Adelphi Theatre
The Adelphi Theatre is a London West End theatre, located on the Strand in the City of Westminster. The present building is the fourth on the site; the theatre has specialised in comedy and musical theatre, 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, it was founded in 1806 as the Sans Pareil, by merchant John Scott, his daughter Jane. Jane was a British theatre manager and playwright. Together, they gathered a theatrical company and by 1809 the theatre was licensed for musical entertainments and burletta, she wrote more than fifty stage pieces in an array of genres: melodramas, farces, comic operettas, historical dramas, adaptations, as well as translations. Jane Scott retired to Surrey in 1819. On 18 October 1819, the theatre reopened under its present name, adopted from the Adelphi Buildings opposite. In its early years, the theatre was known for melodrama, called Adelphi Screamers.
Many stories by Charles Dickens were adapted for the stage here, including John Baldwin Buckstone's The Christening, a comic burletta, which opened on 13 October 1834, based on the story The Bloomsbury Christening. This is notable for being thought the first Dickens adaption performed; this was the first of many of Dickens's early works adapted for the stage of the Adelphi, including The Pickwick Papers as William Leman Rede's The Peregrinations of Pickwick. The theatre itself, makes a cameo appearance in The Pickwick PapersThe Adelphi came under the management of Madame Celeste and comedian Benjamin Webster, in 1844, Buckstone was appointed its resident dramatist. Dramatisations of Dickens continued to be performed, including A Christmas Carol. In 1848, The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain was performed; the old theatre was demolished, on 26 December 1858, The New Adelphi was opened and was considered an improvement on the cramped circumstances of the original, described as a "hasty conversion from a tavern hall, permanently kept in its provisional state".
The new theatre could seat 1,500 people, with standing room for another 500. The interior was lighted by a Stroud's Patent Sun Lamp, a brilliant array of gas mantles passed through a chandelier of cut-glass. In the mid-19th century, John Lawrence Toole established his comedic reputation at the Adelphi. In the mid-19th century, the Adelphi hosted a number of French operettas, including La belle Hélène. In 1867, the Adelphi gave English comic opera a boost by hosting the first public performance of Arthur Sullivan's first opera and Box; the building was renovated in 1879 and again in 1887 when the house next door, along with The Hampshire Hog in The Strand and the Nell Gwynne Tavern in Bull Inn Court, were bought by the Gattis in order to enlarge the theatre. They built a new enlarged facade and part of this can still be seen today above the Crystal Rooms next door to the present Adelphi Theatre. An actor who performed at the Adelphi in the latter half of the 19th century, William Terriss, was stabbed to death during the run of ‘Secret Service’ on 16 December 1897 whilst entering the Theatre by the royal entrance in Maiden Lane which he used as a private entrance.
This is now recorded on a plaque on the wall by the stage door. Outside a neighbouring pub, a sign says that the killer was one of the theatre's stage hands, but Richard Archer Prince committed the murder, it has been said. Terriss' daughter was Ellaline Terriss, a famous actress, her husband, actor-manager Seymour Hicks managed the Adelphi for some years at the end of the 19th century; the stage door of the current Adelphi is in Maiden Lane but back it was in Bull Inn Court. William Terriss would have a Theatre named after him, the Terriss Theatre in Rotherhithe known as the Rotherhithe Hippodrome; the adjacent, numbers 409 and 410 Strand, were built in 1886–87 by the Gatti Brothers as the Adelphi Restaurant. The frontage remains the same, but with plate glass windows, like the theatre, is a Grade II listed building. On 11 September 1901, the third theatre was opened as the Century Theatre, although the name reverted in 1904; this theatre was built by Frank Kirk to the design of Ernest Runtz. George Edwardes, the dean of London musical theatre, took over management of the theatre in 1908.
