Stanislavsky and “The Mikado”
Operetta was one of the most successful forms of theatre to go transglobal in the 19th and early 20th century.
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Gilbert & Sullivan: Is Sexual Innuendo Imbedded in “HMS Pinafore”?
It is an accepted notion that Gilbert and Sullivan were careful to exclude anything in their comic operas that could
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“The Pleasure Garden” and Its Place in the History of LGBT Musicals
In 2021, the “bittersweet musical romance” The Pleasure Garden premiered at the Above the Stag theater in London. It’s a
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Quirky and Esoteric: Sandy Wilson’s 1958 “Valmouth”
The show was commissioned from Sandy Wilson, the author-composer of The Boy Friend, by Oscar Lewenstein and the Royal Court Theatre as
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Revisiting the Emily Soldene Biography. Or: the Postscripta of Publication
When you have spent more than 20 years researching and writing a book, when you have lived and breathed the
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An 18th Century Operetta Composer? First Recording Of Charles Dibdin’s “The Wags”
Charles Dibdin is often thought of, assuming he is thought of at all, as one of the links between the
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Kurt Gänzl’s “Gilbert and Sullivan: The Players and the Plays”
I feel very honoured and flattered to have been asked to write about the most important book to be written
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The Incomparable Maudi Darrell: One-Time Darling Of London’s Gaiety Theatre
The story begins almost like a fairy tale: Once upon a time there were three brothers, George, Edward and John.
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March of the Falsettos: Streaming Sasha Regan’s “Pirates of Penzance” From The Palace Theatre
The gimmick with which the West End revival of Sasha Regan’s Pirates of Penzance at the Palace Theatre was recently
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COX AND BOX, or The Long Lost Brothers: Musical Triumviretta In 1 Act With Music By Arthur Sullivan
This Musical triumviretta in 1 act was adapted from J Maddison Morton’s farce Box and Cox by F C Burnand,
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Ivan Caryll & The Heyday Of The Gaiety Musical Comedy
Ivan Caryll was the principal composer and conductor for the heyday of the Gaiety musical comedy who encouraged the development
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A Bi-Polar “Merry Widow”: The Life Of Lily Elsie (1886-1962) Revisited
Elsie Hodder was born in a rather squalid theatrical lodging house in Leeds on 8 April, 1886. Her mother was
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Lily Elsie (1886-1962): Becoming “The Most Photographed Woman In The World”
A child of mysterious origins (she was rumoured, when fame came, to have been the illegitimate daughter of an aristocrat
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“Ghost Lights: Ivor Novello and His Leading Ladies“ – A Conversation With David Slattery-Christy About His New Play
Most operetta fans will know David Slattery-Christy as the biographer of Ivor Novello (1893-1951) and as a tireless champion of
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Revisiting Ivan Caryll’s “The Shop Girl” As A Palaeophonics Cast Album
The record label Palaeophonics is specialized in historic cast albums attractively packed as old The Play reprints of the respective
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F. C. Burnand’s “Ixion”: The Original British Burlesque Hit Of 1863
I first came seriously in contact with F. C. Burnand’s burlesque, Ixion, when working on my biography of burlesque megastar,
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Google Search: “What is Operetta?” And “Is The Phantom of the Opera an Operetta?”
The Operetta Research Centre was, this week, undergoing technical maintenance, in the course of which supremo Kevin Clarke came up
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“The Dancing Years”: A Converation with David Slattery-Christy About Ivor Novello, Nazi History And New Recordings
Ivor Novello’s World War 2 hit The Dancing Years has finally been made available in a ‘first complete recording’ by
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High Kicks, Or: The History Of The CanCan In English-Language Theater
To say precisely who were the first English dancers to perform the cancan in the English-language theatre is pretty impossible.
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Trying To Define Opéra-Bouffe: An Article From “The Era” 1870 About “Chilpéric” At The Lyceum
In his 2 volume biography Emily Soldene: In Search of a Singer Kurt Gänzl chronicles the initial success of opéra
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Amy Sheridan: Royal Milkmaid, Queen Of Burlesque, And Concubine
Amy Sheridan was something of a phenomenon. When she died, in 1878, at a Brighton boarding house, aged 39, of
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“A Greek Slave”: Musical Comedy In 2 Acts With Music By Sidney Jones
Musical comedy in 2 acts by Owen Hall. Lyrics by Harry Greenbank and Adrian Ross. Music by Sidney Jones. Additional
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THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE, or The Slave of Duty: Comic opera in 2 acts by Gilbert & Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan’s successor to the phenomenal HMS Pinafore proved to be another enormous international opéra-bouffe hit. Where the former
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Stanley Potter (1819-1894): A Seventy Year Old Chorus Boy!
When Stanley Potter died in 1894, his – paid – death notice said he was ‘of the Carl Rosa’. So
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Mystery Solved: The Truth About Gilbert & Sullivan’s Star Lilian LaRue
Lilian La Rue? Oh heavens, that name sounds like something out of a New Orleans drag show. Lily Street, maybe?
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CHU CHIN CHOW Musical Tale of the East In 3 Acts, Music By Frederic Norton
Chu Chin Chow was a version of the Arabian Nights’ Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves tale, put together by
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What Really Influenced Noël Coward’s “Bitter Sweet”: “Die Fledermaus”?
Amazingly Noël Coward’s first musical book show was Bitter Sweet. Up to that point he had built his reputation as
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Here Come The Lunatics: Jeff Clarke Talks About Operetta In The UK
Opera in the UK doesn’t only happen in big London theatres with rob-the-bank ticket prices. All over the country there
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Coward & Novello
Noël Coward (1899-1973) and Ivor Novello (1893-1951), both English, both homosexual, were the two most enduring proponents of English language
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The most successful composer of the English opéra-bouffe and -comique stage: Arthur Sullivan
Arthur Seymour Sullivan (b London, 13 May 1842; d London, 22 November 1900). Educated at the Chapel Royal, the Royal
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The most talented librettist and lyricist for the 19th-century English-language theatre: W. S. Gilbert
William Schwenk Gilbert (b London, 18 November 1836; d Harrow Weald, 29 May 1911). The most talented librettist and lyricist
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THE GEISHA, a story of a tea house Japanese musical play in 2 acts
The most successful of the series of important musical plays produced by George Edwardes at Daly’s Theatre around the turn
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THE ARCADIANS Fantastic musical play in 3 acts
Perhaps the most complete of all the British Edwardian musical comedies, The Arcadians mixed the light romantic and the broadly
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