Gaiety Theatre, London

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This article is about the Gaiety Theatre in London. For other uses of Gaiety Theatre, see Gaiety Theatre.
Gaiety Theatre
The Gaiety Theatre, c. 1905
Address
Aldwych
City
Westminster, London
Designation Demolished 1956
Architect Bassett and Keeling
Capacity 2,000 seats on four levels (1864)
Opened 1864
Rebuilt 1868 C. J. Phipps
1903 Ernest Runtz and George Ford
Closed 1939
Previous names 1864 Strand Musick Hall
Current use The Silken Hotel
Coordinates: 51°30′47″N 0°07′03″W / 51.513056, -0.1175

The Gaiety Theatre, London was a West End theatre in the City of Westminster, located on Aldwych at the eastern end of the Strand. The theatre was established as the Strand Musick Hall (sic), in 1864 on the former site of the Lyceum Theatre. It was rebuilt several times, but closed from the start of World War II in 1939 and never reopened, having suffered bomb damage during the hostilities. The theatre, at first known for music hall and then musical burlesque, from 1868 to the early 1890s, played a key role in the development of modern musical comedy in the late Victorian era and Edwardian period.

Contents

[edit] Beginnings

The theatre was financed by a joint stock company and built in 1864 as the Strand Musick Hall by Bassett and Keeling. This large theatre, with over 2,000 seats,[1] was built at a time when many new theatres were being built in London.[2] Unlike at many other music halls, the proprietors decided to ban smoking and drinking within the hall, and these activities were accommodated in the adjacent saloons.[1] A novel gas lighting system was incorporated in the hall, using prisms and mirrors to create a soft light. Exhausting the heat of the gas jets drew fresh air into the building. The house was approached through an ambitious arcade, from the Strand. This was never successful and, with the theatre, was demolished to allow the building of the Aldwych.

[edit] Hollingshead years

In 1868, the theatre was sumptuously rebuilt by John Hollingshead as the Gaiety Theatre (announcing its dramatic policy in its name), on a nearby prominent site at the centre of the Aldwych, facing the eastern end of the Strand. It was designed by the theatre architect C. J. Phipps, who also designed the Gaiety Theatre (1871) in Dublin. restaurant operated in the building, and patrons could eat before seeing the show and then go directly to their seats without having to worry about the weather outside.

Photo and signatures of Farren, Terry and Gaiety friends
Photo and signatures of Farren, Terry and Gaiety friends

The Gaiety Theatre opened on December 21, 1868, with On the Cards and several companion pieces, including the successful Robert the Devil, by W. S. Gilbert, a burlesque of the opera Robert le Diable.[3] The theatre was a venue primarily for burlesque, variety, continental operetta and light comedy under the management of John Hollingshead from 1868 to 1886, including several operettas by Jacques Offenbach and musical burlesques composed or arranged by the theatre's music director, Wilhelm Meyer Lutz. Nellie Farren soon became the theatre's star "principal boy" in all the burlesques and played in other comedies. She and comic Fred Leslie starred at the theatre for over 20 years, with Edward Terry for much of that period. Her husband, Robert Soutar was an actor, stage manager and writer for the theatre.[4] Gilbert also wrote An Old Score for the theatre in 1870. A typical evening at the Gaiety might include a three-act comic play, a dramatic interlude, a musical extravaganza, which might also include a ballet or pantomime (in the tradition of a Harlequinade). During such four hour long bills-of-fare, regular patrons might skip an item on the programme to eat in one of the theatre’s plush restaurants, play billiards in the on-site Billiard Room or drink in one of its several bars.[4]

A contemporary illustration of Thespis from The Illustrated London News of 6 January, 1872
A contemporary illustration of Thespis from The Illustrated London News of 6 January, 1872

