History Theatre / TheDesertSong

%%* BellyDancer: Azuri.

* CampFollower: How [[HighClassCallGirl Clementina]] and her friends ended up at Ali Ben Ali's. "The soldiers of Spain must have diversion. Every military post in Morocco has its share of rubbish from the streets of Madrid."
* CutSong: A few from ''Lady Fair''

* SpiritualSuccessor: This can be seen as one to ''Theatre/TheRoseOfAlgeria''. In both productions the setting is North Africa, the French hero has a family connection to the governor (De Lome's uncle/Pierre's father) and a strained relationship due to the hero's personality which differs from the "ideal" soldier. Both stories feature a protagonist in love with the other's alter ego and deal in some way with colonialism with the French Foreign Legion as a backdrop.

* RecycledINSPACE: ''The Desert Song'' WITH NAZIS!

* MixedAncestry: Azuri. "My mother -- she is mostly white."

* TheMaleIngenueMustBeATenor: Averted by Pierre/the Red Shadow, who is a lyric baritone. The tenor is Sid El Kar, a supporting role.

%%* ForeignFanservice

''Sid'': ''...What are you doing in Morocco?''\\
''Bennie'': ''Nothing. Make me an offer.''

--->''Sid el-Kar (singing): Soft as a pigeon lights upon the sand,
--->Swift as a tiger she will grip his hand,

%% ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.

-->The title song's chorus

Margot Bonvalet, the female lead, is a beautiful, spirited French girl who has come to a French Foreign Legion outpost to marry Captain Paul Fontaine, the second-in-command of General Birabeau, who she doesn't love. Pierre, the General's DoggedNiceGuy son, is in love with her, but Margot's type is, in her own words, "an outlaw and a ruffian".
The Legion is pursuing The Red Shadow, a mysterious, Zorro-like figure who wears a red cloak and mask, and leads a band of local desert tribesmen,the Riffs, against French rule. He's actually [[spoiler: Pierre,]] who's been using ObfuscatingStupidity to hide what he's really doing. Margot and Paul's wedding date is moved earlier, due to the Riff revolt. Paul's spurned lover, a local girl named Azuri, schemes to ruin the marriage by revealing the Red Shadow's true identity. BetaCouple Benny and Susan are the subject of a subplot.

* SettingUpdate: To WorldWarII.

''The Desert Song'' is an operetta with music by SigmundRomberg and libretto by OscarHammersteinII, Otto Harbach, and Frank Mandel. It premiered in 1926 in Wilmington, Delaware, under the title ''Lady Fair''. Its first performance under the title ''The Desert Song" was at the Casino Theatre on Broadway, starring Vivienne Segal and Robert Halliday. It was adapted into a 1929 movie starring John Boles and Carlotta King. It was also made into a movie in 1943, modernised and starring Dennis Morgan and Irene Manning, which has remained unreleased on DVD or video, and in 1953 with Gordon [=MacRae=] and Kathryn [=Grayson=].

* AbductionIsLove

* BellyDancer: Azuri.

* DarkestAfrica

* DoggedNiceGuy: Pierre's disguise.

* ForeignFanservice

* TheIngenue: Margot

* JustLikeRobinHood
* LegionOfLostSouls: As a backdrop
* LovesMyAlterEgo: An early example.

* MightyWhitey: Pierre/The Red Shadow.
* MsFanservice: Azuri

* PaperThinDisguise
* RedIsHeroic: The Shadow.
* TheRoaringTwenties
* SecretIdentity

* SpicyLatina: Clementina.
* SpiritualSuccessor: This can be seen as one to Theatre/TheRoseOfAlgeria. In both productions the setting is North Africa, the French hero has a family connection to the governor (De Lome's uncle/Pierre's father) and a strained relationship due to the hero's personality which differs from the "ideal" soldier. Both stories feature a protagonist in love with the other's alter ego and deal in some way with colonialism with the French Foreign Legion as a backdrop.

* TorosYFlamenco
* TwoPersonLoveTriangle
* TheVamp

* WhatTheHellHero: The Red Shadow gets one over risking his friends' lives "for your woman."
* WeaknessTurnsHerOn: Clementina and Bennie, a" weak Western man."
* WomanScorned: Guess who?
* WreckedWeapon: Happens in the banishment scene.

* AMatchMadeInStockholm: Margot falls in love with the Red Shadow after he kidnaps her.

-->''(to Sid)'': ''How's everything, big boy?''
...
''Sid'': ''What are you doing in Morocco?''

* MeaningfulName: "Azuri" supposedly means "Tiger Claws". Azuri is very vicious and compared to a tiger several times, especially in her VillainSucksSong.

* TheIngenue: Margot
* TheMaleIngenueMustBeATenor: Averted by Pierre/the Red Shadow, who is a lyric baritone. The tenor is Sid El Kar, a supporting role.
* TheRoaringTwenties

* TorosYFlamenco
* TwoPersonLoveTriangle
* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: The Red Shadow was inspired by a Rif chieftain named Abdel Krim. Josef Otto Klems, a German-born Legionnaire who defected to the Rifs, may also have inspired the story.

* LesCollaborateurs: New Moroccan villain Caid Youseff.

* TheChanteuse: Margot sings at Benoit's Concert Palace, a nightclub frequented by French colonials.

* TeacherStudentRomance: Paul/El Khobar is now Margot's Latin tutor.
* TheGeneralsDaughter: Margot

* WorldWarII