Felice Lascelles

Felice Lascelles ( Felicia Madge Lessels; 19 July 1904 – 29 April 1961) was a British musical comedy actress, singer and dancer who performed on stage from the early 1920s to 1940, under the managements of Charles Cochran, Jack Buchanan, Leslie Henson, and Lee Ephraim.

She is best known for her leading roles in the national tours of Kid Boots (1926), Sunny (1927–1930), Darling, I Love You (1931), Stand Up and Sing (1932), and Venus in Silk (1939), among other shows. She took the lead in the pantomime adaptations of Goldilocks and the Three Bears (1930), Goody Two-Shoes (1931), and Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp (1939–1940). She is the mother of stage actress Susan Neil and folk musician Andy Irvine.

Early life
Lascelles was born Felicia Madge Lessels on 19 July 1904, in Wallasey, Merseyside. Her father, William Lessels, was born in Leeds and her mother, Elizabeth Malvina Cunningham, in Salford. The couple settled in Merseyside, and Felicia was the fourth of their seven children, five of whom survived into adulthood. The eldest child, Leonie Margaret Isabel Lessels (b. 13 May 1893), who later adopted the stage name of Leonie Lascelles, became a pianist and singer, and left Wallasey to start her career in London. One of Leonie's first advertised appearances was in June 1912, performing in a sextet called The Gollies.

Felicia had performed at concerts from the age of five and, since she had always aspired to be an actress, also left Wallasey for London. In the early 1920s, she decided to seek an engagement, even though she had no idea on how to obtain an audition. After simply turning up at the Winter Garden Theatre in London, she was offered a place in the chorus and gained experience in her chosen profession.

Chorus girl and understudy (1923–1926)
Lascelles began her stage career touring in two plays by George Grossmith Jr. & J. A. E. Malone, first as a chorus girl in The Cabaret Girl (1923) at the Prince's Theatre, Bristol. In the second, The Beauty Prize (1924), which opened at the Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool, on 4 February and closed at the Prince's Theatre, Manchester, on 3 May, she played the small role of Shinny Fane, with The Stage praising her performance in two reviews, and the Liverpool Evening Express describing her as "a young and promising Liverpool artiste." She then toured with Jack Buchanan's company in both Toni (1924) and Boodle (1925), two shows which opened in Birmingham. Toni had initially been performed during a trial week at the Theatre Royal, Hanley on 6 August 1923, and then opened at the Prince of Wales Theatre, Birmingham on 5 May 1924, ahead of its full run at the Shaftesbury Theatre, London, from 12 May to 13 December, totalling 248 performances.

In 1925, Lascelles joined the cast of Charles B. Cochran's On With the Dance, which starred Alice Delysia and Leonid Massine, and included songs by Noel Coward. In addition to playing a small, uncredited comedy part, Lascelles understudied Hermione Baddeley for a year. The show opened at the London Pavilion on 30 April and closed on 14 November, after 229 performances. Five days after its run ended, a new edition of this show&mdash;minus the Coward material&mdash;called Still Dancing, opened at the same venue on 19 November, with the same cast, including Lascelles in several scenes. A preview, published in the Weekly Dispatch on 15 November, included her photo, captioned: "Felice Lascelles, to appear in Still Dancing, the new revue at the Pavilion." The show closed on 27 February 1926, after 114 performances.

Kid Boots, Sunny to Goody Two-Shoes (1926–1932)
She was part of the chorus in the 1926 run of Kid Boots at the Winter Garden, London, when Leslie Henson saw her rehearsing as understudy to the leading lady and made her an offer of her first leading part as Polly in that play's national tour, which opened at the Palace Theatre, Manchester, on 30 August 1926, and in which she sang "The Two Of Us" with Claude Bailey. After the performances of Kid Boots at the Liverpool Empire Theatre, Lascelles changed roles again and switched to playing the part of Beth on 27 September for the rest of the tour, which closed at the Empire Theatre, Newcastle, on 22 January 1927.

Lascelles starred in the title role of Sunny Peters in the national tour of Sunny (1927–1930), presented by Jack Buchanan and Lee Ephraim, in which she sang "Who?" and "The Wedding Knell". After a dress rehearsal on Sunday night, 3 July 1927, personally conducted by Buchanan, the tour opened at the Hippodrome Theatre in Margate on 4 July. The cast included Max Kirby (in Buchanan's original role of Jim Demming), Rex Rodgers, Naylor Grimson, George Neil, Ethel Stewart, Kathleen Burgess, and Iris White as principal dancer. The whole company was deemed about the strongest on the road, with over 70 people: performers, bandsmen, stage carpenters, baggage men, flymen, wardrobe women and dressmakers. Nineteen tons of scenery and electrical effects were carried in seven railway carriages, including one for the horse and the dogs. This musical comedy was so popular that two separate companies of actors toured it simultaneously in the provinces and some London boroughs. Lascelles' company, directed by Lee Ephraim, did so for nearly three years, closing at the Hippodrome in Ilford on 31 May 1930, with Lascelles performing throughout the whole run, except for an absence of ten weeks due to illness, from 26 December 1927 until 27 February 1928, during which Pearl Greene stood in for her.

