page_title: Arthur Cecil
section_title: Early career
hierarchical_section_title: Arthur Cecil / Biography / Early career
caption_attribution_description: English: Theatre programme cover for an 1874 production of Cox and Box. This production appeared at the Gaiety Theatre during the week of 7 September 1874. The composer's brother, Fred Sullivan, played Cox, with Arthur Cecil as Box and J. G. Taylor as Bouncer. The evening commenced with Jacques Offenbach's A Mere Blind and ended with the 2nd and 3rd acts of the same composer's The Princess of Trebizonde.
context_page_description: Arthur Cecil Blunt, better known as Arthur Cecil, was an English actor, comedian, playwright and theatre manager. He is probably best remembered for playing the role of Box in the long-running production of Cox and Box, by Arthur Sullivan and F. C. Burnand, at the Royal Gallery of Illustration.
  Born in London, Cecil took up amateur dramatics at an early age. In 1869, he made his professional debut in the one-act comic opera Cox and Box at the Gallery of Illustration in the role of Mr. Box, a part that became his signature role. There Cecil started a successful association with the German Reed Entertainments, appearing in numerous comedies, farces, operettas and burlesques, such as Beggar My Neighbour: A Blind Man's Bouffe and Charity Begins at Home in 1872. He remained with the company for five years.
  Cecil appeared at many London theatres during his career including the Globe, the Gaiety, and Prince of Wales's Theatre. He appeared in such successful pieces as Peril as Sir Woodbine Grafton, Duty, The Vicarage, as Noel Haygarth and Caste by T. W. Robertson with the Bancrofts also in the cast, all in 1879, and later in other Robertson pieces.
context_section_description: Cecil began performing as an amateur at the Richmond Theatre. In 1866, he appeared in the role of Bouncer in an amateur production of the one-act comic opera, Cox and Box by F. C. Burnand and Arthur Sullivan. Coincidentally, on Easter Monday 1869, Cecil made his professional debut at the Gallery of Illustration in a bill that included Cox and Box, this time as Mr. Box. The first piece on the bill was W. S. Gilbert's No Cards, in which he played Mr Churchmouse. Thereafter, Cecil often played Box in productions of Cox and Box.
  This was Cecil's first appearance in a German Reed Entertainment, and he remained steadily with the German Reeds for five years thereafter. With that company, he appeared in numerous comedies, farces, operettas and burlesques, such as Beggar My Neighbour: A Blind Man's Bouffe adapted by Burnand from Les deux aveugles by Jacques Offenbach (1870) and Charity Begins at Home (1872) by Alfred Cellier and B. C. Stephenson. After No Cards, he appeared in other Gilbert works at the Gallery, including Ages Ago (1869), Our Island Home (1870), A Sensation Novel (1871) and Happy Arcadia (1872). He also wrote some works for the German Reeds, including Dora's Dream (1873), in which he also performed, at St. George's Hall.
  Cecil joined the company at the Globe Theatre later in 1874, playing in such works as Gilbert's Committed for Trial, as Jonathan Wagstaff and Wig and Gown by James Albery, as Mr Justice Jones. In September, Cecil was at the Gaiety Theatre, London, reprising his role in Cox and Box opposite the composer's brother, Fred Sullivan, as Box. The next year, he was back at the Gaiety in The Merry Wives of Windsor as Dr. Caius; and at the Opera Comique, in As You Like It, as Touchstone, in The School for Scandal as Sir Peter Teazle, and in She Stoops to Conquer, as Tony Lumpkin. In 1876, he was back at the Globe. There, he originated the role of Dr. Downward in Miss Gwilt by Wilkie Collins. He was at the Prince of Wales's Theatre during the following three years. There, he played in many pieces, including Peril by Saville Rowe and B. C. Stephenson, as Sir Woodbine Grafton (together with the Bancrofts); Duty by Albery; The Vicarage, as Noel Haygarth; and Caste by T. W. Robertson (with the Bancrofts), as Sam Gerridge, all in 1879. The Bancrofts moved to the Haymarket Theatre in 1880, and Cecil went with them, appearing in Lord Bulwer-Lytton's Money, as Mr. Graves. He then played in other Robertson comedies at the Comedy Theatre, including Society and Ours.
caption: Cecil played Mr. Box in this 1874 production
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