Theatre Royal, New Adelphi Seasonal Digest for 1858-1859
Ed. Alicia Kae Koger
As the autumn theatrical season began in 1858, the London Times reported on the progress of the Adelphi's rebuilding. Noting, "the roof ... will be put on within the next six weeks," the Times cited significant changes in the building's structure: "The new building will cover a somewhat larger area than was comprised within the old house.... The ground also will be excavated to a depth of ten or eleven feet below the original level, to get space required beneath the pit and stage" (September 8, 1858). Architect T. H. Wyatt designed the building and J. Wilson supervised construction. According to the Era Almanack 1877, the total length of the new theatre comprised 114 feet, 6 inches (8). Its height from pit to ceiling was 57 feet. The stage measured 56 feet deep and 63 feet, 6 inches wide, with a proscenium opening of 35 feet in height and 38 feet in width. The house measured 48 feet from the back of the boxes to the proscenium. With these changes, the Adelphi became "almost the largest minor theatre in London" (Times, December 22, 1858).
The approaching Christmas season brought the long-anticipated opening of the New Adelphi. The December 22, 1859, edition of the London Times carried an extensive description of the theatre's new interior design. Calling the Adelphi "the newest, and now the prettiest theatre in the metropolis," the Times reporter wrote that it was "constructed with a view to the comfort of its audience, the richness of its decorations, and general splendour of its effect." Noting the theatre's expanded size, he continued, "this space is so carefully and judiciously broken that the idea of space is entirely removed, and the audience see only a series of most graceful curves marking the line of the boxes, and the fronts of which are so decorated as to make them the richest and most effective portions of its internal architecture." The interior designer used wrought iron and white and gold decoration in achieving this effect. On the front of the first balcony was "a light and exquisitely wrought iron railing decorated with white and gold," and "beautiful spiral cast-iron columns, with elaborate capitals in white and gold" supported the upper tier whose front had "white and gold decorations, with panels in bas-relief representing the figures of the Muses." Above this, the gallery stalls also boasted sumptuous decoration "adorned in panels with medallion portraits of the chief dramatic authors." The ceiling was decorated in "Genoese style," with "excellent paintings of the four seasons" adding to the illusion of a high dome. Finally, "the proscenium, and the ceiling immediately over it, [were] covered with bold yet delicate traceries in white and gold." The decorations were illuminated by "one of Stroud's patent sunlights" hidden "by an exquisitely formed chandelier ... furnished by Defries and Sons."
The new theatre provided seating for members of all social and economic classes. The Queen's box was situated on the west side of the proscenium, the Prince of Wales' box on the east. There were two rows of seats in the first balcony, flanked by a row of boxes. The gallery tier had gallery stalls and "the usual side galleries." The theatre's "pit" level included a "part nearest the orchestra ... railed off for three rows of orchestra stalls.... Behind these are four rows of pit stalls." The theatre seated fifteen hundred people.
With the opening of the new building, Adelphi manager Benjamin Webster instituted some new management practices, which evoked praise from the Times. First, he lowered the theatre's ticket prices. Previously, prices had ranged from 5/- for seats in the stalls to 1/- for gallery seats. Now, while private boxes and family stalls cost two guineas and one pound respectively, seats in the orchestra stalls cost 5/-, the balcony and dress circle 4/-, the first circle stalls 3/-, the pit stalls 2/-, pit 1/6d, amphitheatre stalls 1/-, and the gallery, 6d. In addition, the Times reported, "when a visitor books his seat at the box office he becomes its proprietor ... and up to the very close of the performance it is retained for him without any further charge."
At the Adelphi's opening, the Times predicted, "the fresh course on which it is entering will be as prosperous to its manager and popular with the public as during its best days of old." The season commenced with the traditional Christmas pantomime, a farce called Mr. Webster's Company is Requested at a Photographic Soiree, and a revival of John Buckstone's Good for Nothing. Other revivals included James R. Planché’s The Invisible Prince, Taylor and Reade's Masks and Faces, and Buckstone's Flowers of the Forest. Among the season's new offerings, Thomas Williams' Ici On Parle Francais scored the greatest success with sixty-two performances. It featured the Adelphi's newest comedian, John Toole, who had joined the company with the opening of the remodeled theatre. Tom Taylor's The House? or The Home? also proved to be a popular new script. The Times, evidently weary of Webster's heavy reliance on revivals, wrote, "A new piece, that is likely to achieve a permanent success, and to gain something like a solid reputation, has at last been produced at the magnificent theatre" (May 17, 1859). It ran for fifty nights.
The season closed with benefits for William Smith, Paul J. Bedford, and Carter, relying on revivals of Victorine, The Wreck Ashore, and The Lottery Ticket to attract audiences. The Athenæum noted that the Adelphi did not yet have a new artistic philosophy to match its new decorations: "The performances at this house continue experimental; and we are yet left in doubt as to the course intended to be taken by Mr. Webster" (August, 27, 1859).
