Extolled by Evelyn Waugh, George Orwell, W. H. Auden, and Christopher Hitchens, none of them slouches when it came to prose, P. G. Wodehouse stands tall and beaming as the ace comic novelist of the 20th Century—the creator of the immortal comic duo Bertie Wooster and his imperturbable butler Jeeves, the rural frolics of the Blandings Castle series, and the delinquent antics of the Drones Club. So prolific was Wodehouse’s fictional production, so numerous the reprints and television adaptations, that a vital sideline to his long career has played second fiddle, to mix metaphors Bertie Wooster-style: his success as a Broadway lyricist and librettist (with Guy Bolton). “Plum,” as Wodehouse was fondly nicknamed, collaborated with the top composers of the day—Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, George Gershwin—and once boasted five hit musicals running on Broadway simultaneously, a record even Andrew Lloyd-Webber couldn’t match. His novelistic flair for nimble wordplay, bouncy rhythms, and neatly woven plots was perfect for the musical comedy genre. His memoir, Bring on the Girls, is a jaunty valentine to his Broadway career, its title taken from that ready-made solution to any lull in a musical: “Bring on the Girls!” Putting Plum’s musical comedy career front and center is singer and composer Hal Cazalet, Wodehouse’s step-great-grandson, who pays tribute to the old duffer in Play on Words: A Musical Celebration of P. G. Wodehouse on Broadway, with Simon Beck on piano. A festive evening of songs, stories, and humorous asides, Play on Words enjoyed two sold-out runs in London and two tours of India. Now it is coming home to entertain Broadway babies of all ages for one night only at the Laurie Beechman Theatre, the coziest of cabaret boîtes. —James Wolcott