Wallis and Edward Story.htm

WALLIS & EDWARD
The Love Story of the Twentieth Century?

Wallis & Edward, the new musical play, presents an historically accurate, humorous, yet dark telling of the scandalous affair that rocked the world in the 1930s - between twice divorced American socialite Wallis Warfield Simpson and the world's most eligible bachelor King Edward VIII, formerly the most popular Prince of Wales in history. To this day it remains a most shocking and compelling escapade.

Touted for decades as the love story of the 20th century - Wallis & Edward: The Love Story of the Twentieth Century? sheds new light on the affair that led to King Edward VIII's abdication of the Crown and Throne of the British Empire.

The Duke and Duchess of Windsor
Chateau De Cande 1937

This new British style farce involves prostitution, gambling, homosexuality, fascination with fascism from Mussolini to Hitler, murder, palace intrigue, exile and the start of a royal feud that persisted for decades.

Why did they have to go - his democratic, progressive, modern ideas? His sympathy with the poor and underprivileged? His dislike of royal pomp and circumstance? His pro-German tendancies? What if Wallis Simpson became a convenient pawn for Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin and Parliament to remove an unwanted King? What if King Edward didn't want the job to start with? What if King Edward used Wallis Simpson as the most honorable excuse for abdicating - love?

His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales

Wallis Simpson at Bryanston Court c1930

The Elder Duchess of Windsor 1973

The Royal Family Princess Mary, King George V,
Queen Mary, Prince of Wales, Duke of Gloucester,
Duke of York and Duke of Kent

Her Majesty Queen Mary

His Majesty King George V

THE PLAY

The story begins with Wallis Simpson's Presentation at Court in 1931, where she arrogantly presents her credentials in the song I'm Bessie Wallis Warfield Simpson, followed by her quickly deposing the Prince of Wales' former mistress Lady Thelma Furness. During Wallis' first visit to Edward's home Fort Belvedere, Noel Coward plays a snipit of this own very telling song If Love Were All . On an open invitation to cocktails, the Prince of Wales unexpectedly appears at the Simpson home in Bryanston Court where he crosses the line between friendship and more in the obssessive song Lost In The Blue. More frivolous partying at Fort Belvedere slithers into the fast-paced song Trend Setters where as international fashion icons we find they are so shallow that the only thing that matters is that they are the people everyone wants to be, and the people that everyone wants to see! The exposure of Wallis' dark side is revealed to King George V and the Royal Family, through the China Dossier, by Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin and his proffering of ideas on how to rid England of Mrs. Simpson, by calling upon all of the famous murderers and murderesses of history to come and do away with her in the comic ditty She's Got To Go (They Poison Popes Don't They?) ... all of which comes to naught following King George V's untimely demise. From the Proclamation of Accession of King Edward VIII, and his bartering of Wallis with husband Ernest Simpson in time for Wallis to, hopefully, be crowned Queen of England, and Wallis' self-proclaiming anthem - Going To Be Queen! To the fateful Nahlin Cruise where the world becames aware of their disastrous affair, and King Edward becomes a dangerous political dablatant amongst Eastern Europe's and Asia Minor's potentates in the song Positively Perfect Holiday Trip!

Wallis Simpson, 1937

His Majesty King Edward VIII

Proclamation of Accession of His Majesty King Edward VIII

Prince of Wales with Lady Thelma Furness and His Caim Terriers Cora and Jaggs at York Cottage c1930

1936 The Year of the Three Kings - George V,
George VI and Edward VIII

His Royal Highness the Duke of York and Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon

Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin

Wallis' preliminary divorce comes through, and without wasting a moment King Edward pops the Mogul emerald engagement ring that evening, after which Wallis reiterates her right to be Queen, as being ordained, in the reprise of I'm Bessie Wallis Warfield Simpson. Their Suggested Morganatic marriage proposal is refused by Parliament and the Dominions. Crisis! The silence of the British press on their affair breaks! Drop Mrs. Simpson, marry her and the government will resign bringing about a possible fascist regime in England - or abdicate! Meanwhile, in the vein of Osbert Sitwell's infamous essay and poem - Rat Week - about changing sides and allegiances, getting out while one still can and still save face, we find Lady Emerald Cunard and Lady Sybil Colefax singing the scathing double entendre diatribe Last Two Rats, in which Wallis Simpson is the sinking ship they need to abandon! Hoping desperately to crawl, unnoticed, aboard the about to be launched ship of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, so to speak! Wallis flees to France. As the Cross Channel Ferry departs England for France with his beloved Wallis, Edward sings - if you love something set it free, if it doesn't come back to you, it was never meant to be - in the poignantly blue As It Was Meant To Be. As Wallis dodges the ensuing reporters in France, enroute to The Riviera, in a phone conversation duet Wallis reminds Edward to Do What's Right For You, him being the only one that can make the decision to abdicate. King Edward confronts his family with his Irrevocable Decision where we find out that his sister-in-law isn't at all opposed to taking over, in the reprise of Going To Be Queen! King Edward VIII says goodbye to the Throne and the world in his legendary Abdication Address, while Wallis in Southern France realizes that she has placed all her holdings on a horse that not only didn't show, but refused to run, as she sings I've Gambled All My Life. Momentary exile, five months, at which time, the now Duke of Windsor reveals to Wallis I Love You More Than You Love Me, in the ultimate song about obssession! Wallis' divorce is final. In planning their honeymoon, they decide to go where anyone would go - to visit Hitler in Berlin - Hitler even questions their motives in his brilliantly manipulative Hitlerspiel about evil doers... Niggers, Pansies And Jews! Wedding Day, June 3, 1937 - the first day of the rest of their life in permanent exile! Meanwhile, the Elder Duchess in Paris in 1973, a year after the Duke of Windsor's death, has had her carefully chosen input since the beginning of the show, continuing to manipulate their story - in an attempt to refocus the years of blame! Singing I'd Rather Be Remembered, the Elder Wallis wants us to forget all that we've witnessed and remember her as someone who, always, only meant to do good!

Hitler & Mussolini

Noel Coward

Duke of Windsor in Exile, Austria 1937

Wallis & Edward the Duke & Duchess of Windsor with best man
Edward, ‘Fruity’ Metcalfe following their wedding at the
Chateau de Cande, Monts, France, June 3 1937

Photo Pending

His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, His Majesty King George V and
His Royal Highness The Duke of York

The Duke and Duchess of Windsor are welcomed by Dr. Robert Ley and Nazi officials at Berlin's Friedrickstrasse Station, Berlin, at the end of their honeymoon, October 1937

The Dowdy Duchess of York Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon