Royal Adelphi Theatre Seasonal Digest for 1898-1899
Ed. Thirza Cady
The fall season of 1898 began 31 August, with a presentation of The Gypsy Earl, by George Sims. It successfully followed the formula set up earlier by Henry Pettitt. Although comedy had changed in the late 1880s and 1890s, melodrama at the Adelphi remained much the same, to the apparent delight of its faithful audiences.
Sims did change the formula of the plot slightly. By the middle of the second act the hero, played by Fred Terry, has overcome his villainous brother, so the attention shifts to the heroine who is implicated in the murder of the villain. The play revolves about the romantic life of a band of Gypsies. Both the hero and heroine have spent much of their lives in a Gypsy camp. Terry's played the rightful heir to stately Framborough Hall, despite the fact that his younger brother is the current Lord Trevannion. The hero, who was carried off in childhood by Gypsies, is in reality the daughter of a "worthy justice of the peace."
The Gypsy theme occupies much of the settings and scenes, such as a dance of the tribe in the wood and a cursing scene when the heroine is expelled from the group because she tries to warn the villain of his impending fate. The spectacular escape in this case had the hero climbing out on, and swinging from, the arms of a windmill in his dash for freedom.
The holiday season brought a pantomime to the Adelphi. The adventures of Dick Whittington, with music by Oscar Barrett and words by Horace Lennard, opened 26 December 1898. It was a lavish affair, complete with dancing, comedy and lively action. The play appealed to children with its straightforward adaption of the story, and to adults with its boisterous humor. The latter included some timely burlesque of current public figures (such as Lord Kitchener and Major Marchand). Dick Whittington played to appreciative audiences until 18 February 1899.
The Man in the Iron Mask, produced by Norman Forbes, opened on 3 March 1899. Norman Forbes played the dual role of the king and his twin. Critics agreed he performed the arduous task with considerable ability. The bishop, who manipulated the switches in the king and prisoner, was played by W. H. Vernon. The Times (13 March 1899) felt his excellent acting contributed to the success of the play. The play ran through the third week in May.
Sarah Bernhardt returned in June. She was well received as Tosca--"fresher and more wonderful in her mastery of her art" (Times, 9 June 1899). After this opening, the troupe presented a new version of Hamlet, translated into French by Eugene Morand and Marcel Schwob. According to the reviewer, despite translating into prose, they aimed at and achieved "remarkable fidelity to the original" (Times, 13 June 1899). Mme. Bernhardt's "pleasant, humorous, very gay prince" was well received. However, despite the fact that some passages were cut (e.g. Polonius' advice to Laertes), the play was not over until after midnight. "A wag in the gallery who whistled 'We won't go home till morning' during the last entr'acte was thought to have neatly expressed the feeling of the house" (Times, 13 June).
Mme. Bernhardt's season was followed by another French repertory troupe, that of M. Coquelin, who presented Moliere's Tartuffe and Les Precieuses Ridicules as matinees, and an extremely successful revival of Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac in the evenings. (Coquelin had presented Cyrano the previous year at the Lyceum.)
Both Coquelin and Jean Coquelin were consistently praised by reviewers, but one member of the company who was panned with some consistency was the unfortunate Mlle. Esquilar. The Times (28 June 1899) was less than flattering in describing her Roxanne in Cyrano or her other roles in Mademoiselle de la Seigliere and in the encore week's performance of La Gendre de M. Poirier.
After two weeks of matinee comedies and Cyrano, Coquelin presented a week of selections from his older repertoire. In addition to the aforementioned La Gendre de M. Poirier, his company presented Moliere's La Mariage Farce and La Joie Fait Peur finishing its run and ending the season on 15 July.
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Royal Adelphi Theatre Seasonal Digest for 1899-1900
Ed. Thirza Cady
The 1899 season began on 19 August, with a production of With Flying Colours, by Seymour Hicks and Fred G. Latham. The play departed from the usual Adelphi formula of "a thrilling plot, sensational episodes and robust acting." In this case, the producers tried to emulate the elaborate "stage pictures" presented at Drury Lane Theatre. According to the Times, the plot was weak and the construction unskilled, but there were some excellent scenes that were very elaborate for the relatively restricted space of the theatre's stage (21 August, p. 11).
The play concerns the actions of an enlisted man who strikes an officer, an action punishable by imprisonment. The action provided some elaborate and spectacular settings, from a battleship, to Dartmoor prison, and a train station complete with departing train. The last act received most favorable mention, and Harry Nicolls was credited with the salvation of the first few acts by his comic interludes as a sham sailor. More praise went to Master Sefton in the part of Horatio Winter, a midshipman.