In 1870, H. J. Byron's Uncle Dick's Darling starred a young Henry Irving. This was the last play that theatre buff Charles Dickens saw before his death. Irving also played in the popular and frequently played comical interlude, The Trial of Mr. Pickwick, with Gaiety favourites J. L. Toole and Nellie Farren, who played Sam Weller.[4] Thespis, the first collaboration between Gilbert and Sullivan, played at the theatre in 1871, with Farren as Mercury and J. L. Toole in the title role. Offenbach's Les deux aveugles played in 1872, starring Fred Sullivan. Two Dion Boucicault plays produced here in the early 1870s were Night and Morning and Led Astray. Boucicault's Don Caesar de Bazan was travestied in Byron's Little Don Caesar de Bazan.[5] In the late 1870s, the theatre became the first to install electric lighting on its frontstage. Lutz and Robert Reece's version of The Forty Thieves was performed in 1880 (following an 1878 charity production of the same story), and Aladdin in 1881. In 1883, F. C. Burnand wrote a burlesque of The Tempest called Ariel for the theatre.[6] Hollingshead's last production at the theatre was the burlesque Little Jack Sheppard (1885-86). Hollingshead called himself a "licensed dealer in legs, short skirts, French adaptations, Shakespeare, taste and musical glasses."[7] Later, the theatre became the home of musical comedies, under the management of George Edwardes.

[edit] Edwardes years

1894 The character of William Lurcher (A Sheriff's Officer), in Dorothy, from The Sketch
1894 The character of William Lurcher (A Sheriff's Officer), in Dorothy, from The Sketch

Edwardes's first show was Dorothy. Although Dorothy called itself a comic opera, as did most of the British musical works of the era that were neither burlesque, pantomime nor low farce, Dorothy incorporated some of the elements that U.S. duo Harrigan and Hart were using on Broadway, integrating music and dance into the story line of the comedy. Edwardes sold that production, but it went on to become the longest-running hit that the musical stage had ever seen. Meanwhile, Edwardes continued to present musical burlesques like Faust up to Date by Lutz (1888).

Gaiety Girls, 1896
Gaiety Girls, 1896

Soon, however, Edwardes hired Adrian Ross, who wrote a less baudy, more lightly comic piece, similar to Dorothy, with a minimum of plot, focusing on songs with clever lyrics, In Town (1892), with stylish costumes and urbane, witty banter. Edwardes also engaged Ivan Caryll as resident composer and music director at the Gaiety and soon put Caryll together with the writing team of Owen Hall, Harry Greenbank, Ross and Lionel Monckton. Edwardes and this team created a series of musical shows similar to Dorothy, but taking its lighter, breezier style a step further. These shows featured fashionable characters, tuneful music, romantic lyrics, witty banter and pretty dancing. The success of the first of these, A Gaiety Girl (1893), which played at other theatres, confirmed Edwardes on the path he was taking.

For the next two decades, the "girl" musicals packed the Gaiety Theatre, including titles like The Shop Girl (1894), The Circus Girl (1896), and A Runaway Girl (1898). These musicals were imitated at other theatres. A particular attraction of the Gaiety shows was the beautiful, dancing Gaiety Girls. These were fashionable, elegant young ladies, unlike the corseted actresses from the burlesques. Gaiety Girls were polite, well-behaved young women and became a popular attraction and a symbol of ideal womanhood. Some became popular leading actresses. The young ladies appearing in George Edwardes's shows became so popular that wealthy gentlemen, termed "Stage Door Johnnies", would wait outside the stage door hoping to escort them to dinner. In some cases, a marriage into society and even the nobility resulted. Edwardes arranged with Romano's restaurant, on the Strand, for his girls to dine there at half-price. It was good exposure for the girls and made Romano's the centre of London's night-life.[7]

Alan Hyman, an expert on burlesque theatre who penned the 1972 book The Gaiety Years, wrote:

At the old Gaiety in the Strand the chorus was becoming a matrimonial agency for girls with ambitions to marry into the peerage and began in the nineties when Connie Gilchrist, a star of the Old Gaiety, married the 7th Earl of Orkney and then in 1901, the 4th Marquess of Headfort married Rosie Boote, who had charmed London the previous year when she sang Maisie in The Messenger Boy. After Connie Gilchrist and Rosie Boote had started the fashion a score of the Guv'nor's budding stars left him to marry peers or men of title while other Gaiety Girls settled for a banker or a stockbroker. The Guv’nor finding this was playing ducks and drakes with his theatrical plans had a 'nuptial clause' inserted in every contract.... Debutantes were competing with the other girls to get into the Gaiety chorus while upper-class youths were joining the ranks of the chorus boys.[8]

