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Abanazer
Abanazar is a magician and the primary antagonist in the Aladdin pantomime. He was also the basis for Jafar in the Disney version of ''Aladdin''. History The character first appeared in the harlequinade ''Aladin'' in 1788 as 'The African Magician', but was given the name Abanazer in 1813 in ''Aladdin or The Wonderful Lamp'' at Covent Garden Opera House in 1813, described as 'A New Melo-Dramatick Romance', and revived in 1826. Other names which have been used for the character are Mourad, Abel el Nesir, Kiradamac, Abanazac and Hocus Pocus. It was with Henry James Byron's ''Aladdin or the Wonderful Scamp'' in 1861 that the modern pantomime took form and the character was essentially established. Byron added burlesque (as can be seen by the name parodying the earlier opera) so the character is evil but played for laughs. Some notable people who have played Abanazer *Paul Bedford 1844 Royal Strand Theatre * Robert Keeley 1844 Lyceum (his wife Mary Anne Keeley was Aladdin) * William P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aladdin
Aladdin ( ; ar, علاء الدين, ', , ATU 561, ‘Aladdin') is a Middle-Eastern folk tale. It is one of the best-known tales associated with ''The Book of One Thousand and One Nights'' (''The Arabian Nights''), despite not being part of the original text; it was added by the Frenchman Antoine Galland, based on a folk tale that he heard from the Syrian Maronite storyteller Hanna Diyab.Razzaque (2017) Sources Known along with Ali Baba as one of the "orphan tales", the story was not part of the original ''Nights'' collection and has no authentic Arabic textual source, but was incorporated into the book ''Les mille et une nuits'' by its French translator, Antoine Galland. John Payne quotes passages from Galland's unpublished diary: recording Galland's encounter with a Maronite storyteller from Aleppo, Hanna Diyab. According to Galland's diary, he met with Hanna, who had travelled from Aleppo to Paris with celebrated French traveller Paul Lucas, on March 25, 1709. Gal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthur Williams (actor)
Arthur Williams (9 December 1844 – 15 September 1915) was an English actor, singer and playwright best remembered for his roles in comic operas, musical burlesques and Edwardian musical comedies. As a playwright, Williams wrote several farces as well as some dramas. Born in Islington, London, Williams initially went into business as a law stationer but soon left to take up acting in 1861 when he was 17. He travelled to Gravesend, Kent, where he made his stage début as Alfred Martelli in "The Corsican Brothers". He made his London stage debut at the St James's Theatre in 1868, where his roles included Thomas in ''The Secret'', Baron Factotum in a burlesque of ''Sleeping Beauty'', and Moses in ''The School for Scandal''. After playing in dramas in the 1870s, he appeared in comic operas in the 1880s, in which he created the roles Sir Mincing Lane in ''Billee Taylor'', Sir Whiffle Whaffle in ''Claude Duval'', Amaranth CVIII in ''Lord Bateman'', his most famous role, Lurcher in ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ross Petty
Ross Petty (born August 29, 1946) is a Canadian actor and theatre producer. He is best known for his eponymous production company, which staged what were promoted as "family musical" theatre productions in the British pantomime tradition in Toronto every holiday season from 1996 until 2022. Early career Petty was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. In Europe, he sang at Le Lido in Paris and appeared with Betty Grable in the London West End musical ''Belle Starr''. In the United States, he made his Broadway debut in Arthur Kopit's ''Wings'', created the role of Eddie Dorrance on ''All My Children'', and co-starred with Ginger Rogers and Sid Caesar in a national tour of Cole Porter’s ''Anything Goes''. He appeared in the U.S. and Canada in the title role of Stephen Sondheim’s ''Sweeney Todd'', directed by Hal Prince. His film and television credits include ''Extreme Measures'' with Gene Hackman and Hugh Grant, ''Perry Mason'', '' Spenser: For Hire'', ''Monk'', ''Loving Friend ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alfred Marks