In the early part of the 20th century, the Adelphi was home to a number of musical comedies, the most successful of which included The Earl and the Girl, The Dairymaids, The Quaker Girl, The Boy, Clowns in Clover, Mr. Cinders; the present Adelphi opened on 3 December 1930, redesigned in the Art Deco style by Ernest Schaufelberg. It was named the'Royal Adelphi Theatre' and re-opened with the hit musical Ever Green, by Lorenz Hart and Richard Rodgers, based on the book Benn W. Levy. Noël Coward's Words and Music premièred at the theatre in 1932; the operetta Balalaika played at the theatre in 1936, in 1940 the theatre's name again reverted to'The Adelphi'. The theatre continued to host comedy and musicals, including Bless The Bride, Ma
The Hallé
The Hallé is an English symphony orchestra based in Manchester, England. It supports a choir, youth choir, youth training choir, children's choir and a youth orchestra, releases its recordings on its own record label, though it has released recordings on Angel Records and EMI. Since 1996 the orchestra has been resident at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester. In May 1857 the pianist and conductor Charles Hallé set up an orchestra to perform at the Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition, which it did until October. Hallé decided to continue working with the orchestra as a formal organisation, it gave its first concert under those auspices on 30 January 1858; the orchestra's first home was the Free Trade Hall. By 1861 the orchestra was in financial trouble, it performed only two concerts that year. Hans Richter served as music director from 1899 to 1911. During his tenure, the orchestra gave the first performance of the Symphony No. 1 of Sir Edward Elgar. In 1943 the orchestra was again in crisis. Over the next 27 years, from 1943 to 1970, the orchestra's next music director, Sir John Barbirolli, restored the Hallé to national prominence.
Together, they made many recordings, including the first recording of Ralph Vaughan Williams' Symphony No. 8, of which they gave the first performance. During Barbirolli's tenure, one of the most notable orchestra members was concertmaster Martin Milner, who served in that capacity from 1958 to 1987. Barbirolli regarded Milner as his "right-hand man" and once wrote in appreciation to him: "You are the finest leader I have had in my long career."Kent Nagano was principal conductor of the orchestra from 1992 to 1999. The orchestra moved from the Free Trade Hall to the Bridgewater Hall in 1996 as its primary concert venue. During his tenure, Nagano received criticism for his expensive and ambitious programming, as well as his conducting fees. However, poor financial management at the orchestra separately contributed to the fiscal troubles of the orchestra; the orchestra faced major financial problems during the late 1990s, including a £1.3 million deficit in 1998, to the point where the existence of the orchestra was threatened with loss of funding from the Arts Council and bankruptcy.
During 1997 there was an eight-month period. Leslie Robinson served for two years as chief executive after that period, starting changes to the orchestra to start to bring under control the orchestra's financial troubles; these included public fund-raising, which netted £2 million, cutting the number of people on the orchestra board in half, reducing the number of musicians in the orchestra from 98 to 80. Since 1999, the orchestra's chief executive has been John Summers, who continued Robinson's fiscal practices to restore greater financial security to the orchestra. In 2001, the Arts Council awarded the orchestra a £3.8 million grant to allow it to pay off accumulated debts and increase musician salaries, frozen for 4 years. In September 2000 Sir Mark Elder took up the position of music director, having been appointed to the post in 1999, his concerts with the orchestra have received positive reviews, he is regarded as having restored the orchestra to high critical and musical standards. In 2004 Elder signed a contract to extend his tenure through 2010, in May 2009 the Hallé announced a further extension to 2015.
In November 2013, the Hallé announced the further extension of Elder's contract through "at least 2020". One of the orchestra's recent ideas was to try to find alternative stage dress to the traditional "penguin suits", but this idea did not come to fruition; the orchestra has begun to issue new CD recordings under its own label. In 2017, the orchestra began a series of recordings in collaboration with the film composer, Benson Taylor. In March 2006 the orchestra was forced to cancel a planned tour of the United States because of the cost and administrative difficulties in obtaining visas for the musicians, a result of the tougher visa regulations intended to combat potential terrorist attacks; the orchestra appointed its first-ever principal guest conductor, Cristian Mandeal, in 2006. He served in this post until 2009. In February 2008, the orchestra announced the appointment of Markus Stenz as its second and next principal guest conductor, starting in 2009. Past assistant conductors have included Edward Gardner, Rory Macdonald, Andrew Gourlay, Ewa Strusińska, the first female conductor named to a UK assistant conductorship.
