Royal Adelphi Theatre Seasonal Digest for 1886-1887
Ed. Peggy Russo
The 1886 season continued where the 1885 season left off--with the long-running hit, The Harbour Lights, starring William Terriss and Jessie Millward. Harbour Lights, which had been given its 241st performance of the 1885 season on 4 September 1886, was given its first performance of the 1886 season on the following Monday, 6 September. The play continued to draw audiences until the end of the 1886 season.
The explanation for such a success is not found in the text of the play. The Harbour Lights, by George R. Sims and Henry Pettitt, represents little more than a competent piece of hackwork. Adelphi audiences loved it--primarily because they loved William Terriss. Terriss' face was not a new one in the London theatrical scene; he had first unveiled it at the Prince of Wales's in 1868, and he had continued to act successfully on London stages and American ones from 1868 on. In 1880, he had joined the Lyceum's company under Henry Irving, and by 1885, had established himself as a popular and competent second lead. It was not until he starred at the Adelphi in The Harbour Lights, however, that Terriss became what he remained until his death in 1897--the matinee idol of the melodrama.
In Theatre in the Age of Irving, George Rowell explains why the move to the Adelphi changed Terriss' image:
At the Adelphi he was ideally cast as a man of action, often in the services, whose honour was usually impugned but whose bravery was overwhelmingly displayed and credit ultimately restored (p. 143-4).
Women in the Adelphi audience, it seemed, loved him for his good looks and the brave and honorable roles in which he was cast. The male audience also liked him: "Terriss had served briefly at sea, and sailing and swimming were his chief occupations, so 'Breezy Bill' was an apt and affectionate nickname for him" (Rowell, p. 144).
In a comparison between melodrama at the Lyceum, Drury Lane and Adelphi theatres, Rowell gives another clue to Terriss' sudden success: the Lyceum "elaborated on the sinister and sardonic vein in which Irving excelled;" at Drury Lane, "heroes were comparatively minor figures, and the villains numerous and variegated;" but at the Adelphi, "the play's impact derived from the athleticism and forthrightness of Terriss' acting, and from Jessie Millward's quiet appeal opposite him" (p. 146). In Forty Years on the Stage, J. H. Barnes calls some of Terriss' roles prior to his Adelphi years, merely "splendid" or "admirable." However, says Barnes:
as the hero of the dramas at the Adelphi, such as Henry [David] Kingsley (Harbour Lights), and indeed in the whole series of the plays done about then at that theatre, he was absolutely unapproachable, and up to now Unapproached (p. 218).
Thus, the actor, the actress, the theatre, and the melodrama itself were already in existence--the proper ingredients--waiting to be combined to create a popular success. The Gattis' success with Harbour Lights may be explained by their willingness to experiment with different combinations of ingredients until they found the recipe that most satisfied the palates of their audience.
Saturday matinee performances of Harbour Lights were a weekly practice at the Adelphi from 11 September 1886 through 19 February 1887. Family Jars continued as the accompanying farce at evening performances (there was no farce for matinees) until 27 May 1887. On 28 May, A Kiss in the Dark by J. B. Buckstone replaced Family Jars, and remained on the bill with Harbour Lights until the end of the season.
Mary Rorke, who played the original Lena Nelson, left the cast on 10 January, replaced by Miss Achurch. Miss Achurch, in turn, left the cast on 26 March. Daisy England, who played Emily in Family Jars, played Lena for one night, and then Annie Irish, who remained Lena until the end of the run, took the role. The other major cast change occurred during the week of 16 May (Monday) through 21 May (Saturday) when Jessie Millward was replaced by Miss May Whitty (later Dame May Whitty, who was married to Ben Webster, grandson of old Ben Webster long associated with the Adelphi). This weeklong engagement was the first appearance by Whitty at the Adelphi (she returned in 1897). Millward returned to the production the following Monday, 23 May.
On 14 June, the Gattis donated their theatre as the site of a complimentary matinee for the benefit of J. A. Cave. There were a variety of presentations: Cool as a Cucumber was presented by Charles Colletre and his company; Charles Warner and Alma Murray appeared in the second act of Held by the Enemy; The third act of The Red Lamp starred Beerbohm Tree and Lady Monckton; the fourth and fifth acts of Heartsease were performed by Grace Hawthorne, Maurice Gally and the Olympic Theatre Company; the cast of Mr. and Mrs. White included Miss M. A. Victor, and J. A. Cave himself. There were also several short "incidentals" (Times, 14 June 1887).
On 21 June 1887, the Adelphi held a special early performance (6:00 p.m.) to commemorate Queen Victoria's Jubilee. There was no accompanying farce. On 25 June, the Gattis announced the 512th and final performance of The Harbour Lights, and thus ended the 1886 season (Times, 25 June 1887).
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Royal Adelphi Theatre Seasonal Digest for 1887-1888
Ed. Peggy Russo
After being dark from 26 June through 27 July 1887, "The Adelphi, enlarged and improved, reopened on Thursday," 25 July, with a new melodrama--The Bells of Haslemere, written by Henry Pettitt and Sydney Grundy (Athenæum, 30 July 1887, p. 160). With this season, the Adelphi began the practice of presenting a new piece minus the accompanying farce for its premiere performance, perhaps in order to copy Henry Irving's practice of opening night, curtain-call speeches at the Lyceum. Indeed, according to the Telegraph, the authors and the Gatti brothers were called before the curtain to receive the applause of the audience and presumably to give speeches following the opening-night performance of The Bells of Haslemere (Times, 30 July 1887).