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Theatre Royal, New Adelphi Seasonal Digest for 1859-1860
Ed. Alicia Kae Koger
In the last season of the decade, Adelphi manager Benjamin Webster finally found the box office hits he had sought since the early 1850's. Watts Phillips' The Dead Heart, William Brough's Dinorah Under Difficulties, and Charles Gayler's Our Female American Cousin all succeeded in drawing the large audiences to the New Adelphi. Although the company's well-loved director, Céline Céleste, did not appear during the season, other popular stars filled the bills including John L. Toole, Paul Bedford, Alfred Wigan, Mrs. Wigan, Sarah Woolgar Mellon, Julia Daly, and Webster himself.
After opening the season on September 26, 1859, with several weeks of revivals, Webster premiered Brough's burlesque of a popular Meyerbeer opera, Le Pardon de Ploermel currently playing at Covent Garden. Dinorah Under Difficulties featured a prize role for John L. Toole who received credit for the production's success. The London Times wrote, "The whole substance of the piece rests with Mr. Toole's impersonation of Dinorah" (November 8, 1859). The extravaganza ran for seventy nights to the hearty approval of the Adelphi's audiences.
November 10 saw the premiere of one of the most successful plays of the decade, Watts Phillip's The Dead Heart. This "distinguished success" (as the Times labeled it on November 11) showcased the acting of Benjamin Webster. In a follow-up article on November 28, the Times wrote "Webster, whose return to his own boards has given a new tone to his establishment, rarely finds a part more suitable to his powers" than the character of Robert Landry. The Athenæum reviewer concurred writing, "As an artistic delineation [Webster's] Robert Landry stands, in the present day, alone. There is no London actor who can compete with it, in its rough strength and its intense feeling" (November 19, 1859). Phillip's script, too, received high praise from the Times, which wrote that it abounded "in strong incidents, and [was] wrought up with a rare degree of elaboration" (November 11, 1959) and contained "dialogue far above the usual level" (November 28, 1859). Webster's management of the piece was cited in the press as well: "Highly is the manager to be commended for the way in which he has disciplined his masses to accomplish effects on a grand scale" (Times, November 28, 1859). The Dead Heart's eighty-performance run broke the pattern of revivals and short-term successes, which had prevailed, in the latter half of the decade. In noting this accomplishment, the Times reviewer wrote,
While the last few weeks have been marked by a series of ephemeral productions, the perpetual variation of play-bills being caused less by a spirit of enterprise than by the want of some striking work that could prove a permanent attraction, it is no small credit to Mr. Watts Phillips that he is the author of a drama which has remained firm on the boards, and has brought the old Adelphi popularity to the new Adelphi edifice (November 28, 1859).
The Christmas season brought a dramatization of Dickens' A Christmas Carol by Edward Stirling and an extravaganza by Henry J. Bryon called The Nymph of the Lurleyberg; or, The Knight and the Naiads. Neither received much notice in the press. The season's next major premiere was Our Female American Cousin by Charles Gayler, which featured the talents of the American actress, Julia Daly. Miss Daly specialized in the "Yankee gal" roles made famous by her predecessor at the Adelphi, Mrs. Barney Williams. Her performance compared favorably to Mrs. Williams', however, and the Times wrote of her, "All those details of behaviour that so much amuse the modern audiences who study Yankee peculiarities on the English stage she executes in an arch, sly, unexaggerated fashion" (May 1, 1860). Julia Daly also appeared in The Fool of the Family, another American import, in July. As it had done frequently during the Williams' tenure, the Times complained of the lack of originality in the Yankee farce but conceded "the dialect and metaphors peculiar to our Transatlantic kinsmen, though they have lost their novelty, are always amusing and sayings already familiar acquire freshness from the peculiar archness and quiet humour of Miss Julia Daly" (July 14, 1860).
Another moderately successful piece, It's an Ill Wind that Blows Nobody Good by John Oxenford, starred Alfred Wigan, who with his wife had joined the Adelphi Company during the previous season. This drama was "mainly intended to exhibit the talent of Mr. Wigan" but also received notice for the "great pains ...taken in the pictorial department" (Times, May 15, 1860). The production ran for a modest thirty performances.
The remainder of the season was occupied with revivals from the recent and distant past. Dion Boucicault's The Willow Copse played for thirty-six nights and garnered critical acclaim for several members of the acting company. In addition to Webster's portrayal of Luke Fielding, Sarah Woolgar Mellon's Meg and John L. Toole's Augustus de Rosherville were cited by the Times, which described the play as "one of the best acted pieces in London" (September 30, 1859). Other revivals included Williams' Ici On Parle Francais, Buckstone's Flowers of the Forest, and Boucicault's Janet Pride, featuring Webster as Richard Pride, his most celebrated role of the decade.
The season concluded on September 8, 1860, after benefits for Benjamin Webster, William Smith, and the rapidly rising comedian, John L. Toole. It had included 292 performances of thirty-seven plays.
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