In September 2016, Jonathon Heyward became the Hallé's new assistant conductor, whose duties include musical direction of the Hallé Youth Orchestra. The current leader of the Hallé is Lyn Fletcher; the orchestra's current head of artistic planning is Geoffrey Owen. Notable premieresEdward Elgar, Symphony No. 1 Constant Lambert, The Rio Grande Anthony Collins, Threnody for a Soldier Killed in Action William Alwyn, Symphony No. 1, William Alwyn, Symphony No. 2 Ralph Vaughan Williams, Sinfonia antartica Gerald Finzi, Cello Concerto Anthony Milner, Variations for Orchestra Thomas Adès, These Premises Are Alarmed Gustav Mahler Das klagende Lied Colin Matthews, "Pluto", an addition to Holst's The Planets In addition, Hallé conducted the orchestra in the U. K. premieres of two major works by his Symphonie fantastique and La damnation de Faust. The Hallé Choir was founded with the orchestra in 1858 by Sir Charles Hallé; the choir gives around twenty concerts a year with the Hallé at The Bridgewater Hall and other venues across the UK.
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Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, with a population of 545,500 as of 2017. It lies within the United Kingdom's second-most populous built-up area, with a population of 3.2 million. It is fringed by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, an arc of towns with which it forms a continuous conurbation; the local authority is Manchester City Council. The recorded history of Manchester began with the civilian settlement associated with the Roman fort of Mamucium or Mancunium, established in about AD 79 on a sandstone bluff near the confluence of the rivers Medlock and Irwell, it was a part of Lancashire, although areas of Cheshire south of the River Mersey were incorporated in the 20th century. The first to be included, was added to the city in 1931. Throughout the Middle Ages Manchester remained a manorial township, but began to expand "at an astonishing rate" around the turn of the 19th century. Manchester's unplanned urbanisation was brought on by a boom in textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution, resulted in it becoming the world's first industrialised city.
Manchester achieved city status in 1853. The Manchester Ship Canal opened in 1894, creating the Port of Manchester and directly linking the city to the Irish Sea, 36 miles to the west, its fortune declined after the Second World War, owing to deindustrialisation, but the IRA bombing in 1996 led to extensive investment and regeneration. In 2014, the Globalisation and World Cities Research Network ranked Manchester as a beta world city, the highest-ranked British city apart from London. Manchester is the third-most visited city after London and Edinburgh, it is notable for its architecture, musical exports, media links and engineering output, social impact, sports clubs and transport connections. Manchester Liverpool Road railway station was the world's first inter-city passenger railway station. Manchester hosted the 2002 Commonwealth Games; the name Manchester originates from the Latin name Mamucium or its variant Mancunium and the citizens are still referred to as Mancunians. These are thought to represent a Latinisation of an original Brittonic name, either from mamm- or from mamma.
Both meanings are preserved in Insular Celtic languages, such as mam meaning "breast" in Irish and "mother" in Welsh. The suffix -chester is a survival of Old English ceaster and from that castra in latin for camp or settlement; the Brigantes were the major Celtic tribe in. Their territory extended across the fertile lowland of what is now Stretford. Following the Roman conquest of Britain in the 1st century, General Agricola ordered the construction of a fort named Mamucium in the year 79 to ensure that Roman interests in Deva Victrix and Eboracum were protected from the Brigantes. Central Manchester has been permanently settled since this time. A stabilised fragment of foundations of the final version of the Roman fort is visible in Castlefield; the Roman habitation of Manchester ended around the 3rd century. After the Roman withdrawal and Saxon conquest, the focus of settlement shifted to the confluence of the Irwell and Irk sometime before the arrival of the Normans after 1066. Much of the wider area was laid waste in the subsequent Harrying of the North.
Thomas de la Warre, lord of the manor and constructed a collegiate church for the parish in 1421. The church is now Manchester Cathedral; the library, which opened in 1653 and is still open to the public today, is the oldest free public reference library in the United Kingdom. Manchester is mentioned as having a market in 1282. Around the 14th century, Manchester received an influx of Flemish weavers, sometimes credited as the foundation of the region's textile industry. Manchester became an important centre for the manufacture and trade of woollens and linen, by about 1540, had expanded to become, in John Leland's words, "The fairest, best builded and most populous town of all Lancashire." The cathedral and Chetham's buildings are the only significant survivors of Leland's Manchester. During the English Civil War Manchester favoured the Parliamentary interest. Although not long-lasting, Cromwell granted it the right to elect its own MP. Charles Worsley, who sat for the city for only a year, was appointed Major General for Lancashire and Staffordshire during the Rule of the Major Generals.