The piece was well received by the audience and continued through the first week of December. On December 11, an American production Children of the Ghetto opened. It was a four-act drama by Israel Zangwill based on his novel. It lasted only a week.
On Boxing Day, Charles Reade's Drink opened with a matinee performance. It was a seven-act "stirring moral drama" adapted from Zola's novel L'Assommoir. The play is a typical presentation of the author, with scenes true to life, characters that live, and a tone as different as possible from most melodramas of the day. The Times felt that the play would successfully fill the gap left by the "unfortunate collapse of Children of the Ghetto" (27 December 1899).
Early in the new year, the Adelphi presented several short-run plays. Drink began on 1 January, and ran for two weeks. Two Little Vagabonds, written by George R. Sims and Arthur Shirley, followed it. The latter play closed on 3 February 1900.
The Better Life opened on Monday, 5 February; it was written by Arthur Shirley and Sutton Vane and based on In His Steps, a tract story written by the Reverend Charles Sheldon. The Times of 6 February 1900 assured "those who can revel in the 'luxury of woe' ought to find the play greatly to their taste." The story has a badly-treated hero whose only respite from starvation was when he was in prison. Fuller Mellish worked to make the hero plausible, and Elsa Wylde played his wife "with a real touch of pathos." The reviewer felt that Mrs. Cecil Raleigh struck a note of gilded infamy, and Miss Kate Tyndall played the good woman in black and white.
On 10 March, Bonnie Dundee, written by Lawrence Irving, opened at the Adelphi. It was an historical play in five acts. The central figure of Claverhouse, from Macaulay's history, was played by the American actor Robert Taber. His performance, even his appearance, was panned in the Times (March 12, 1900). He presented a clean-shaven look when expected to have "small mustachios of light brown." However, the reviewer put most of the criticism upon the head and pen of the author who had stripped the character of any depth or display of contradictory traits described in the historical narrative.
It was a sentimental melodrama, with typical misadventures and misunderstandings. The lack of character development gave no opportunity for Lena Ashwell to give an emotional performance; all she could deliver was a "pathetic attitude." The scenery was admired, as was the staging of the fight at Killiecrankie.
The theatre was dark through the rest of April. On Tuesday, 1 May, Robert Taber again opened in a starring role in Quo Vadis, written by Stanislaus Stange. The play was adapted from the novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz. Despite the Times' reviewer's feeling that the presentation was "deplorable, very silly, very vulgar," the play was received by the audience with unbounded enthusiasm. It combined crude sensationalism and quasi-religious sentiment. There was also low humor in G. W. Anson's presentation of Nero as a buffoon. Quo Vadis closed on Friday, 1 June 1900.
Extensive renovations took place during the break. The Builder reported on September 7, 1901:
The stage of the old "Adelphi" is left practically intact, but the auditorium, approaches, etc. have been rearranged.... A subway now leads from the main entrance and crush room to both prompt and OP sides of this part of the house.... The private boxes are on the stalls and dress circle level only, eight in all. On the upper circle, in lieu of boxes, the seats have been continued around to the proscenium opening in the stalls. There are upwards of 200 seats. The pit is one of the largest in London; it has a refreshment saloon and emergency exits. The prevailing scheme of decoration is ivory white, yellow, old gold, and electric blue, developed in silk, velvet, and mural coverings and paintings (p. 217).
The second half of the century had been as successful as the first. Over two thousand performers had performed six hundred plays. The theatre's success in producing melodramas in the grand style had given birth to the term "Adelphi drama." However, stage melodrama suffered a mortal blow with the murder of William Terriss in 1897. There was no substitute for Breezy Bill. However, romantic melodrama found a new home, for it was ideally suited to the new art of moving pictures.
Stefano Gatti began letting the house to outside managers, and when the theatre opened for the first season of the Twentieth Century, it was renamed The Century. The opening piece was The Whirl of the Town, a "musical absurdity" in two acts that lasted only thirty-five performances. The new name survived somewhat longer--until the end of the season, when the familiar name was restored. The future lay in musical comedy so the house John Scott had built returned to its musical roots. It prospered as the Edwardian musical play became all the rage. Not in their wildest dreams could Scott and his talented daughter, Jane, have imagined that their little theatre in the Strand would one day be nearing its bicentenary.
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