Twenty years later, Webber and Ayckbourn decided to re-unite their creative genius and produced a second show based on the stories of P.G.Wodehouse; this time under a slightly different name, “By Jeeves”. Their re-vamped musical comedy has a running time of just under two hours and thirty minutes – much more the theatre standard.
Premiering in London, England in 1996, “By Jeeves” opened on Broadway on October 28, 2001 at the Helen Hayes theatre. The show stars John Scherer and Martin Jarvis and is directed by its bookwriter/lyricist, Alan Ayckbourn. Although first reviews promised, perhaps, a light-hearted and witty comedy with memorable tunes, “By Jeeves” has come to be somewhat of a disappointment.
The premise behind “By Jeeves” is that the servant (stereotypically thought to be beneath upper class folks in demeaner and intelligence) is actually the brains behind an English buffoon by the name of Bertie Wooster. It is Jeeves who controls, manipulates and manages his master; all the while having his master think he is the one in charge.
Written as somewhat of a play within a play, the story begins as Bertie is to entertain at a church fundraiser. When the time comes for him to begin serenading the audience, however, his banjo cannot be found. At Jeeves’ suggestion, Bertie begins telling the sordid tales of his upper crust friends with the most peculiar names to the audience amid the constant entrances and exits of the cast through 18 doors on the set. This “in again/out again” format worked hilariously well in “Noises Off” but, for whatever reasons, cannot deliver the same side splitting results in “By Jeeves”.
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