The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-01-28
EVOLUTION OF MUSICAL COMEDY
Founded in London Practically
Thirty-FIve Years Ago.


Thirty-Five Years Ago.
When John H~oIlingshead kindled the
lamp Of burlesque" at the Gaiety thea
ter, London. 80 years ago.. he practically
founded the modern musical comedy.
There were made and still are made the
productions which attain worldwide
popularity and serve as models for hum
dreds of inferior artists. For it is a
part of the English dramatic creed that
Of late years all musical wonders are
mere variations of the methods first
c~rystalized into well-deined shape in
the girl" musical comedies of h past
decade.
D. 1. Don, who plays the leading COM
edy part in "A Girl From Dixie" be-
gan his career as a call boy and is one
of the two surviving members of HOl-
lingshead's remarkable company. He
has played everything from small boy
parts to leading comedian, and possess
ses that versatility which comes only
from the rigid system in at that
period.
in the zenith of his popularity. THE
Grand Duchess had set all Europe
crazy with its delicious music, and
through the vim of Nine. Schneider, the
was all the rage. OF course, Hollings-
head followed the popular policy Of
managers n started in to give the
public just what they seemed to want.
Princess OF 1TeDlZOIlQGr Dy Ol1C14-
bach, which had been an immense sue
cess in Paris, was produced at the bic
Gaiety, with John L. Toole, Nellie Far
rem and Constance Loseby in the prin-
cipal roles. Mr.. Don, who was there,
says that the translated book of the
opera was very weak, and some OF the
members did not seem to catch on.
Then his clever trio of funmakers were
free license to introduce gags,
business and new musical sp~ecialties, a
almost unknown in those days
of conservative Old England, and thus
the first germ Of musical comedy
out. A new departure in sue
ceeding productions was lac While
designated as burlesque, they were, in
fact, of the nature of p~ot-pourri, to
which several authors and musicians,
and W the actors n actresses them
selves, largely contributed. From this
class Of entertainment the evolution of
comedy was slow and gradual,
until today we lave full-hedged musical
comedy. for which in many cases the
music has been Contributed by nc less
than u composers, carrying out the
very idea embodied in the first incep-
ton OF musical comedy.
OF the original trio of funmakerS only
John L. Toole still lives. He is a feeble
I'D man Nellie Farren, for more than
4 quarter of a century the idol OF Lon
playgOerss recently made her X
pioneers of musical comedy, but other
and other companies, in a les
ser degree, contributed to the founda-
tons of the modern musical comedy
AT the Strand theater about the same
a crowd of merry mummers, al
keeping more closely to the lines
of old-fashiOned burlesque, We're evOlv-
new IDEAS. No longer were the spo-
ken lines in doggered verse n rhym-
in & couplets, as in the old burlesque CT
Byron and the Brothers
Brough. H. B. Farmie, as stock author,
and sue artists as Edward Terry, NJ
and Miss Angelina Claude,
Of little Miss Tody Claude, now
of this country, we're rapidly introduc-
ng methods and ideas approaching
those which now pass current as musi-
cal comedy.