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Ada Blanche
Ada Blanche (born Ada Cecilia Blanche Adams; 16 July 1862 – 1 January 1953) was an English actress and singer known early in her career for vivacious performances in Victorian burlesque and pantomime and later in character roles in Edwardian musical comedy. Born into a theatrical family, Blanche made her stage debut at the age of fourteen and had a forty-five year career, almost exclusively on the British stage, in the West End and on tour. In the 1890s she was a leading principal boy in London's most lavishly staged pantomimes. In the 20th century her career changed to playing comic, formidable older women. Her most celebrated role of this kind was in the hit musical '' The Arcadians'' (1909), staged by her brother-in-law Robert Courtneidge. Beyond musical comedy, Blanche appeared in farces and other comedies in non-singing roles between 1906 and her retirement in 1921. Among her co-stars during her long career were George Grossmith Jr., Dan Leno, Marie Lloyd, Walter Passm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cicely Courtneidge
Dame Esmerelda Cicely Courtneidge, (1 April 1893 – 26 April 1980) was an Australian-born British actress, comedian and singer. The daughter of the producer and playwright Robert Courtneidge, she was appearing in his productions in the West End by the age of 16, and was quickly promoted from minor to major roles in his Edwardian musical comedies. After the outbreak of the First World War, her father had a series of failures and temporarily withdrew from production. No other producers offered the young Courtneidge leading roles in musical comedies, and she turned instead to the music hall, learning her craft as a comedian. In 1916 she married the actor and dancer Jack Hulbert, with whom she formed a professional as well as a matrimonial partnership that lasted until his death 62 years later. They acted together on stage and screen, initially in a series of revues, with Hulbert frequently producing as well as performing. Courtneidge appeared in 12 British films in the 1930s, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frank Wyatt
Frank Wyatt (7 November 1852 – 5 October 1926) was an English actor, singer, theatre manager and playwright. After beginning his career as an illustrator and painter, in 1877 Wyatt began a stage career in comedy, Victorian burlesque, pantomime and operetta. In 1884 he had success in a Shakespeare role in Henry Irving's company, and in 1885 he created the role of Ravennes in the comic opera ''Erminie'', which went on to become an international sensation. In this production he met Violet Melnotte, who also appeared in ''Erminie'' and who managed the theatre where it premiered; they married in 1886. In his more than two-decade career on stage Wyatt is best remembered for his roles with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company from 1889 to 1891, and in particular for creating the role of the Duke of Plaza-Toro in Gilbert and Sullivan's hit comic opera ''The Gondoliers''. Wyatt continued to perform in comic operas and comedies until about 1900. From the 1890s Wyatt and his wife owned and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John D'Auban
Frederick John D'Auban (1842 – 15 April 1922) was an English dancer, choreographer and actor of the Victorian and Edwardian eras. Famous during his lifetime as the ballet-master at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, he is best remembered as the choreographer of many of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas. After performing as a child with his family, D'Auban continued a career as a comic dancer in music hall and pantomime. He also served as dance master for the Alhambra Theatre, the Gaiety Theatre, London, and, for decades, Drury Lane. In 1868, he began a long association with W. S. Gilbert, staging the dances for most of the original productions of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, including ''H.M.S. Pinafore'' (1878) and ''The Mikado'' (1885), as well as many other Savoy operas. Between the 1860s and 1909, D'Auban choreographed more than 150 productions, including pantomimes, burlesques, musical comedies and comic operas. He also taught dance to many who became famous performers. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
As You Like It
''As You Like It'' is a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 and first published in the First Folio in 1623. The play's first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wilton House in 1603 has been suggested as a possibility. ''As You Like It'' follows its heroine Rosalind as she flees persecution in her uncle's court, accompanied by her cousin Celia to find safety and, eventually, love, in the Forest of Arden. In the forest, they encounter a variety of memorable characters, notably the melancholy traveller Jaques, who speaks many of Shakespeare's most famous speeches (such as "All the world's a stage", "too much of a good thing" and "A fool! A fool! I met a fool in the forest"). Jaques provides a sharp contrast to the other characters in the play, always observing and disputing the hardships of life in the country. Historically, critical response has varied, with some critics finding the play a work of great merit and some f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kyrle Bellew