He was a diligent puritan, banning the celebration of Christmas. Significant quantities of cotton began to be used after about 1600, firstly in linen/cotton fustians, but by around 1750 pure cotton fabrics were being produced and cotton had overtaken wool in importance; the Irwell and Mersey were made navigable by 1736, opening a route from Manchester to the sea docks on the Mersey. The Bridgewater Canal, Britain's first wholly artificial waterway, was opened in 1761, bringing coal from mines at Worsley to central Manchester; the canal was extended to the Mersey at Runcorn by 1776. The combination of competition and improved efficiency halved th
The Quaker Girl
The Quaker Girl is an Edwardian musical comedy in three acts with a book by James T. Tanner, lyrics by Adrian Ross and Percy Greenbank, music by Lionel Monckton. In its story, The Quaker Girl contrasts dour Quaker morality with Parisienne high fashion; the protagonist, Prudence, is thrown out of her house by her quaker parents for drinking a glass of champagne. In Paris, her simple grey dress and bonnet become the height of fashion; the musical opened at the Adelphi Theatre in London on 5 November 1910 and ran for an successful 536 performances. It starred Gertie Millar and C. Hayden Coffin. Phyllis Dare starred in the Paris production in 1911, it opened at the Park Theatre on Broadway on 23 October 1911, running for a successful 240 performances. A revised version was produced at the London Coliseum on 25 May 1944, but the run was interrupted by bombing; the piece toured the British provinces and soon re-opened in London at the Stoll Theatre in February, 1945, followed by extensive touring until December, 1948.
The piece was popular with amateur theatre groups in Britain, from the 1920s until 1990, receiving over 250 UK productions during that period, but it has been produced only sporadically since then. Of the musical numbers in the score, only "Come to the Ball" continues to be well known, but "Tony from America" and "When a bad bad Boy" are key numbers. Selections from the score were recorded in 2004 by Theatre Bel-Etage chorus and orchestra, conductor Mart Sander; the complete show, including dialog, was revived in a staged concert with piano in July 2007 by Lyric Theatre of San Jose, California. Prudence Pym, A Quaker Girl – Gertie Millar Tony Chute, Naval Attache to U. S. Embassy, Paris – Joseph Coyne Princess Mathilde, An exiled Bonapartist Princess – Elsie Spain Captain Charteris, Kings Messenger, Princess Mathilde's Fiance – Hayden Coffin Phoebe, Maid to Princess Mathilde – Gracie Leigh Madame Blum, of Maison Blum, Paris – Mlle. Caumont Prince Carlo, Once engaged to Princess Mathilde – G. Carvey Monsieur Duhamel, Minister of State – Herbert Ross Monsieur Larose, Chief of Police, Paris – D. J. Williams Mrs. Lukyn, Proprietress of "The Chequers" – Luna Love Toinette, Shop Girl at Maison Blum, Paris – Gina Palerme Diane, A Parisian Actress – Phyllis LeGrand Nathaniel Pym, A Quaker – Henry Kills Rachel Pym, A Quaker – Jennie Richards Jeremiah, The Quaker's Manservant – James Blakely Jarge, Town Crier – George Bellamy Act INathaniel and Rachel Pym are the grim and proper rulers of an early 19th-century Quaker community in an English village.
A mysterious young French lady and her not-too-bright maid Phoebe arrive to stay at Mrs. Lukyn's hotel; the lady turns out to be the exiled Princess Mathilde of France. She is followed by Captain Charteris, whom she intends to marry in the village church despite her previous engagement to Prince Carlo. Charteris has his best man with him, Tony Chute, of the American Embassy in Paris, as well as Madame Blum, a famous Parisian dressmaker. Prudence Pym, the niece of Nathaniel and Rachel, longs for someone to love, she meets Tony, they are attracted to one another. Madame Blum, struck by Prudence's charmingly simple grey Quaker dress, tries to persuade her to accompany her back to Paris; the marriage ceremony between the princess and Charteris takes place, Prudence, carried away by the gaiety of the scene, is induced to take a sip of champagne. At this moment, with the wine to her lips, her aunt and uncle and the other Quakers appear on the scene, they sternly command her to leave these sinful people.
