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The Geisha
''The Geisha, a story of a tea house'' is an Edwardian musical comedy in two acts. The score was composed by Sidney Jones to a libretto by Owen Hall, with lyrics by Harry Greenbank. Additional songs were written by Lionel Monckton and James Philp. ''The Geisha'' opened in 1896 at Daly's Theatre in London's West End, produced by George Edwardes. The original production had the second longest run of any musical up to that time. The cast starred Marie Tempest and C. Hayden Coffin, with dancer Letty Lind and comic Huntley Wright. The show was an immediate success abroad, with an 1896 production in New York and numerous tours and productions in Europe and beyond. It continued to be popular until World War II and even beyond to some degree. The most famous song from the show is "The Amorous Goldfish".Gänzl (1986), p. 589 Background and productions The success of ''An Artist's Model'' in 1895 had set the pattern for the Hall, Greenbank and Jones Edwardian musical comedies. Edwardes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sidney Jones (composer)
James Sidney Jones (17 June 1861 – 29 January 1946), usually credited as Sidney Jones, was an English conductor and composer, who was most famous for composing the musical scores for a series of musical comedy hits in the late Victorian and Edwardian periods. Jones's most famous musical was ''The Geisha'', but several of his pieces were among the most popular shows of the era, enjoying long runs, international tours and revivals. In 1892, after nine years of conducting touring companies of British operettas for Alfred Cellier and George Edwardes, Edwardes engaged Jones to conduct several operettas and musical comedies in London. Jones had begun composing incidental music and supplemental songs for some of the shows he conducted and even wrote scores of his own in 1889 and 1892. In 1893, one of his songs, "Linger Longer, Loo", composed for the 1892 burlesque ''Don Juan'' at the Gaiety Theatre, became popular throughout the English-speaking world. Jones's first hit show was ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scott Russell (tenor)
Harry Henry Russell, better known as Scott Russell (25 September 1868 – 28 August 1949), was an English singer, actor and theatre manager best known for his performances in the tenor roles with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. He was the brother-in-law of D'Oyly Carte contralto Louie René. Life and career Russell was born in Great Malvern and studied singing with Gustave Garcia at the Royal Academy of Music. Early career Russell made his stage debut in the chorus of the Agnes Huntingdon Company in New Jersey in the United States. His London debut came with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company at the Savoy Theatre in 1893, where he created the role of Lord Dramaleigh in the original production of ''Utopia, Limited''. In 1895, he created the roles of Bertuccio in '' Mirette'' and Pedro Gomez in ''The Chieftain'' at the Savoy. He also created the roles of Dr. Tannhauser in ''The Grand Duke'' (1896), He was in ''Weather or No'' (1896–97), and Count Cosmo in '' His Majesty'' ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nancy McIntosh
Nancy Isobel McIntosh (25 October 1866 – February 20, 1954) was an American-born singer and actress who performed mostly on the London stage. Her father was a member of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, which had been blamed in connection with the 1889 Johnstown Flood that resulted in the loss of over 2,200 lives in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. McIntosh is perhaps best known for creating the role of Princess Zara in Gilbert and Sullivan's ''Utopia, Limited'' in 1893. She obtained this role after beginning a concert singing career in America in 1887, moving to London in 1890 and continuing her concert career in Britain. She became one of the last of W. S. Gilbert's actress protegées and continued her acting and singing career in Britain and America for several years. After McIntosh retired from the stage, she lived with Gilbert and his wife until Lady Gilbert's death in 1936 and eventually inherited Gilbert's estate, helping to preserve his legacy by selling his papers to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Daly's Theatre (30th St
Daly's Theatre was a theatre in the City of Westminster. It was located at 2 Cranbourn Street, just off Leicester Square. It opened on 27 June 1893, and was demolished in 1937. The theatre was built for and named after the American impresario Augustin Daly, but he failed to make a success of it, and between 1895 and 1915 the British producer George Edwardes ran the house, where he presented a series of long-running musical comedies, including ''The Geisha'' (1896), and English adaptations of operettas, including ''The Merry Widow'' (1907). After Edwardes died in 1915 Daly's had one more great hit, ''The Maid of the Mountains'' (1917), which ran for 1,352 productions, but after that the fortunes of the theatre declined; Noël Coward's play ''Sirocco'' (1927) was a notable failure. By the mid-1930s Leicester Square had become better known for cinemas. Daly's was sold to Warner Brothers who demolished it and erected a large cinema on the site. History Background and early yea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Greek Slave
''A Greek Slave'' is a musical comedy in two acts, first performed on 8 June 1898 at Daly's Theatre in London, produced by George Edwardes and ran for 349 performances. The score was composed by Sidney Jones with additional songs by Lionel Monckton and lyrics by Harry Greenbank and Adrian Ross. The libretto was written by Owen Hall. It starred Marie Tempest, Letty Lind, Hayden Coffin, Scott Russell (tenor), Scott Russell, Huntley Wright and Rutland Barrington among other popular London stars. The show had a brief Broadway run in 1899. The work's competition in London in 1898 included the long-running musicals ''A Runaway Girl'' and ''The Belle of New York (theatre), The Belle of New York''. Background The simple plot of the production was based around the tangled love lives and misunderstandings of a Roman household. The same themes and characterisations would resurface some 70 years later in the Broadway show ''A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum'' by Stephen Sondhei ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gaiety Girls
