The Adelphi Theatre Project Sans Pareil Theatre, 1806-1819

List of Illustrations

Introduction

Sans Pareil/Adelphi Theatres, Seasonal Digests: 1806-1899

Editors try to capture the spirit of the times. In the course of praising the improvements to Ben Webster’s new theatre in 1858, the Illustrated Times (Jan 1, 1859) praised the new ticketing arrangements: " admission money is paid [and] the theatre-goer has secured his seat for the night without any ulterior trouble, without any chance of having it taken from him." Significantly, the paper adds: "of another new feature in the new theatre, we have some doubt: all the check-takers and box-openers are females." It proves what has always been known; there is no pleasing everybody. In 1847, the Theatrical Times had complained that box-keeper were "noted for their incivility and excessively disobliging propensities" and referred to "the most rapacious and cormorantly inclined box-keeper."

Readers will find commentary on the performances and an assessment of their popularity. If possible, there is a summary of the plot, criticism of performers and an account of scenic effects. For example, in the 1879-1880 season, the Daily Telegraph praises the sensation scene (but little else) in Dion Boucicault’s Rescued. It "is to the carpenter and not the author that praise is due…A bridge is swung aside at the moment when a train bearing the hero and his fortunes is about to cross" and goes on to reveal what happens next. The spoiler alert had yet to be born. According to the same source, the audience’s morality is affronted by the scene in which Lady Sybil makes advances to the engine driver.

Advertising found a home at the Adelphi. A critical note, published in the 1880s, laments that those occupying the gallery receive an inferior, thin, folio sheet, heavily and "odoriferously" printed, while those in the expensive seats are "given a scented, octavo programme advertising the perfumer." Programs had space for advertising, bills did not. It was a win-win situation. The enterprising expatriate Frenchman, Eugene Rimmel, not only invented the first non-toxic mascara but was responsible for the first "Smell-O-Vision" play. In the 1871 pantomime, Little Snowwhite, a Fairy Tale (by Charles Millward), Rimmel was credited with adding perfume to the waterfall.

The digests are a perfect home for details about performers— their appearance, popularity and ability. For example, the Theatrical Observer (December 11, 1844), looking back to the birth of the Sans Pareil, prints a carefully modulated description of Miss Jane M. Scott’s appearance.

"It was delicately hinted that the greedy public not only expected intrinsic merit for their money, but also that it must be hallowed o'er with beauty to secure the first impression. Now Miss Scott, in addition to some natural defects, had the smallpox and rickets unfavorably, but as genius comes in all disguises, she really had great talent, both as an actress and a writer."

With the Adelphi are connected the names of many performers, famous in their day: Frederick Yates, Edward Wright, Paul Bedford, John L. Toole, Madame Celine Celeste, Mrs. Fitzwilliam, Mrs. Keeley, Ben N. Webster, Dion Boucicault, the Billingtons, as well as names whose only record is found in playbills and programs. During the later seasons of the century, the two great draws were William Terriss and Jessie Millward who, besides being lovers, took on the roles of "hero" and "heroine" at Adelphi. The 1897-1898, digest is the appropriate place for an account of the murder of matinee idol "Breezy Bill."

Editors note such important theatrical developments as the royalty system, which began with the production of Boucicault’s The Colleen Bawn in the 1860-1861 season. He proposed to Ben Webster they share the profits. Whereas the playwright had made £300 for his highly successful, London Assurance (1841, Covent Garden), he now found himself richer by ten thousand pounds.

Adaptations of contemporary authors flourished at the Adelphi and are recorded in the digests. In 1846, the Theatrical Times complains that translations of foreign plays are preferred over those written by native talent. "Some thousands of plays of all kinds are…submitted to the managers of our theatres for their approval. They are taken in, doomed never to see the light again."

It is true that in the mid-19th century, the Adelphi hosted a number of French operettas, including La belle Hélène, but in 1867, the Adelphi gave English comic opera a boost by hosting the premiere of Arthur Sullivan's first successful comic opera, Cox and Box. Such information is found in the digests.

Many stories by Charles Dickens were adapted for the Adelphi stage. The first was John Baldwin Buckstone's The Christening (1834), a farce based on the story "The Bloomsbury Christening." More of Dickens' early works appeared, including William Rede's The Peregrinations of Pickwick; or, Boz-i-a-na (1837). Edward Stirling adapted Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby in 1838. An attempt to dispense with the novelist produced The Fortune’s of Smike; or, A Sequel to Nicholas Nickleby, which did not prosper, and Stirling returned to the master with The Old Curiosity Shop; or, One Hour from Humphrey's Clock (1840).

While Dickens was a particular favorite of Adelphi audiences, native writers began coming into their own: J. R. Planché, William Buckstone, Mark Lemon, John Oxenford, Henry Pettitt, George Sims, Frederick Yates and Tom Taylor. Boucicault staged more plays at the Adelphi than elsewhere (37). Clearly, the Adelphi was kind to its regular dramatists. Many, like John B. Morton, had over thirty plays produced.

Editors draw attention to the differing genres as they grew and diminished in popularity. Genres reflect changing tastes, not only of the Adelphi audience but others. The patent houses lurched from crisis to crisis, but the Adelphi prospered. Originally opened as a place to perform songs, dances and recitations, the theatre evolved into the home of "Adelphi Screamers"--melodramas in the modern sense of the word, with appropriate terror and romance—all found amidst the most scenic of settings.

The digests may be eclectic, but they are none the worse for it.