Prudence decides to follow Madame Blum and the princess to Paris. She is disowned by her family. Act IIEmployed as a mannequin in Madame Blum's establishment in Paris, Prudence's simple costume becomes all the rage among the women, she herself becomes popular with the young men, including Prince Carlo and Monsieur Duhamel, a distinguished government minister; this attention is most unwelcome to Tony Chute. The princess is disguised as one of Madame Blum's work girls, since she has been exiled for being a Bonapartiste. Tony's ex-girlfriend, Diane, a mercurial French actress, conspires to interfere with Tony and Prudence's budding romance, she has love letters from Duhamel and Tony and intends to give Prudence the letters from Tony. At a costume fitting where Prudence is modeling a dress, Diane slips the letters into Prudence's pocket, but she inadvertently passes along Duhamel's letters, instead of Tony's. Prince Carlo invites Prudence and all of Blum's employees to a Ball, but Tony, knowing the Prince's reputation as a seducer, begs Prudence not to go.
Prudence promises, she receives her first kiss. Princess Mathilde is being pursued by the Monsieur Larose, the dogged Chief of Police, the Prince has recognized Princess Mathilde, he threatens to reveal her identity to Larose. For the sake of Mathilde, Prudence reluctantly agrees. Tony is furious, believing her to be unfaithful. Act IIIAt the lavish ball, evading the prince, finds herself alone with her other suitor, Duhamel, she confronts him with his love letters showing. Duhamel assumes she is trying to blackmail him into letting Mathide stay in France, but Prudence tells him that she wants to return the letters to their rightful owner. Ashamed of his suspicion, humbled by her simple honesty, Duhamel agrees to allow Mathilde to remain in Paris. Tony now learns the true story, he begs forgiveness for having doubted her. All ends happil
Aquitaine
Aquitaine, archaic Guyenne/Guienne, is a historical region of France and a former administrative region of the country. Since 1 January 2016 it has been part of the region Nouvelle-Aquitaine, it is situated in the south-western part of Metropolitan France, along the Atlantic Ocean and the Pyrenees mountain range on the border with Spain. It is composed of the five departments of Dordogne, Lot-et-Garonne, Pyrénées-Atlantiques and Gironde. In the Middle Ages, Aquitaine was a duchy, whose boundaries fluctuated considerably. There are traces of human settlement by prehistoric peoples in the Périgord, but the earliest attested inhabitants in the south-west were the Aquitani, who were not proper Celtic people, but more akin to the Iberians. Although a number of different languages and dialects were in use in the area during ancient times, it is most that the prevailing language of Aquitaine during the late pre-historic to Roman period was an early form of the Basque language; this has been demonstrated by various Aquitanian names and words that were recorded by the Romans, which are easily readable as Basque.
Whether this Aquitanian language was a remnant of a Vasconic language group that once extended much farther, or it was limited to the Aquitaine/Basque region is not known. One reason the language of Aquitaine is important is because Basque is the last surviving non-Indo-European language in western Europe and it has had some effect on the languages around it, including Spanish and, to a lesser extent, French; the original Aquitania at the time of Caesar's conquest of Gaul included the area bounded by the Garonne River, the Pyrenees and the Atlantic Ocean. The name may stem from Latin'aqua', maybe derived from the town "Aquae Augustae", "Aquae Tarbellicae" or just "Aquis" or as a more general geographical feature. Under Augustus' Roman rule, since 27 BC the province of Aquitania was further stretched to the north to the River Loire, thus including proper Gaul tribes along with old Aquitani south of the Garonne within the same region. In 392, the Roman imperial provinces were restructured as Aquitania Prima, Aquitania Secunda and Aquitania Tertia, better known as Novempopulania in the south-west.
