ABSTRACT
Places of commerce are a key component of lateVictorian musical comedies. This chapter focuses on works by Ivan Caryll and Arthur Sullivan, outlining the range of ways in which they use places of commerce to introduce the elements of plot, setting, and characters. A broad variety of venues feature as settings in these shows, such as the charity bazaar (Ivan Caryll's Messenger Boy), the Paris Exhibition (likewise) and the department store (Caryll's The Shop Girl). There are also individual numbers within these shows that deal with issues related to trade, such as advertisements (Caryll's The Circus Girl), or the abundance of wares for sale in a department store, charity bazaar, or fairground vendor (Sullivan's Haddon Hall). These numbers offered a perfect opportunity to display a large variety of exotic or otherwise covetable goods available in the British Empire (Platt, 2004), and appealed to the national pride of the audience by presenting the latest achievements of Victorian science, industry, agriculture, and international trade. The overwhelming array of goods also created an atmosphere of opulence on stage, which was typical for musical comedies and emphasises its close relationship to operetta.
Finally, the behaviour of customers in department stores, in relation to each other or towards the employees, is highlighted in several scenes. In particular, it seems that the commercial settings invoked a favourite aspect of late Victorian popular musical theatre: modern and/or urban social situations that involved and enabled interactions between classes and genders without being considered indecent. Musical comedies focused on everyday situations in urban contexts because they made it easy for the equally urban audience to identify with the characters on stage. Therefore, they provide scholars today with a unique insight into late Victorian society, the gradual blurring of the formerly fixed class system, and new possibilities for women.
