to Ethel May Wayman. Ethel had a daughter from an
earlier marriage. The daughter, Leonora, is Cazalet’s grandmother. His father, Edward Cazalet, a retired judge, is Wodehouse’s step-grandson.
What keeps Wodehouse going in India, this newspaper asked Cazalet, whose full name is Henry Pelham “Hal” Cazalet. Uttered quickly, “Pelham” sounds somewhat like “Plum”, which was the nickname by which Pelham Grenville Wodehouse was known to friends.
Cazalet pointed to “similarities in Indian and British sensibilities”.
“These are two great cultures with somewhat identical senses of humour.... Both
sets of readers love formidable and strong-willed women of a certain age who are not to be messed with,” he said.
“There are other parallels, like the caste and class system, though it is much more complicated here (in India).”
Cazalet dwelt on the everlasting appeal of humour.
“He (Wodehouse) builds up the humour for two pages and then drops the bomb, the big laugh. But it’s all in the language, in the narrative. I think that is what we all delight in. His inimitable turn of phrase, which is enjoyed so much by the British and the Indians,” he said.
Broadway, Bollywood
Theatre in America was changing between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when Wodehouse started making his mark.
“Broadway was known for very expensive productions with big choruses and huge orchestras. Plum teamed up with librettist Guy Bolton and the very famous American composer Jerome Kern,” Cazalet said.
“What they wanted to do was to change the way the audience experienced a musical and make it a lot cheaper and more practical. There was a cast of eight to 10 characters. There was very much a formula. Suddenly, these musicals took on a new way in how the audience reacted and felt emotional towards a cohesive piece of theatre with amazing music.”
In 1917, Wodehouse had five musicals running simultaneously on Broadway.
Cazalet called it “unprecedented”. “Before Plum, there would be huge sets, huge orchestras and huge choruses on Broadway. He cut it right down because the Princess Theater on Broadway, just south of Times Square, was a tiny theatre,” he said.
“It had 399 seats. Over that would be a fire risk. They managed to scale it right down. Things became much more meaningful. Songs took (the audience) on a lot more emotional journey.”
During his Broadway stint, Wodehouse wrote stuff that was not all that different from Bollywood scripts, Cazalet said.
“Look at Bollywood stories. The stories that Plum was writing are very similar. Boy meets girl, girl falls out with boy,” he said.