Accounts of Aquitania during the Early Middle Ages are a blur, lacking precision, but there was much unrest. The Visigoths were called into Gaul as foederati, they established themselves as the de facto rulers in south-west Gaul as central Roman rule collapsed. Visigoths established their capital in Toulouse. In 507, they were expelled south to Hispania after their defeat in the Battle of Vouillé by the Franks, who became the new rulers in the area to the south of the Loire; the Roman Aquitania Tertia remained in place as Novempopulania, where a duke was appointed to hold a grip over the Basques. These dukes were quite detached from central Frankish overlordship, sometimes governing as independent rulers with strong ties to their kinsmen south of the Pyrenees; as of 660, the foundations for an independent Aquitaine/Vasconia polity were established by the duke Felix of Aquitaine, a magnate from Toulouse of Gallo-Roman stock. Despite its nominal submission to the Merovingians, the ethnic make-up of new realm Aquitaine wasn't Frankish, but Gallo-Roman north of the Garonne and main towns and Basque south of the Garonne.
A united Basque-Aquitanian realm reached its heyday under Odo the Great's rule. In 721, the Aquitanian duke fended Umayyad troops off at Toulouse, but in 732, an Umayyad expedition commanded by Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi defeated Odo next to Bordeaux, went on to loot its way up to Poitiers. Odo was required to pledge allegiance to the Frankish Charles Martel in exchange for help against the advancing Arabic forces. Basque-Aquitanian self-rule temporarily came to a halt in 768 after the assassination of Waifer. In 781, Charlemagne decided to proclaim his son Louis King of Aquitaine within the Carolingian Empire, ruling over a realm comprising the Duchy of Aquitaine and the Duchy of Vasconia He suppressed various Basque uprisings venturing into the lands of Pamplona past the Pyrenees after ravaging Gascony, with a view to imposing his authority in the Vasconia to south of Pyrenees. According to his biography, he achieved everything he wanted and after staying overnight in Pamplona, on his way back his army was attacked in Roncevaux in 812, but narrowly escaped an engagement at the Pyrenean passes.
Seguin, count of Bordeaux and Duke of Vasconia, seemed to have attempted a detachment from the Frankish central authority on Charlemagne's death. The new emperor Louis the Pious reacted by removing him from his capacity, which stirred the Basques into rebellion; the king in turn sent his troops to the territory, obtaining their submission in two campaigns and killing the duke, while his family crossed the Pyrenees and continued to foment risings against Frankish power. In 824, the 2nd Battle of Roncevaux took place, in which counts Aeblus and Aznar, Frankish vassals from the Duchy of Vasconia sent by the new King of Aquitaine, were captured by the joint forces of Iñigo Arista and the Banu Qasi. Before Pepin's death, emperor Louis had appointed a new king in 832, his son Charles the Bald, while the Aquitanian lords elected Pepin II as king; this struggle for control of the kingdom led to
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre known as Broadway, refers to the theatrical performances presented in the 41 professional theatres, each with 500 or more seats located in the Theater District and Lincoln Center along Broadway, in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Along with London's West End theatre, Broadway theatre is considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world; the Theater District is a popular tourist attraction in New York City. According to The Broadway League, for the 2017–2018 season total attendance was 13,792,614 and Broadway shows had US$1,697,458,795 in grosses, with attendance up 3.9%, grosses up 17.1%, playing weeks up 2.8%. The majority of Broadway shows are musicals. Historian Martin Shefter argues that "'Broadway musicals', culminating in the productions of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, became enormously influential forms of American popular culture" and contributed to making New York City the cultural capital of the Western Hemisphere.
New York did not have a significant theatre presence until about 1750, when actor-managers Walter Murray and Thomas Kean established a resident theatre company at the Theatre on Nassau Street, which held about 280 people. They presented Shakespeare ballad operas such as The Beggar's Opera. In 1752, William Hallam sent a company of twelve actors from Britain to the colonies with his brother Lewis as their manager, they established a theatre in Williamsburg and opened with The Merchant of Venice and The Anatomist. The company moved to New York in the summer of 1753, performing ballad operas and ballad-farces like Damon and Phillida; the Revolutionary War suspended theatre in New York, but thereafter theatre resumed in 1798, the year the 2,000-seat Park Theatre was built on Chatham Street. The Bowery Theatre opened followed by others. By the 1840s, P. T. Barnum was operating an entertainment complex in Lower Manhattan. In 1829, at Broadway and Prince Street, Niblo's Garden opened and soon became one of New York's premiere nightspots.