The Bells of Haslemere was "a plain, homely, old-fashioned melodrama, of a kind of which an unsophisticated audience does not easily tire" (6 August 1887, p. 191). Sydney Grundy, praised for his skill in creating dialogue, was also lauded for turning out
a play not only full of the thrilling situation and the ad captandum sentiment familiar to the Adelphi playgoer, but strong, sound, vigorous, and humanly interesting even to those who may be described as the public of the stalls (Times, 29 July 1887, p. 9f).
Although Bells of Haslemere followed the established Adelphi formula, there were some innovations. The Theatre noted that because William Terriss had become "the actor at whom the pit rises and the gods shout," the authors had been compelled to make "him the one figure that shall stand out from the others." In doing so, they had "dwarfed" the other characters, especially the heroine, and even though
the heroine is true and steadfast in her love, is persecuted by an objectionable lover and goes through much mental anxiety, there is little of that rescuing from imminent danger and hair-breadth 'scapes which so rouses the enthusiasm of the pitites (Theatre, 1 September 1887, p. 147).
The Athenæum also noted that this production differed from normal Adelphi drama because of the absence of low comedy but blamed this on the then current scarcity of low-comedy actors and on public taste rather than on the authors' compulsion to concentrate on Terriss. A "species of half-comic interest," was provided by a village blacksmith, but when the blacksmith followed Terriss to America, it was "in so uncertain a capacity and in so purposeless a fashion that the idea is conveyed that the actor cast for the part refused to play it unless room were found for him in the American act" (6 August 1887, p. 191).
The Times noticed another major difference--the addition of a third villain:
Time was when one single villain of sufficiently unscrupulous habits might be trusted to work all the necessary amount of mischief in a five-act melodrama; but with the introduction of revolving scenery and the general quickening and intensifying of the action of such plays, the want has been itself felt of some additional pressure of villainy to the square inch.
In addition, the new type of villain was no longer interested in love and revenge; rather "the sordid acquisition of property ... causes him to devote himself to the meaner arts of forgery or blackmail" (29 July 1887, p. 9f).
The technical effects and scenery won praise from the Theatre, especially the paintings for the American settings: Bruce Smith's "The Bayou," "Canebrake," and "Mississippi Mangrove Swamp;" and W. Telbin's "'Desmond's Plantation,' with its field hands bearing their baskets of golden fruit and singing as they go the old Negro [sic] melodies, so plaintive and so sweet" (Theatre, p. 149). The Athenæum, however, presented an opposing view, complaining that the number of scene changes was
so intricate and elaborate as to perplex almost more than they please. It is sincerely to be hoped that the present fashion of revolving scenery is a passing whim, and that the public will either be elevated to something better, or allowed to fall back on something more simple (p. 191).
Despite these minor negative criticisms of the production, the actors were praised by all. "In truth," said the Times,
the success of the evening belongs ... to the acting rather than to the carpentry of the piece; and second only to the heroism of Mr. Terriss and Miss Millward is the villainy of Messrs. Beveridge, Cartwright, and Beauchamp as a factor in that success (p. 9f).
Even though The Bells of Haslemere was not as big a hit as the previous two seasons' Harbour Lights (there was no demand for continuous matinee performances), the Gattis' formula of sensational melodrama plus Millward and Terriss in the leading roles guaranteed them another solid Adelphi success.
During the run of The Bells of Haslemere, a special matinee was presented on 19 November 1887, to benefit the Actors' Benevolent Society. Presented were Lady of Lyons and Tears, Idle Tears. Actors taking part included major Adelphi company members (Terriss, Beveridge, Millward, Jecks, etc.); and some former Adelphites--most prominently, Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Stirling and Carlotta Leclercq (Times, advertisement, 17 November 1887). During the week of 19 March through 24 March 1888, there appears to have been a special run-through performance of a play being planned for the next season. "Union Jack, the forthcoming drama at the Adelphi, was very unostentatiously given this week at the Adelphi with the idea of securing all privileges" (Athenæum, 24 March 1888, p. 382).
A disastrous conflagration at the Exeter Theatre and the Lord Mayor of London's subsequent relief fund drive served to remind the theatre-going public of the danger of fire. The Adelphi, like several other London theatres, felt it necessary to assure the public that it had sufficient exits to permit speedy evacuation and announced "Captain Shean, the Vice-President of the Fire Brigade Association, reports ... the time taken in emptying the Adelphi Theatre is six minutes, this being less, with the exception of the Avenue, than any other theatre in London" (Times adv., September 10, 1887).
This season, the Adelphi was visited by the nobility: the Duchess of Edinburgh, and the Duke of Connaught in company with the Russian Ambassador (Times, 16 August 1887, 6b); and by royalty: the Prince and Princess of Wales (Times, 21 December 1887, p. 8a). The Bells of Haslemere ran for the entire season. On Monday, 4 June 1888, the Gattis announced the 276th performance; the final performance was the following Friday, and thus ended the 1887 season (Times, 4 June 1888).
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