About the work
By Jeeves is a musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and book and lyrics by Alan Ayckbourn, based on P. G. Wodehouse's Jeeves stories. It is a leaner, eleven-role rewrite of the pair's first collaboration, the 21-role musical Jeeves, which had flopped at its 1975 premiere; retitled By Jeeves, it opened at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough in 1996 and transferred to London's Duke of York's Theatre the same year.
Plot
The bumbling gentleman Bertie Wooster is giving a banjo recital when a string snaps; while his valet Jeeves goes to fetch a replacement, Bertie fills the gap by recounting a string of past engagement disasters. The impromptu tale turns into a play within the play, full of mistaken brides and fearsome aunts, from which Jeeves's quiet cunning rescues him every time.
Cultural significance
Unlike its 1975 predecessor, By Jeeves became a hit, earning three Olivier nominations and reaching Broadway in 2001. It is often cited as a rare case of a flop musical reinvented through a radical reduction of cast and staging.