The 3,000-seat theatre presented all sorts of non-musical entertainments. In 1844, Palmo's Opera House opened and presented opera for only four seasons before bankruptcy led to its rebranding as a venue for plays under the name Burton's Theatre; the Astor Opera House opened in 1847. A riot broke out in 1849 when the lower-class patrons of the Bowery objected to what they perceived as snobbery by the upper class audiences at Astor Place: "After the Astor Place Riot of 1849, entertainment in New York City was divided along class lines: opera was chiefly for the upper middle and upper classes, minstrel shows and melodramas for the middle class, variety shows in concert saloons for men of the working class and the slumming middle class."The plays of William Shakespeare were performed on the Broadway stage during the period, most notably by American actor Edwin Booth, internationally known for his performance as Hamlet. Booth played the role for a famous 100 consecutive performances at the Winter Garden Theatre in 1865, would revive the role at his own Booth's Theatre.
Other renowned Shakespeareans who appeared in New York in this era were Henry Irving, Tommaso Salvini, Fanny Davenport, Charles Fechter. Theatre in New York moved from downtown to midtown beginning around 1850, seeking less expensive real estate. In the beginning of the 19th century, the area that now comprises the Theater District was owned by a handful of families and comprised a few farms. In 1836, Mayor Cornelius Lawrence opened 42nd Street and invited Manhattanites to "enjoy the pure clean air." Close to 60 years theatrical entrepreneur Oscar Hammerstein I built the iconic Victoria Theater on West 42nd Street. Broadway's first "long-run" musical was a 50-performance hit called The Elves in 1857. In 1870, the heart of Broadway was in Union Square, by the end of the century, many theatres were near Madison Square. Theatres did not arrive in the Times Square area until the early 1900s, the Broadway theatres did not consolidate there until a large number of theatres were built around the square in the 1920s and 1930s.
New York runs continued to lag far behind those in London, but Laura Keene's "musical burletta" The Seven Sisters shattered previous New York records with a run of 253 performances. It was at a performance by Keene's troupe of Our American Cousin in Washington, D. C. that Abraham Lincoln was shot. The first theatre piece that conforms to the modern conception of a musical, adding dance and original music that helped to tell the story, is considered to be The Black Crook, which premiered in New York on September 12, 1866; the production was five-and-a-half hours long, but despite its length, it ran for a record-breaking 474 performances. The same year, The Black Domino/Between You, Me and the Post was the first show to call itself a "musical comedy". Tony Pastor opened the first vaudeville theatre one block east of Union Square in 1881, where Lillian Russell performed. Comedians Edward Harrigan and Tony Hart produced and starred in musicals on Broadway between 1878 and 1890, with book and lyrics by Harrigan and music by his father-in-law David Braham.
These musical comedies featured characters and situations taken from the everyday life of New York's lower classes and represented a significant step forward from vaudeville and burlesque, towards a more literate form. They starred high quality singers, instead of the women of questionable repute who had starred in earlier m
A Cuckoo in the Nest
A Cuckoo in the Nest is a farce by the English playwright Ben Travers. It was first given at the Aldwych Theatre, the second in the series of twelve Aldwych farces presented by the actor-manager Tom Walls at the theatre between 1923 and 1933. Several of the cast formed the regular core cast for the Aldwych farces; the plot concerns a man and a woman, who are each married to other people. While travelling together, they are obliged by circumstances to share a hotel bedroom. Everyone else assumes the worst; the piece ran for 376 performances. Travers made a film adaptation, which Walls directed in 1933, with most of the leading members of the stage cast reprising their roles; the actor-manager Tom Walls together with Leslie Henson, produced the series of Aldwych farces, nearly all written by Ben Travers, starring Walls and his co-star Ralph Lynn, who specialised in playing "silly ass" characters. Walls assembled a regular company of actors to fill the supporting roles. For the first few productions, the company included Yvonne Arnaud as the leading lady.
