The Sans Pareil Theatre Seasonal Digest for 1808-1809
Ed. John W. Brokaw
The Sans Pareil opened late this season but remained open for more than 140 evenings between 3 December 1808 and 13 July 1809. Two companies performed at the theatre during this time. The resident Sans Pareil Company, under the management of Gabriel Giroux, ended its season 25 March (advertisement, 25 March LTM Collection). Holland of Covent Garden then took the house, as he had in the previous summer. However, there was no interval between winter and summer seasons and there was overlap in the repertory and the performer rosters. The Bashaw, The Magistrate, and Mother White Cap were given under both managements, Mother White Cap running for two months after March 25. In the absence of sufficient playbills, it is impossible to know all the actors who stayed on from the winter season, but advertisements tell that Jane M. Scott herself performed for the first month of the second season. James Kirby, making his first appearance at the Sans Pareil on 4 March, played Clown to the end of the summer, and Madame Louis danced Columbine in both February and July.
A small group of mature, skilled actors succeeded the largely juvenile company of the 1807-08 season this year. Some of these had been at Covent Garden when it burned in September 1808, including John Isaacs, Mrs. James F. Pyne and Slader. (It is possible that both S. Slader and Abraham Slader were at the theatre this season.) Lewin and Garbois, who were at Drury Lane when it burned in February 1809, came in the summer. Mrs. Garbois made her "first appearance on any stage" at this time as well. An important member of the company was Kirby, at various times in his career clown, dancer, scene painter and acting manager. Denham returned for a second season, and Hunt, described by the younger Charles Dibdin as "a clever little man," stayed from January to April, when he went to Sadler's Wells. He returned to the Sans Pareil the next winter. Mrs. Ridgway was Columbine this summer, as she had been in the previous year.
Most of the pieces given through April were the work of Jane Scott. The Magistrate, her successful play of the preceding season, returned in December 1808, for thirty-five performances. She performed The Rout, a song and recitation piece from the 1806-07 season, at her March 1809 benefit. Miss Scott also wrote at least three new pieces for the present season. The Bashaw: or, Midnight Adventures of Three Spaniards, a "new musical melo Turkish piece," ran fifty-nine nights and was revived the next season. A laudatory review in the Times for 31 January said, "places at the Sans Pareil Theatre will soon be at a premium if the proprietor continues to bring forward such pieces as The Bashaw.... Miss Scott plays and sings the female Bashaw to admiration, nor does she look the worse for the assumed mustachios.... The other interludes are various and excellent and we are happy to add that the house is uncommonly well attended" (clipping in James Winston's Adelphi Scrapbook). The whole strength of the company appeared in this piece, as it did in The Red Robber; or, The Statue in the Wood, a "grand new serio-comic spectacle" which ran the first sixty-seven nights of the season. Miss Scott's first pantomime, Mother White Cap; or, Hey Up the Chimney, played from February to May. Kirby was Clown and Lardner Pantaloon. Hunt and Lewin played Harlequin and Madame Louis and Mrs. Ridgway Columbine.
The latter part of the summer saw brief runs of many pieces: comedies such as The Glimmer; or Sir Solomon's Wedding; the spectacles Double Defeat; or British Tars and Austrian Troops and Female Courage; or The Banditti of the Rock; the ballets Rozelli and Rosa and The Fish and the Ring; and the pantomimes The Deserter of Naples and Harlequin Cottager; or The Wandering Fairy. E. L. Blanchard in his "History of the Adelphi" notes that Harlequin Cottager was "written by and produced under the direction of Mr. Kirby, who not only designed and painted all the scenery, but acted Clown to the Harlequin of Mr. Garbois and the Columbine of Mrs. Ridgway" (Era Almanac, 1877, p. 2).
The Sans Pareil was a lively variety house once again. Henry Hengler walked the rope in the winter and the famous "Charming" Jack Richer did the same in the summer. Garbois leaped over ten men, and James Kirby danced on two ladders. Andrew Campbell gave his imitations of London actors. He also sang, as did Miss Samuels and Miss Ingle, Slader and Miss Woods. Goodwin, later ballet master at this house for a season, danced on the same program with Mrs. Ridgway, and he danced with Miss Twamley from the Opera House. Though Giroux's dance pupils of the preceding season had departed, several children performed. Master Aubun, an "infant phenomenon" whom Dibdin introduced at Sadler's Wells the previous spring, helped open the season on 3 December. He was advertised as a self-taught violinist, five years of age. Master Whale, "under seven years of age," danced a pas seul in January. Master James Wallack, "late of the Theatre Royal Drury Lane," performed in July.