Alfred Edward Marks OBE (born Alfred Edward Touchinsky; 28 January 19211 July 1996) was a British actor and comedian. In his 60-year career, he played dramatic and comedy roles in numerous television programmes, stage shows and films. His self-titled television sketch show ran from 1956 to 1961. Biography Marks was born as Alfred Edward Touchinsky in Holborn, London, to Polish Jewish parents.Obituary '''' He left Bell Lane School at 14 and started in entertainment at the Windmill Theatre. He then served in the RAF as a [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
London Palladium
The London Palladium () is a Grade II* West End theatre located on Argyll Street, London, in the famous area of Soho. The theatre holds 2,286 seats. Of the roster of stars who have played there, many have televised performances. Between 1955 and 1969 ''Sunday Night at the London Palladium'' was held at the venue, which was produced for the ITV network. The show included a performance by The Beatles on 13 October 1963. One national paper's headlines in the following days coined the term "Beatlemania" to describe the increasingly hysterical interest in the band. While the theatre has a resident show, it is also able to host one-off performances, such as concerts, TV specials and Christmas pantomimes. It has hosted the Royal Variety Performance 43 times, most recently in 2019. In March 2020, the venue closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic's effect on the theatre industry, but reopened over four months later on 1 August 2020. Architecture Walter Gibbons, an early moving-pictures m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Valentine Dyall
Valentine Dyall (7 May 1908 – 24 June 1985) was an English character actor. He worked regularly as a voice actor, and was known for many years as "The Man in Black", the narrator of the BBC Radio horror series '' Appointment with Fear''. He was the son of the actor Franklin Dyall and the actress and author Mary Phyllis Joan Logan, who acted and wrote as Concordia Merrel. 1930s to 1950s In 1934, Dyall appeared with his father, actor Franklin Dyall, at the Manchester Hippodrome in Sir Oswald Stoll's presentation of Shakespeare's ''Henry V'', playing the roles of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Captain Gower, and a cardinal of France. He also appeared in one movie with his father, the 1943 spy thriller ''Yellow Canary''; Dyall's part was that of a German U-boat commander attempting to kidnap a British agent from a ship in the Atlantic, while his father played the ship's captain. In the same year he had a small role as a German officer in ''The Life and Death of Colonel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adelphi Theatre
The Adelphi Theatre is a West End theatre, located on the Strand in the City of Westminster, central London. The present building is the fourth on the site. The theatre has specialised in comedy and musical theatre, and today it is a receiving house for a variety of productions, including many musicals. The theatre was Grade II listed for historical preservation on 1 December 1987. History 19th century It was founded in 1806 as the Sans Pareil ("Without Compare"), by merchant John Scott, and his daughter Jane (1770–1839). Jane was a British theatre manager, performer, and playwright. Together, they gathered a theatrical company and by 1809 the theatre was licensed for musical entertainments, pantomime, and burletta. She wrote more than fifty stage pieces in an array of genres: melodramas, pantomimes, farces, comic operettas, historical dramas, and adaptations, as well as translations. Jane Scott retired to Surrey in 1819, marrying John Davies Middleton (1790–186 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edwin Styles
Edwin Styles (13 January 1899 – 20 December 1960) was a British stage comedian, pantomime actor, radio and TV performer and film actor. Partial filmography * ''Hell Below'' (1933) - Herbert Standish - Flight Comdr. * ''On the Air'' (1934) - Edwin Styles * '' Road House'' (1934) - Archie Hamble * ''Patricia Gets Her Man'' (1937) - Brian Maxwell * ''The Five Pound Man'' (1937) - Richard Fordyce * ''Adam and Evelyne'' (1949) - Bill Murray * ''The Lady with a Lamp'' (1951) - Mr. Nightingale * '' Derby Day'' (1952) - Sir George Forbes * ''Penny Princess'' (1952) - Chancellor - Cobbler * ''Top Secret'' (1952) - Barworth Superintendent * ''The Accused'' (1953) - Solicitor * ''The Weak and the Wicked'' (1954) - Seymour * '' For Better, for Worse'' (1954) - Anne's Boss * ''Isn't Life Wonderful!'' (1954) - Bamboula * '' The Dam Busters'' (1955) - Observer At Trials * ''Up in the World'' (1956) - Conjuror * ''The Full Treatment ''The Full Treatment'' (also known as ''The Treatment'' and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Golders Green Hippodrome