Walls and his team had enjoyed a substantial hit at the Aldwych, with It Pays to Advertise, which had run for 598 performances. For this second Aldwych production, Walls acquired the rights to an unproduced farce by Ben Travers. Three brothers appeared in this production: Gordon James was the stage name adopted by Ralph Lynn's elder brother Sydney, their younger brother Hastings Lynn became known for playing Ralph's original roles in Australia and New Zealand. Rawlins, maid at the Wykehams' flat – Ena Mason Mrs Bone – Grace Edwin Major George Bone – Tom Walls Barbara Wykeham – Madge Saunders Gladys, maid at the "Stag and Hunt" – Rene Vivian Alfred, barman at the "Stag and Hunt" – Roger Livesey Marguerite Hickett – Yvonne Arnaud Peter Wykeham – Ralph Lynn Noony, a villager – Gordon James Mrs Spoker – Mary Brough The Rev Cathcart Sloley-Jones – Robertson Hare Claude Hickett, MP – Hastings Lynn Chauffeur – Joe Grande Scene I – At the Wykehams' flat, Tuesday eveningBarbara Wykeham's parents and Mrs Bone arrive.
They have had a telegram from Barbara, reading "Be at my flat at seven, have had most startling and terrible experience". Their mystification is increased when Rawlins, the maid, tells them that Barbara has sent her a message that she would be returning alone. Rawlins adds that earlier in the day the Wykehams left together for Paddington Station en route for Somerset, but that Peter Wykeham returned to the flat not with his wife but with a young woman with a foreign accent, she adds, Peter rang a garage and hired a car in which he and the young woman drove off, with a little dog. Barbara enters, she tells the Bones that at Paddington Peter had missed the train because he was delayed in conversation with a young woman on the platform when the train pulled out, taking Barbara to Bristol, the first stop, where she got off and hurried back to London. Major Bone thinks there is some innocent explanation, but Barbara and her mother believe that Peter has run off with the unknown foreigner, they telephone the garage and learn that the car has been reported as broken down at a village called Maiden Blotton.
Mrs Bone insists on setting off at once for Maiden Blotton to catch the guilty pair in flagrante. The Major is at first reluctant to accompany her, but on realising that he may be called on to intrude into an attractive young woman's bedroom he changes his mind. Scene 2 – Parlour of the "Stag and Hunt" Inn, Maiden Blotton, Tuesday nightPeter and the young foreign woman enter, she is Marguerite Hickett, now the wife of an MP but once a close friend of Peter's. They met on the station platform and were so deep in reminiscence that they both missed the same train, on which their spouses travelled without them; the inn is run by the prudish Mrs Spoker. Only one bedroom is available, as it is clear that Mrs Spoker will not admit an unmarried couple and Marguerite check in as husband and wife; this deception has to be perpetuated publicly when they meet another guest at the inn, the Rev Cathcart Sloley-Jones, who knows Marguerite. At Mrs Spoker's insistence, Marguerite's little dog, is banished to sleep in the stables, Peter and Marguerite retire to their bedroom.
He tries to sneak downstairs again to sleep in the parlour, but finds it locked, has no alternative but to rejoin Marguerite upstairs. Number Two room of the "Stag and Hunt", Tuesday nightPeter cedes the bed to Marguerite, while he makes several unsuccessful attempts to find a tolerably comfortable spot on the bedroom floor, which has "a triple-direction draught"; the dog has been accommodated in the stables. It is pouring with rain, the dog runs away, Peter returns wet, faces the disapproval of Mrs Spoker; the Bones burst in, surprising Peter and Marguerite, the former wearing a towel in place of his rain-soaked trousers. Mrs Spoker, insists that all four must spend what remains of the night downstairs in the parlour. Parlour of the "Stag and Hunt", Wednesday morningMajor Bone advises Peter on what to say when Barbara arrives, to assuage her suspicion. Marguerite's husband meets Sloley-Jones who confuses him with talk of meeting "Mr and Mrs Hickett" the previous evening. Hickett is devoted to Marguerite and is convinced of her fidelity.
Barbara is less persuaded. Peter at first spins her a yarn to the effect that he drove on to the next town, leaving Marguerite overnight