This season the Sans Pareil enjoyed some stability in its staffing. Gabriel Giroux was now an experienced manager. James Sanderson was returning for his second season as bandleader and composer. Morris again designed and built the scenery. John Scott, free from day-to-day managing, concentrated on the stage machinery and on his "splendid artificial fireworks, unequalled in Europe" (news clip, 31 December 1808).
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The Sans Pareil Theatre Seasonal Digest for 1809-1810
Ed. John W. Brokaw
The Sans Pareil opened 11 December. It was a larger theatre than before because of the "new and commodious gallery" (Morning Post), which had been built after the summer season. Tickets were one shilling for the gallery and, as in the past, two shillings for the pit and four for the boxes.
The company changed substantially from that of 1808. Its strength was in singing and pantomime. Three singers stand out: William Broadhurst, John Isaacs and James F. Pyne; all later achieved some success at Covent Garden and the English Opera. Broadhurst, the younger Charles Dibdin thought, had a "perhaps unparalleled sweetness of voice, in a Man" (Memoirs, p. 97). Isaacs, a bass, sang in the 1826 world premiere of Weber's Oberon at Covent Garden (White, A History of English Opera, p. 256). In his three years at the Sans Pareil, according to the Biography of the British Stage, he became a "deserved favorite." James Pyne apparently relied on his voice alone to make his way in the theatre. The Biography of the British Stage asserted, "this pleasing vocalist ... has no ability as an actor." However, this was not cause for dismay, since Pyne was engaged "to sing and not to act." (At Jane Scott's benefit in March, Pyne and proprietor John Scott, "his first appearance on any stage," played the title roles in The Two Misers of Smyrna. Good fun rather than exquisite acting must have been the aim of this entertainment.)
Miss Scott's pantomime, The Necromancer; or, The Golden Key, was a great success, running the whole season. It was probably a somewhat different piece from week to week, with improvisations and interludes not announced on the bills. In fact, management's failure to say exactly what would or would not be presented on a given evening led to some disappointment and unruliness in the audience, disrupting The Necromancer on 11 and 12 January. These ructions resulted in a declaration of policy on the bill by management: "Whatever is named shall be produced but nothing but what is inserted in the bills and advertisements of the day shall be brought forward" (22 January). Auld was Harlequin this year, his first of three successive seasons at the theatre. Lardner returned as Pantaloon and James Kirby as Clown. Mrs. Elizabeth Pincott was Columbine most of the run. In her absence, Miss Ruggles began to establish herself in the role; she made a favorable impression on the Persian Ambassador, at whose command she took a benefit on 3 April when she danced Columbine.
At least two pieces by the prolific Jane Scott played every evening this year. Three works from prior seasons, The Red Robber, The Bashaw and The Magistrate, and a new piece, Mary, The Maid of the Inn, rotated throughout the season. Mary was a Gothic verse melodrama derived from Southey's poem. Miss Scott complicated Southey's plot, and her surprise revelations at the denouement softened his stark vision. This successful melodrama was revived in the 1811 and 1816 seasons.
John P. "Jack" Bologna and a "Miss" H. Bologna (who might be either, his niece, the daughter of Louis Bologna, or the Harriet Bath Barnwell whom Jack married in 1800) joined the company this season. Harriet was a principal dancer in the year's only two ballets and took minor roles in two other pieces. Bologna brought the shadow show back to the Sans Pareil for the first time since the 1806 season, when John Scott operated his own machinery. Bologna had been presenting such shows for several years, when not engaged as Harlequin. His Lilliput Island opened January 11 and played at intervals some thirty-four times. It was described on the bills as "an interlude in five scenes." In addition to these shadow shows, Bologna presented another of his Lenten productions, "Bologna's Mechanical Exhibitions."
Several performers associated with the Sans Pareil for many years made their first appearance this season, most of them in minor roles: Godbee, Robert Stebbing, Swan, Mrs. Daly and Miss LeBrun. John Scott again managed the theatre, and James Sanderson returned as composer and bandleader.
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