German Reed Entertainment

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A Sensation Novel, 1871
A Sensation Novel, 1871

German Reed Entertainment was founded in 1855 and operated by Thomas German Reed (1817–1888) together with his wife, Priscilla Reed née Horton (1818–1895). The entertainments were held at the Royal Gallery of Illustration, Lower Regent Street, and later at St. George's Hall, Langham Place, in London. Thomas German Reed also composed the music for many of the entertainments, and his wife usually appeared in them.

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[edit] The German Reed theatrical revolution

This form of entertainment consisted of musical plays "of a refined nature". During the early Victorian era, visiting the theatre was considered distasteful to the respectable public. Shakespeare was played, but the London stage became dominated by risque burlesques and bad adaptations of French operettas. Jessie Bond wrote,

"The stage was at a low ebb, Elizabethan glories and Georgian artificialities had alike faded into the past, stilted tragedy and vulgar farce were all the would-be playgoer had to choose from, and the theatre had become a place of evil repute to the righteous British householder.... A first effort to bridge the gap was made by the German Reed Entertainers....[1]

The German Reed Entertainments became the first respectable venue for dramatic amusement to which the public could safely bring their children, presenting gentle, intelligent, comic musical entertainment.

[edit] Forty years of entertainments

Priscilla German Reed
Priscilla German Reed

In 1855, the first performance of "Miss P. Horton's Illustrative Gatherings," musical theatre performances took place at St. Martin's Hall. The entertainments soon moved the more intimate Gallery of Illustration and usually consisted of one or two brief comic operas designed for a small number of characters. These eventually became "Mr. and Mrs. German Reeds Entertainments". They called the establishment, euphemistically, the "Gallery of Illustration," rather than a theatre, and the pieces were called "entertainments" or "illustrations", eschewing the words "play", "extravaganza", "melodrama" or "burlesque". Reed himself composed the music for many of these pieces, and often appeared in them, along with Mrs. German Reed. Reed experimented with what he called opera di camera - small chamber operas by young composers. There was nothing else like this establishment in London. The Gallery rapidly achieved popularity.

Thomas German Reed, c. 1860
Thomas German Reed, c. 1860

The Gallery was an intimate 500-seat theatre. The accompaniment consisted of piano, harmonium and sometimes a harp. But the German Reeds were able to attract fine young composers such as Molloy, Clay, Sullivan, Charles King Hall.[2] and Cellier, the best scenic designers for their tiny stage, and the best young writers from Punch and Fun magazines. The earliest entertainments included Holly Lodge and The Enraged Musicians (1855); William Brough's A Month from Home and My Unfinished Opera (1857); The Pyramid by Shirley Brooks (1864); The Peculiar Family by Brough (1865); The Yachting Cruise by F. C. Burnand (1866); Our Quiet Chateau by Robert Reece (1867); and Inquire Within by Burnand (1868).[3]

At first, the entertainments utilized a cast of three, but by the mid-1860s, they had expanded to pieces with a cast of four. Often the pieces' plots involved mistaken identities and disguises. From 1860 to 1877, the German Reeds were assisted by John Orlando Parry, a pianoforte player, mimic, parodist and humorous singer (one of George Grossmith's inspirations).[4] He created a new type of musical and dramatic monologue that became popular. Fanny Holland appeared in scores of the entertainments beginning in 1868 and, except for two years, continuously thereafter until 1895. Her husband, Arthur Law, wrote and acted in many of the entertainments. Leonora Braham, who later went on to create several of the soprano heroine roles in the Savoy Operas in the 1880s, played in the entertainments for several years beginning in 1870. Carlotta Carrington was also a frequent player with the German Reeds.

Gilbert's last German Reed Entertainment, 1875
Gilbert's last German Reed Entertainment, 1875

The dramatist W. S. Gilbert wrote the librettos for six entertainments presented by the German Reeds from 1869 to 1875, some of them with music by Reed himself, including No Cards, Ages Ago, Our Island Home, A Sensation Novel, Happy Arcadia, and Eyes and No Eyes. Several of these pieces had ideas in embryonic form that would later re-appear in the Savoy Operas. Ages Ago, for instance, had a gallery of portraits that come to life, an idea re-used in Ruddigore. Mrs. German Reed's performances inspired Gilbert to create some of his famous contralto roles. German Reed also mounted the first professional production of Arthur Sullivan and F. C. Burnand's Cox and Box and commissioned a second opera from the pair, The Contrabandista. Given the German Reeds' role in both Gilbert's and Sullivan's first operatic successes, one wag commented that the Gilbert and Sullivan operas were "cradled among the Reeds."

Corney Grain and Alfred Reed both died in 1895
Corney Grain and Alfred Reed both died in 1895

Other German Reed entertainments included Beggar my Neighbour (1870) and Number 204, by Burnand; Near Relations by Arthur Sketchley (1871),[3] Once in a Century by Gilbert a Beckett; In Possession, Babel and Bijouand; Back from India by Henry Pottinger Stephens; Our New Doll’s House by W. Wye; Dora's Dream, with music by Alfred Cellier and words by Arthur Cecil (1873); and Enchangment, A Night Surprise, Nobody's Fault and A Happy Bungalow, by Law. After 1870, Richard Corney Grain, a clever, refined, and humorous society entertainer (a great friend and rival of Grossmith's), joined the German Reeds, gradually taking over where Parry left off. After the retirement of Thomas, in 1871, his son, Alfred German Reed (1846-1895), also an actor, carried on the business in partnership with his mother and then with Grain at the St. George's Hall, Regent Street. Mrs. German Reed retired in 1879. The deaths of Alfred German Reed and Grain, both in 1895, ended the entertainments.[5]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Introduction to Jessie Bond's memoir
  2. ^ Charles King Hall, known as King Hall, was a British composer and organist, who supplied the music for at least nine of the Entertainments, including The Happy Bungalow in 1877 and Missing in 1894. Hall worked with Burnand, Arthur Law, 'a Beckett, and F. Osmond Carr.
  3. ^ a b "Thomas German Reed" in the Dictionary of National Biography, Lee, Sidney Ed. (1896) London: Smith, Elder & Co., p. 395
  4. ^ The Times obituary of Grossmith, 2 March, 1912
  5. ^ Information from the Arthur Lloyd website

[edit] References

  • Stedman, Jane W. (1996). W. S. Gilbert, A Classic Victorian & His Theatre. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-816174-3. 
  • Stedman, Jane W., Ed. (1969). Six comic plays by W. S. Gilbert. Chicago: University of Chicago Press; London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, Ltd.  (with an introduction by Stedman)
  • Stedman, Jane, ed. (1967). Gilbert Before Sullivan. University of Chicago Press. 

[edit] External links