The building was demolished in 1903 as part of the road widening of the East Strand and the new Aldwych-Kingsway road development, and Edwardes quickly built the New Gaiety Theatre at the corner of Aldwych and The Strand. The Orchid (1903) opened the new theatre, followed by The Spring Chicken (1905), The Girls of Gottenberg (1907), Our Miss Gibbs (1909), Peggy (1911), The Sunshine Girl (1912), The Girl on the Film (1913), Adele (1914), and After the Girl (1914). Perhaps to balance the "girl" musicals for which the Gaiety was famous, Edwardes also presented a series of "boy"-themed musicals, such as The Messenger Boy (1900), The Toreador (1901, which introduced Gertie Millar), Two Naughty Boys (1906), The New Aladdin (1906), Havana (1908). Later, George Grossmith, Jr. and Edward Laurillard produced a number of successes at the theatre, including Tonight's the Night (1915) and Theodore & Co (1916). Many of these popular musicals toured after their runs at the Gaity, both in the British provinces and internationally.

[edit] Later years and demise

Edwardes died in 1915, leaving his estate indebted and the theatre (as well as Edwardes' other theatres, including Daly's Theatre), in the hands of Robert Evett, formerly a leading tenor of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. Under Evett's management, the theatre prospered with another hit, Going Up (1918), followed by The Kiss Call (1919), and Faust on Toast (1921). In 1922, Evett produced Gaiety adaptations of Catherine and The Last Waltz, a work of which he was co-author. In 1924, he produced Our Nell, the revised version of Our Peg.

Musicals continued at the Gaiety. In 1929, Love Lies, by Stanley Lupino and Arthur Rigby, with music by Hal Brody and lyrics by Desmond Carter, starring Cyril Ritchard and Madge Elliott, had a successful run at the theatre. In the 1930s, the theatre played works such as Sporting Love (1934) by composer and pianist Billy Mayerl, also with Lupino, which ran for 302 performances. The last show at the theatre was the farce Running Riot, in 1939.[7]

By 1938 the Gaiety Theatre was in need of refurbishment. However, the theatre no longer conformed to the then current licensing regulations, and so extensive modernisation was required. This was not considered to be financially viable and in 1939 the Gaiety Theatre closed. The interior fittings were stripped from the building, and sold at auction. Standing empty during World War II, the building suffered further damage as a result of bombing during air raids.

In 1946 the shell of the Gaiety Theatre was purchased by Lupino Lane for £200,000. It was the intention to rebuild the theatre and make it, once again, a centre of musical comedy. Although restoration did commence, it was found that the structural problems were worse than expected and the work discontinued. The building was once again sold, resulting in it being demolished in 1956 and replaced by an office development.

In 2006, the site of the Gaiety is once again being developed, with The Silken Hotel, a luxury hotel, being built on the land. To protect the vista of the street in which it is located, one of the walls of the old restaurant has listed building status and has been incorporated into all the subsequent development.[9]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b Arthur Lloyd Music Hall site (early history of the Gaiety) accessed 01 Mar 2007
  2. ^ Arthur Lloyd Music Hall site (on Gaiety) The Times December 11, 1868 accessed 01 Mar 2007
  3. ^ Digital Guide to Gilbert & Sullivan accessed 01 March 2007
  4. ^ a b c Stewart, Maurice. 'The spark that lit the bonfire', in Gilbert and Sullivan News (London) Spring 2003.
  5. ^ Includes a profile of the theatre and other Victorian theatres
  6. ^ NY Times article that includes a brief review of Ariel
  7. ^ a b c Arthur Lloyd Music Hall site (on Gaiety) Cuttings accessed 01 Mar 2007
  8. ^ Information about the stagedoor Johnnie marriages
  9. ^ Arthur Lloyd Music Hall site (Images of the Gaiety) accessed 01 Mar 2007

[edit] References

[edit] External links