We plot to have,
For it's so dreary not to have
That certain thing called 'the boyfriend'"...
The Boy Friend is a 1954 musical by Sandy Wilson, and is a pastiche of the musicals of The Roaring '20s. Set in the 1920s in Nice, France, it follows the story of a seventeen-year-old British young lady named Polly Browne and her friends at Madame Dubonnet's Finishing School. All of Polly's friends have, or at least claim to have, a boyfriend, but Polly herself does not. Her father practically forbids her to have a boyfriend because she is incredibly rich and he fears that any boy that courts her will be after her wealth. Thus, Polly makes up a boyfriend, feeling as if she may never find true love. That is, until she meets a handsome young British messenger boy named Tony...
The musical also has subplots featuring an American boy named Bobby van Husen attempting to court Maisie, another perfect young lady at the Finishing School; the reunion of Madame Dubonnet and Percival Browne, Polly's father; and the antics of Lord and Lady Brockhurst, a rich British couple vacationing in Nice at the time of the plot, which all happens in one day.
It has a far less well-known sequel called Divorce Me, Darling!, set ten years later and a pastiche of 1930s musicals. Everyone is in Nice again, and happen to meet up. Madame Dubonnet's finishing school no longer exists, and many of the characters have completely different lives than before. The main plot is that Polly and Bobby, after meeting up, are accused of having an affair due to a series of misunderstandings from their respective mates.
It was adapted into a film in 1971, directed by Ken Russell and starring Twiggy as Polly Browne.
The Boy Friend contains examples of:
- Dances and Balls: The third act takes place at the Carnival Ball.
- Heroic BSoD: When Polly believes, after Tony runs away from his parents and is assumed a thief, that Tony was only after her wealth, she decides not to come to the Carnival Ball, too brokenhearted to go. When she does go, she simply sits the whole time, not dancing or talking to anyone.
Tropes examples for The 1971 Movie:
- All for Nothing: The cast try their best to impress the Producer, they even stab each other in the back to try and impress him, however they all fail as he leaves them all with egg on their faces.
- Maise was packed and ready, however Cecil B. De Thrill realises that Tommy is his long lost son,they leave together even Maise can laugh at it.
- One of the girls that tries to flirt with De Thrill even tries to learn French only at the last minute to find out he's German, she also reveals that Polly has been chosen to become a star in Hollywood but she leaves with Tony to London.
- Oh, Crap!: The show's leading lady breaks her leg and so Polly due to having the same name as the character is forced to be the lead, some parts she doesn't know and has to tape the script in one scene to some flowers.
- In the cast is Rosie who plays Hortense the maid, however during the show her boyfriend's wife comes on stage attacking them both much to the audience's entertainment.
- Show Within a Show: The Boyfriend is set up as a musical inside a Theatre.