The Golders Green Hippodrome was built in 1913 by Bertie Crewe as a 3,000-seat music hall, to serve North London and the new London Underground Northern line expansion into Golders Green in the London Borough of Barnet, London, England. Taken over by the BBC in the 1960s as a television studio, it has been put to more recent use as a radio studio and multi-purpose concert venue. In 2007, it became an evangelical church building. In 2017 it was acquired by Markaz El Tathgheef El Eslami (Centre for Islamic Enlightening). It was to be converted into an Islamic centre, but residents objected, and Barnet council deferred a decision. In October 2021 Hillsong Church bought the Hippodrome, with the intention of holding Sunday services there. History The Grade II listed Hippodrome Theatre building next to Golders Green Underground station was built as a 3,000-seat music hall by Bertie Crewe, and opened on Boxing Day 1913. Its capacity was reduced by half with the construction of a f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stanley Holloway
Stanley Augustus Holloway (1 October 1890 – 30 January 1982) was an English actor, comedian, singer and monologist. He was famous for his comic and character roles Stanley Holloway on stage and screen, on stage and screen, especially that of Alfred P. Doolittle in ''My Fair Lady''. He was also renowned for his Songs and monologues of Stanley Holloway, comic monologues and songs, which he performed and recorded throughout most of his 70-year career. Born in London, Holloway pursued a career as a clerk in his teen years. He made early stage appearances before infantry service in the First World War, after which he had his first major theatre success starring in ''Kissing Time'' when the musical transferred to the West End theatre, West End from Broadway theatre, Broadway. In 1921, he joined a Concert party (entertainment), concert party, ''The Co-Optimists'', and his career began to flourish. At first, he was employed chiefly as a singer, but his skills as an actor and re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gillie Potter
Hugh William Peel (14 September 1887 – 4 March 1975), better known as Gillie Potter, was an English comedian and broadcaster. Life He was born in Bedford to Brignal Peel (died 1933), a Wesleyan minister, and Elizabeth Stimson. He was educated at Bedford Modern School and for a time at Worcester College, Oxford. Potter first performed in Edwin Milton Royle's ''The White Man'' at the Lyric Theatre in London before touring. In 1915 he was George Robey's understudy at the Alhambra. During the First World War he served in the Royal Field Artillery and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in February 1917. He returned to music hall after the war. He cultivated an individual style and persona, wearing a straw boater, wide grey flannel trousers (he claimed he invented the Oxford bags style at the London Coliseum in 1920), and an "Old Borstolian" blazer, and carried a notebook with a rolled umbrella. James Agate described him as "that sham Harrovian who bears upon his blaze ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Graves (actor)
George Windsor Graves (1 January 1876 – 2 April 1949) was an English comic actor. Although he could neither sing nor dance,"The Comedy Old Man and His Troubles" ''The New York Times'', 3 February 1907 he became a leading comedian in Edwardian musical comedy, musical comedies, adapting the French and Viennese ''opéra-bouffe'' style of light comic relief into a broader comedy popular with English audiences of the period. His comic portrayals did much to ensure the West End theatre, West End success of ''Véronique (operetta), Véronique'' (1904) ''The Little Michus'' (1905; for which he invented the Gazeka), and ''The Merry Widow'' (1907). In addition to musical comedy, operettas and revues, Graves specialised in pantomime and music hal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