Lascelles' first leading appearance in pantomime was as Goldilocks in Goldilocks and the Three Bears (1929–1930), in which she sang "Tip-Toes". Elsie Prince was Principal boy (Roland). This show opened at the Theatre Royal, Birmingham, on 21 December 1929 and closed there on 1 February 1930, after eight weeks. One week into the run, the reviewer for the Sunday Mercury&mdash;"Astra"&mdash;commented on Lascelles' performance: "Goldilocks and the Three Bears is her first experience in pantomime, and she has made good. It would be difficult to find a more graceful principal girl."

For most of 1931, Lascelles joined the national tour of Darling, I Love You, a musical comedy starring Gus McNaughton, in which she played Peggy Sylvester, the show's heroin, after taking over from Elsie Arnold for her first performance in that role at the Theatre Royal, Huddersfield, on 19 January. When the show was at the Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool, for the second week after Lascelles joined the tour, the reviewer for the Liverpool Echo reported that: "Miss Felice Lascelles, a pretty and graceful heroine in voice and presence, learned in a tribute of flowers how Merseyside rejoices in the success of its local talent." In November 1931, Lascelles left the tour, after passing the role of Peggy on to Lillian Newman. For that year's winter season, she had been pre-announced for the role of principal girl in the pantomime adaptation of Robinson Crusoe. However, she joined another pantomime instead, Goody Two-Shoes, which opened at the Theatre Royal, Exeter, on 26 December 1931. She played the lead role of Goody, and Irene Lister was the Principal boy (Colin). In that role, she sang solo: "Tie a little string about your finger", "Prince Charming", and "All Change for Happiness", as well as duets with Lister: "For You" and "Close Your Eyes". The show closed on 13 February 1932, after 69 performances.

Stand Up and Sing to Follow the Girl (1932–1933)
After taking a long break around the birth of her daughter in June 1932, Lascelles returned to the stage in October of that year, playing the role of Ena in the national tour of Stand Up and Sing, in which she sang "Mercantile Marine" and "Take It or Leave It". This run opened at the Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton, on 31 October 1932, and was suspended after the 10 December show at the Empire Theatre, Leeds, to be merged into the Christmas season organised by Lee Ephraim, before closing on 14 January. On Saturday, 3 December 1932, Lascelles and Eric Fawcett&mdash;among other members of the cast of Stand Up and Sing and other theatrical companies&mdash;volunteered to appear in a charity special matinee performance at the Empire Theatre, Sheffield, in aid of Sheffield Council of Social Service, in which they sang the amusing duet "It's Not You".

During Lee Ephraim's Musical Comedy Season, which took place from 24 December 1932 to 21 January 1933 at the Empire Theatre in Newcastle, Lascelles was part of a company of 80 artists assembled to perform in three of Jack Buchanan's musical comedy shows in succession over four weeks: Sunny, That's a Good Girl, and Stand Up and Sing. At the end of the first performance of Sunny on 24 December, after Lascelles had reprised her leading role of Sunny for the first time in nearly two years, the delighted audience called for repeated curtains and Eric Fawcett&mdash;who played Jack Buchanan's original part of Jim Demming&mdash;addressed the audience in appreciation. For the second of these three shows, opening on 2 January 1933, Lascelles debuted her role of Moya Malone in That's a Good Girl, with Fawcett as Bill Barrow and Ethel Stewart as Joy Dean. For the third show, opening on 9 January 1933, Lascelles played in Stand Up and Sing but departed from her usual role of Ena which was, on this run, performed instead by Ethel Stewart, who had originally played it opposite Jack Buchanan. The fourth and final week, opening on 16 January 1933, was divided between re-runs of Sunny and That's a Good Girl, with three consecutive days allocated to each play. Later in 1933, Lascelles was "the girl" in Follow the Girl, a show that was well received but ran for only three weeks, one each at the Palace Theatre in Halifax on 30 October, at the Opera House in Blackpool on 20 November, and at the Theatre Royal in Brighton on 27 November.

