Leslie Stuart
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Leslie Stuart (15 March 1863 – 27 March 1928) was an English composer of early musical theatre, best known for the hit show Florodora (1899) and many popular songs. He was born in Southport as Thomas Augustine Barrett.
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[edit] Life and career
[edit] Early career
While working as organist at Salford Cathedral, he composed music hall songs under the pseudonyms "Lester Thomas" and, most notably, "Leslie Stuart". He wrote many popular songs for the performer Eugene Stratton including perhaps his best remembered song, "Lily of Laguna", and "Little Dolly Daydream." He also wrote the still well known song "Soldiers of the King".
Stuart acted as a concert impresario in Manchester for some time, presenting Paderewski in one of his first British appearances, and opera's Fanny Moody in concert. His earliest theatrical composing and writing was also for the Manchester theatre. Here he provided songs and incidental music for, in particular, the local pantomime which boasted famous names names in their casts. One such pantomime, Aladdin was presented in 1896.
Stuart made a name by having individual numbers interpolated into several West End and touring musicals in the 1890s. The first was "Lousiana Lou". This had already been published and performed in music hall before being picked up by Ellaline Terriss and inserted, along with "The Little Mademoiselle", into the original production of The Shop Girl (1894) that was being performed at the Gaiety Theatre.
During the run of George Edwardes's An Artist's Model (1895), Stuart both wrote the lyric and composed "Trilby Will Be True" for Maurice Farkoa to perform at Daly's Theatre. Subsequently he had songs used in Baron Golosh, The Circus Girl (1896), the London production of the American musical A Day in Paris (1897), Kiefert's The Ballet Girl (1897) and The Yashmak (1897).
Stuart composed some 65 songs including, in addition to those mention above, "The Bandolero", and "Little Dolly Daydream". His instrumental pieces included at least one Cakewalk.
[edit] Peak years
Stuart's greatest acclaim was to come in 1899 with the completion of Florodora, his first full musical-comedy score, with a book by Owen Hall. This was followed by The Silver Slipper (1901), The School Girl (1903), The Belle of Mayfair (1906), and Havana (1908). All of these shows were successful and toured internationally.
Stuart was an active campaigner for intellectual property rights and called for tighter laws on both national and international copyright. Publishers and wealthy second-rate songwriters would pay producers, for the exposure, to insert their songs into a hit musical. With the strength of the fame of Florodora behind him, Stuart succeeded in stopping this practice in his next few pieces. Similarly, he had succeeded from time to time in parts of his fight in Britain and in America against music piracy and on behalf of firmer national and international copyright laws.
The success of these led George Edwardes to hope that Stuart would be able to replace the Caryll and Monckton writing partnership on their departure from the Gaiety Theatre. Stuart's next show, Captain Kidd (1909), however, was not for the Gaiety, and it was a flop. Peggy was produced at the Gaiety in 1911. Although it achieved reasonable success and he wrote another show, The Slim Princess (1911), for Broadway at the same time, he did not produce any major new hits during this period.
[edit] Later Years
By 1911, the lack of any new stage successes, coupled with gambling debts, resulted in Stuart appearing before the bankruptcy courts. At the age of 48, changing tastes in musical styles and the influence of modern dance rhythms on theatre meant his career as a composer was effectively over, although he did write a number of songs that were inserted, against his principles, in the shows of other composers.
Stuart retained an income, provided by continued revivals and performances of the popular Florodora, and supplemented this by appearing in variety theatre, where he performed his most famous songs accompanying himself on the piano.
A 1940 Biographical film entitled You Will Remember, directed by Jack Raymond, starred Robert Morley in the Leslie Stuart role and Emlyn Williams. The screen writers were Lydia Hayward, Sewell Stokes and Christopher D. Morley.
[edit] References
- Stuart, Leslie: My Bohemian Life. Edited and annotated by Andrew Lamb. Fullers Wood Press, 2003.
- Lamb, Andrew: Leslie Stuart – Composer of Florodora. Routledge, 2002
- Staveacre, Terry: The Songwriters. BBC Books, 1980
- Murray, Roderick: "Establishing a Performing Text for Leslie Stuart's Havana" in The Gaiety Annual (2003) pp. 35-45
