Editing P. G. Wodehouse (section)

===Broadway: 1915–1919===
[[File:Wodehouse with Gest Comstock Bolton and Kern circa 1917.jpg|upright=1.25|thumb|alt=black and white photograph of five well-dressed men standing facing the camera|[[Morris Gest]], Wodehouse, [[Guy Bolton]], [[F. Ray Comstock]] and [[Jerome Kern]], c. 1917]]
A third milestone in Wodehouse's life came towards the end of 1915: his old songwriting partner Jerome Kern introduced him to the writer [[Guy Bolton]], who became Wodehouse's closest friend and a regular collaborator. Bolton and Kern had a musical, ''[[Very Good Eddie]]'', running at the [[Princess Theatre, New York City|Princess Theatre]] in New York. The show was successful, but they thought the song lyrics weak and invited Wodehouse to join them on its successor. This was ''[[Zsuzsi kisasszony|Miss Springtime]]'' (1916), which ran for 227 performances—a good run by the standards of the day. The team produced several more successes, including ''[[Leave It to Jane]]'' (1917), ''[[Oh, Boy! (musical)|Oh, Boy!]]'' (1917–18) and ''[[Oh, Lady! Lady!!]]'' (1918), and Wodehouse and Bolton wrote a few more shows with other composers.<ref>Hischak, Thomas. [http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195335330.001.0001/acref-9780195335330-e-1469 "Princess Theatre Musicals"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150612013857/http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195335330.001.0001/acref-9780195335330-e-1469 |date=12 June 2015 }}, ''The Oxford Companion to the American Musical'', Oxford University Press, 2008 {{subscription required}}</ref>{{refn|The shows by the trio at the Princess and other New York theatres had runs varying from 475 performances for ''Oh, Boy!'' to 48 for ''Miss 1917''.<ref>Donaldson, pp. 357–358</ref>|group= n}} In these musicals Wodehouse's lyrics won high praise from critics as well as fellow lyricists such as [[Ira Gershwin]].<ref>Donaldson, p. 111</ref>

Unlike his original model, Gilbert, Wodehouse preferred the music to be written first, fitting his words into the melodies.<ref>Jasen, pp. 68–69</ref> Donaldson suggests that this is the reason why his lyrics have largely been overlooked in recent years: they fit the music perfectly, but do not stand on their own in verse form as Gilbert's do.<ref>Donaldson, pp. 111–112</ref> Nonetheless, Donaldson adds, the book and lyrics for the Princess Theatre shows made the collaborators an enormous fortune and played an important part in the development of the American musical.<ref>Donaldson, p. 110</ref> In the ''[[Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians|Grove Dictionary of American Music]]'' Larry Stempel writes, "By presenting naturalistic stories and characters and attempting to integrate the songs and lyrics into the action of the libretto, these works brought a new level of intimacy, cohesion, and sophistication to American musical comedy."<ref>Stempel, Larry. [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/A2087787 "Wodehouse, P.G."], ''The Grove Dictionary of American Music'', Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press, retrieved 7 May 2015 {{subscription required}}</ref> The theatre writer [[Gerald Bordman]] calls Wodehouse "the most observant, literate, and witty lyricist of his day".<ref>Bordman, Gerald. "Jerome David Kern: Innovator/Traditionalist", ''The Musical Quarterly'', 1985, Vol. 71, No. 4, pp. 468–473</ref> The composer [[Richard Rodgers]] wrote, "Before [[Lorenz Hart|Larry Hart]], only P. G. Wodehouse had made any real assault on the intelligence of the song-listening public."<ref>Jasen, p. 76</ref>