Concert party and Variety shows (1935–1936)
On 17 June 1935, Lascelles and her husband George Neil joined one of Will Seymour's Bubbles concert party companies for a trial week at the Princess Pier in Torquay, with Lascelles playing a soubrette and dancer, and Neil directing as well as performing light comedy. On 1 July, the show relocated to the Victoria Pavilion, Ilfracombe, for the summer season's residency, closing on 21 September after 12 weeks. Their performance was also relayed on regional radio, at 8pm on 9 July. The following year, she appeared as herself, performing in the Gaiety Whirl of 1936, a yearly variety show organised by Ben Popplewell & Sons Ltd. at the Gaiety Theatre, Ayr for the whole summer, opening on 8 June and closing on 3 October, totalling 204 performances.

Venus In Silk to Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp (1938–1940)
She was Mizzi in Venus In Silk (1938), a musical comedy written by Robert Stolz and starring Carl Brisson, Kitty Reidy, Leo Franklyn, and Arthur Rigby. In this role, she sang three songs with Franklyn's Lt. Ladislaus: "One Will Do For Two", "Get Your Man", and "We'll Hire a Skiff". Although it had been intended for a West End production, the show stayed away from London because of the war, but toured in the provinces, opening at the Kings Theatre, Southsea on 30 January 1938 and closing at the Opera House Theatre, Blackpool on 23 April, for a total of 96 performances.

When World War II broke out in September 1939, Lascelles had been in South Africa with Leslie Henson's Gaiety Company since June of that year, performing in Going Greek and Swing Along, on a tour that was scheduled to end in late autumn. But on 1 September, they left for England on a blacked-out liner, the Windsor Castle. During the voyage, which ended on 26 September, the company entertained the other passengers, as well as the crews of three naval vessels one afternoon on 15 September, during a stay in port at Sierra Leone for seven days while waiting for a warship to escort the liner back to England.

Back in England, she played the role of Tilly in The Fleet's Lit Up, which opened at the 	Hippodrome, Birmingham, on 20 November 1939, and closed at the Empire Theatre, Nottingham, on 9 December, after 39 performances. Her final appearance on stage was as the Princess in that Christmas season's pantomime adaptation of Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp at the Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton, with Elsie Prince in the role of Aladdin. The show ran from 26 December 1939 to 27 January 1940, for 44 performances.

Personal life
In February 1927, Lascelles secretly married actor George Anderson Neil in Newcastle. At the time, Neil had been her fellow principal in Kid Boots, and later in Sunny. They had a daughter, Susan, born on 13 June 1932, who also became an actress. From a second marriage to Archibald Kennedy Irvine in 1941, Lascelles gave birth on 14 June 1942 to a son, Andrew, who started out as a child actor and later worked on a two-year contract with the BBC's Repertory company ('The Rep'), before moving to Ireland in 1962, where he continued acting for a while until switching careers to become a folk musician, known as Andy Irvine.

Lascelles died of cancer on 29 April 1961.

"She had a great collection of 78s, songs from long-forgotten musical comedies that I listened to on a wind-up gramophone. She was wonderful. Regretfully, I didn't listen enough to all the stories she had when she was alive. She always had to be the centre of attention. As I always say about her: she may have given up the stage, but she never stopped acting!"

- Andy Irvine

Musical theatre

 * The Cabaret Girl (1923) – (Chorus girl)
 * The Beauty Prize (1924) – Shinny Fane
 * Toni (1924) – (Small part, uncredited)
 * Boodle (1925) – (Small part, uncredited)
 * On with the Dance (1925) – (Small part, uncredited / understudy to Hermione Baddeley)
 * Still Dancing (1925–1926) – One of the Ladies
 * Kid Boots (1926) – Chorus girl / understudy (London run); first Polly, then Beth (National tour)
 * Sunny (1927–1930) – Sunny Peters
 * Goldilocks and the Three Bears (1929–1930) – Goldilocks
 * Darling I Love You (1931) – Peggy Sylvester
 * Goody Two-Shoes (1931–1932) – Goody
 * Stand up and Sing (1932) – Ena
 * That's a Good Girl (1933) – Moya Malone
 * Follow the Girl (1933) – Girl
 * Bubbles (1935) – Soubrette and dancer
 * Gaiety Whirl of 1936 (1936) – As herself
 * Venus In Silk (1938) – Mizzi
 * Going Greek (1939) – (Unknown)
 * Swing Along (1939) – (Unknown)
 * The Fleet's Lit Up (1939) – Tilly
 * Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp (1939–1940) – Princess

Partial filmography
In an interview with the Liverpool Evening Express on 14 September 1926, Lascelles stated that she "has acted on many occasions for the films, but prefers the stage, and in particular musical comedy."


 * Love and the Whirlwind (1922)