Harold Kyrle Money Bellew (28 March 1850 – 2 November 1911) was an English stage and silent film actor. He notably toured with Cora Brown-Potter in the 1880s and 1890s, and was cast as the leading man in many stage productions alongside her. He was also a signwriter, gold prospector and rancher mainly in Australia. Early life Bellew was born in Prescot, Lancashire, the son of Rev. John Chippendall Montesquieu Bellew and Eva Maria Bellew (née Money). His mother was a widow at the time of his parents' marriage on 27 March 1847. She was the youngest daughter of Vice-Admiral Rowland Money, C.B., R.N., and Mary Ann Tombs. She married her first husband Henry Edmund Michell Palmer, a soldier in the Indian Army, on 8 February 1843. However, Palmer died of " hill fever" in Madras, India on 9 November 1846. His father was born John Chippendall Higgin in Lancashire on 3 August 1823 to Robert Higgin and Anne Maria Higgin (née Bellew). His linage was called into question by the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lionel Brough
Lionel "Lal" Brough (10 March 1836 – 8 November 1909) was a British actor and comedian. After beginning a journalistic career and performing as an amateur, he became a professional actor, performing mostly in Liverpool during the mid-1860s. He established his career in London as a member of the company at the new Queen's Theatre, Long Acre, in 1867, and he soon became known for his roles in Shakespeare, contemporary comedies, and classics, especially as Tony Lumpkin in ''She Stoops to Conquer''. In the 1870s and 1880s, Brough was one of the leading comic actors in London. Although untrained musically, he also appeared in several successful operettas in the 1880s and 1890s. He continued to contribute popular performances into the 20th century and ended his career in comedy roles with Herbert Beerbohm Tree's company. Biography Early years Brough was born in Pontypool, Wales, the son of Barnabas Brough, a brewer, publican, wine merchant and later dramatist, and his wife Franc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tom Taylor
Tom Taylor (19 October 1817 – 12 July 1880) was an English dramatist, critic, biographer, public servant, and editor of ''Punch'' magazine. Taylor had a brief academic career, holding the professorship of English literature and language at University College, London in the 1840s, after which he practised law and became a civil servant. At the same time he became a journalist, most prominently as a contributor to, and eventually editor of ''Punch''. In addition to these vocations, Taylor began a theatre career and became best known as a playwright, with up to 100 plays staged during his career. Many were adaptations of French plays, but these and his original works cover a range from farce to melodrama. Most fell into neglect after Taylor's death, but ''Our American Cousin'' (1858), which achieved great success in the 19th century, remains famous as the piece that was being performed in the presence of Abraham Lincoln when he was assassinated in 1865. Life and career Earl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Aquarium
The Royal Aquarium and Winter Garden was a place of amusement in Westminster, London. It opened in 1876, and the building was demolished in 1903. The attraction was located northwest of Westminster Abbey on Tothill Street. The building was designed by Alfred Bedborough in an ornamental style faced with Portland stone. The Aquarium Theatre was located in the west end of the building and was renamed the Imperial Theatre in 1879. Methodist Central Hall now occupies the site. History The Royal Aquarium opened on 22 January 1876. Its board of directors included Henry Labouchère, the financier and journalist; William Whiteley the retailer; and Arthur Sullivan, the composer. It was intended to offer art exhibitions, concerts and plays, among other intellectual entertainments such as The Crystal Palace.''The R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, commonly known as Drury Lane, is a West End theatre and Grade I listed building in Covent Garden, London, England. The building faces Catherine Street (earlier named Bridges or Brydges Street) and backs onto Drury Lane. The building is the most recent in a line of four theatres which were built at the same location, the earliest of which dated back to 1663, making it the oldest theatre site in London still in use. According to the author Peter Thomson, for its first two centuries, Drury Lane could "reasonably have claimed to be London's leading theatre". For most of that time, it was one of a handful of patent theatres, granted monopoly rights to the production of "legitimate" drama in London (meaning spoken plays, rather than opera, dance, concerts, or plays with music). The first theatre on the site was built at the behest of Thomas Killigrew in the early 1660s, when theatres were allowed to reopen during the English Restoration. Initially ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Breeches Role
A breeches role (also pants role or trouser role, or Hosenrolle) is one in which an actress appears in male clothing. Breeches, tight-fitting knee-length pants, were the standard male garment at the time these roles were introduced. The theatrical term ''travesti'' covers both this sort of cross-dressing and also that of male actors dressing as female characters. Both are part of the long history of cross-dressing in music and opera and later in film and television. In opera, a breeches role refers to any male character that is sung and acted by a female singer. Most often the character is an adolescent or a very young man, sung by a mezzo-soprano or contralto. Budden J., "Breeches part" in: ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera''. Macmillan, London and New York, 1997. The operatic concept assumes that the character is male, and the audience accepts him as such, even knowing that the actor is not. Cross-dressing female characters (e.g., Leonore in ''Fidelio'' or Gilda in Act III ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