Gaiety Girls were the chorus girls in Edwardian musical comedies, beginning in the 1890s at the Gaiety Theatre, London, in the shows produced by George Edwardes. The popularity of this genre of musical theatre depended, in part, on the beautiful dancing corps of "Gaiety Girls" appearing onstage in bathing attire and in the latest fashions. The 1890s Gaiety Girls were respectable, elegant young ladies, unlike the actresses from London's earlier musical burlesques. Later, even the stars of these musical comedies were referred to as Gaiety Girls. Description Fashion icons An American newspaper reviewing ''A Gaiety Girl'' in 1894 explained the importance of the Gaiety Girls: "The piece is a mixture of pretty girls, English humor, singing, dancing and bathing machines and dresses of the English fashion. The dancing is a special feature of the performance, English burlesques giving much more attention to that feature of their attractiveness than the American entertainments of the s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chu Chin Chow
''Chu Chin Chow'' is a musical comedy written, produced and directed by Oscar Asche, with music by Frederic Norton, based (with minor embellishments) on the story of ''Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves''. Gänzl, Kurt"''Chu Chin Chow'' Musical Tale of the East In 3 Acts, Music by Frederic Norton" Operetta Research Center, 9 July 2016 The piece premièred at His Majesty's Theatre in London on 3 August 1916 and ran for five years and a total of 2,238 performances (more than twice as many as any previous musical), a record that stood for nearly forty years until ''Salad Days''. The show's first American production in New York, with additional lyrics by Arthur Anderson, played for 208 performances in 1917–1918, starring Tyrone Power."Chu Chin Chow (1934): A Robust Operetta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Chinese Honeymoon
''A Chinese Honeymoon'' is a musical comedy in two acts by George Dance, with music by Howard Talbot and additional music by Ivan Caryll and others, and additional lyrics by Harry Greenbank and others. One song that originated in the show was "Mister Dooley" which became famously associated with '' The Wizard of Oz'' for decades, when John Slavin, in the title role, interpolated the song for much of the first year of its run. The piece opened at the Theatre Royal in Hanley, England on 16 October 1899 and then toured extensively. After that, it played at the Royal Strand Theatre in London, managed by Frank Curzon, opening on 5 October 1901 for an astonishing run of 1,075 performances. It also played at the Casino Theatre, in New York, opening on 2 June 1902 for a run of 376 performances. In London, Lily Elsie took over the role of Princess Soo-Soo from Beatrice Edwards in early 1903 and was in turn succeeded by Kate Cutler. It also starred Louie Freear, and Arthur Williams to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Utopia Limited
''Utopia, Limited; or, The Flowers of Progress'', is a Savoy opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was the second-to-last of Gilbert and Sullivan's fourteen collaborations, premiering on 7 October 1893 for a run of 245 performances. It did not achieve the success of most of their earlier productions. Gilbert's libretto Satire, satirises limited liability company, limited liability companies, and particularly the idea that a bankrupt company could leave creditors unpaid without any liability on the part of its owners. It also lampoons the Companies Act 1862, Joint Stock Company Act by imagining the absurd convergence of natural persons (or sovereign nations) with legal commercial entities under the limited companies laws. In addition, it mocks the conceits of the late 19th-century British Empire and several of the nation's beloved institutions. In mocking the adoption by a "barbaric" country of the cultural values of an "advanced" nation, i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Nautch Girl
''The Nautch Girl'', or, ''The Rajah of Chutneypore'' is a comic opera in two acts, with a book by George Dance, lyrics by Dance and Frank Desprez and music by Edward Solomon. It opened on 30 June 1891 at the Savoy Theatre managed by Richard D'Oyly Carte and ran until 16 January 1892, for a respectable 200 performances, and then toured the British provinces and colonies. The cast included several players familiar to the Savoy's audiences: Courtice Pounds (Indru), Frank Thornton (Pyjama), W. H. Denny (Bumbo), Frank Wyatt (Baboo Currie) and Rutland Barrington (Punka, replaced by W. S. Penley, when Barrington left the company for several months to tour in a series of "musical duologues" with Jessie Bond). The part of Chinna Loofa was the last role that Jessie Bond created at the Savoy. She wrote in her memoirs that it was one of her favourites. The title role was played by Lenore Snyder, the last of a number of actresses who had played Gianetta in ''The Gondoliers''. The ope ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Mikado
''The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu'' is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen Gilbert and Sullivan, operatic collaborations. It opened on 14 March 1885, in London, where it ran at the Savoy Theatre for 672 performances, the second-longest run for any work of musical theatre and one of the longest runs of any theatre piece up to that time.The longest-running piece of musical theatre was the operetta ''Les Cloches de Corneville'', which held the title until ''Dorothy (opera), Dorothy'' opened in 1886, which pushed ''The Mikado'' down to third place. By the end of 1885, it was estimated that, in Europe and America, at least 150 companies were producing the opera.H. L. Mencken, Mencken, H. L.]Article on ''The Mikado'', ''Baltimore Evening Sun'', 29 November 1910 ''The Mikado'' is the most internationally successful Savoy opera and has been especially popular with amateur and school productions. The work has ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gilbert And Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan was a Victorian era, Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900), who jointly created fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which ''H.M.S. Pinafore'', ''The Pirates of Penzance'' and ''The Mikado'' are among the best known.Davis, Peter G''Smooth Sailing'' ''New York'' magazine, 21 January 2002, accessed 6 November 2007 Gilbert, who wrote the libretti for these operas, created fanciful "topsy-turvy" worlds where each absurdity is taken to its logical conclusion; fairies rub elbows with British lords, flirting is a capital offence, gondoliers ascend to the monarchy, and pirates emerge as noblemen who have gone astray.Mike Leigh, Leigh, Mike"True anarchists" ''The Guardian'', 4 November 2007, accessed 6 November 2007 Sullivan, six years Gilbert's junior, composed the music, contributing memorable melodies that could convey both humour and pathos. Their operas have enj ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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