Carissima

Summary: 1950 BBC Television production of Carissima, a musical play by Eric Maschwitz.
Theatre play: Carissima by Eric Maschwitz [more information]
Play synopsis: A play with music play written by Eric Maschwitz, from a story by Armin Robinson. This comedy tells the story of a beautiful American businesswoman, a manufacturer of cosmetics, who pays a visit to Venice in pursuit of a singing star for her television programme at home. In Venice Lisa Marvin falls in and out of love. The play’s many settings range from a New York office, to a piazza in Venice, a night club, airport Italian broadcasting studio and the stage of a Broadway theatre.
Production history: Ran at the Palace Theatre, London for almost 500 performances, c. 1948.
Date of transmission: Saturday 25 November 1950
Time: 8.00-9.45pm
Channel: BBC Television
Production company: BBC

Producer

Walton Anderson

Playwright

Eric Maschwitz

Original Story by

Armin Robinson

Composer

Hans May

Orchestrations by

Stanley Andrews

Orchestrations by

Arthur Wilkinson

Orchestra Directed by

Eric Robinson

Sets / Settings

Richard R. Greenough

Associate Producer

Trevor Clark

Cast

Victor Baring	Fleischmann
Ivan Berold	Pietro
Eugenie Castle	Giulietta Binci
Tom Chatto	Tony; Camera Man
David Davies	Barolo
Guy de Monceau	Rocco; Maître d’hôtel
Leo de Pokorny	Bazzini
Dino Galvani	Binci
Barbara Kelly	Lisa Marvin
Norman Lawrence	Paolo Marinelli
Milo Lewis	Snowy Adams
Tom Linden	Laboratory Assistant; Cabaret Act
Rosemary Morgan	Edith
Cicely Paget-Bowman	Comtessa Spoldini
Hartley Power	Joe Erdman
Edmund Purdom	Testi
Peter Raymond	Giovanni
Alan Reid	Lord Poleigh
Mary Reynolds	Cabaret Act
Max Russell	Caporelli

Origination: Live from studio
Vision original: Monochrome
Later transmissions: Presented again at 8.30pm on Tuesday 29 November 1950.
Notes: The play was presented live from Alexandra Palace: the action ‘was divided between the only two studios available, neither of them particularly pacious, which meant that in the TV adaptation the first thirty minutes had to take place in Studio A, and the second thirty minutes in Studio B - during which time the scenery in Studio A was being hastily changed to accommodate the final half hour! Actors and orchestra moved from one studio to another and back again, a process that resulted in memorable confusion "backstage" ' (as recalled by Eric Maschwitz in Radio Times, 15 May 1959, p. 3).
Extant status: No archival copy is known to exist.
Play tags: America, as theme or setting; Italy, as theme or setting; musical; television, as theme; theatre or acting, as theme

Title: Radio Times, 15 May 1959 (Magazine)
Linking notes: Eric Maschwitz’s article on p. 3 recalls the production conditions of the 1950 production of Carissima

Title: Tanner’s Worth of Tune: Rediscovering the Post-War British Musical (Book)
Author/creator: Adrian Wright (Author)
Reference: Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2010
Linking notes: brief mention on p. 5

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British Universities Film & Video Council