The Arcadians is an Edwardian musical comedy styled a "Fantastic Musical Play" in three acts with a book by Mark Ambient and Alexander M. Thompson, lyrics by Arthur Wimperis, and music by Lionel Monckton and Howard Talbot. The story concerns some idyllic Arcadians who wish to transform wicked London to a land of truth and simplicity.
Scene from The Arcadians, 1909
Postcard advertising the original production
Climax of Act II, with Simplicitas riding "The Deuce"
The luckless jockey Peter Doody
Edwardian musical comedy was a form of British musical theatre that extended beyond the reign of King Edward VII in both directions, beginning in the early 1890s, when the Gilbert and Sullivan operas' dominance had ended, until the rise of the American musicals by Jerome Kern, Rodgers and Hart, George Gershwin and Cole Porter following the First World War.
The Geisha was a popular Edwardian musical comedy
George Edwardes
Phyllis Dare in The Arcadians
Souvenir program cover, 1900