page_title: Albert Chevalier
section_title: Introduction to music hall
hierarchical_section_title: Albert Chevalier / Biography / Introduction to music hall
caption_attribution_description: English: Scanned cover of the score to Albert Chevalier's "My Old Dutch" (1890s)
context_page_description: Albert Chevalier born Albert Onésime Britannicus Gwathveoyd Louis Chevalier, was an English music hall comedian, singer and musical theatre actor. He specialised in cockney related humour based on life as a costermonger in London during the Victorian era. Owing to this and his ability to write songs, he became known to his audiences as the "costers' laureate".
  Born in London, Chevalier showed an interest in entertainment from an early age through his private performances to family and friends. He made his debut on the amateur stage when he was eight, performing in Julius Caesar, at the local Cornwall Hall. Soon after he joined a local amateur dramatics group before changing his stage name to "Albert Knight".
  Chevalier joined the music hall circuit in the 1880s and over the decade became very successful. His success meant that from the early 1890s he was able to choose which theatres to perform in and often performing at three or four halls each night. Together with his brother Charles Ingle he wrote a number of highly successful coster songs to support his act including "Wot cher!, or, Knocked 'em in the Old Kent Road", "The Future Mrs.
context_section_description: On 5 February 1891 Chevalier appeared for the first time on the music hall stage at the New London Pavilion, Piccadilly Circus. For his costume, Chevalier opted for a peaked cap, a check jacket, a necktie, and a pair of bell-bottomed trousers. In preparation, he sought advice from Marie Lloyd, an already established music hall singer in her own right and who formed part of the audience on his opening night.  Also in the auditorium was a curious Lewis Carroll, a staunch opposer of music hall entertainment, who had come to hear about Chevalier's debut through friends. Carroll had earlier been impressed by Chevalier's performances in the straight theatre. Writing in his memoirs, Carroll thought was "decidedly good as an actor; but as a comic singer (with considerable powers of pathos as well), he [was] quite first rate."
  He appeared in character as a costermonger, and sang "The Coster's Serenade", "The Nasty Way 'e Sez It", and "Funny Without Being Vulgar".
  Chevalier based his act upon the performances of Alfred Vance, a cockney comedian from the beginnings of the English music hall tradition. Chevalier also drew inspiration from the London characters of Charles Dickens, including Sam Weller, whom Chevalier had played unsuccessfully in a touring show. For the tour, he updated the character by modernising the dialogue and mixing it with the performance style used by mid-century cockney performers, including Vance.  The changes resulted in Chevalier inventing a new, sentimental variation of Vance's "criminal coster", which was loosely based on a working-class Londoner.
  Chevalier's failure in the theatre was instrumental in his decision to start performing in music hall. The move into music hall was considered by some critics to be unusual for an actor in legitimate theatre, but it was welcomed by music hall syndicates who were eager to appeal to as many different audiences as they could.  Chevalier justified his move by arguing that audiences were ready for something different and benefitted from support by George Bernard Shaw and the poet Arthur Symons.
  From the early 1890s Chevalier agreed to only work in the major London music-halls, which he did for over a seven-year period, often performing at three or four halls each night. Together with his brother Charles he wrote a number of highly successful coster songs including "Wot cher!, or, Knocked 'em in the Old Kent Road", "The Future Mrs. 'Awkins", "Appy 'Ampstead", and the melodrama "My Old Dutch".  As well as in London, Chevalier appeared in various concert halls throughout the English provinces, as he refused to appear in music halls outside of the capital.
  During the 1890s, Chevalier became a highly popular performer on the music hall stage, rivalled only by Dan Leno, whose comedy act was based much more on gritty working-class realism than Chevalier's aspirational romanticism.
  In 1893 Chevalier undertook managerial responsibilities at the Trocadero Music Hall; the venture proved disastrous, and left him with a £10,000 debt. On 8 October 1894 he married Florence Isabel Leybourne (b. 1868/9) who was the daughter of the music hall performer George Leybourne; they had no children. Chevalier travelled to New York in 1896 where he repeated his success at Koster and Bial's Music Hall.  Despite suffering stage fright, the appearance was a success for the comedian, and he was hailed as one of the city's idols.
  Upon his return from America and Canada in 1896, Chevalier decided to reduce his music hall appearances owing to the unpredictability and inattentiveness of the genre's audiences, which he came to dislike. From the paying public's point of view, his style of humour had become common place within the music hall.  His biggest rival was Gus Elen who had developed a more complex and comical alternative to Chevalier's. Instead, Chevalier decided to concentrate his time on creating comic characters which he used in one-man sketches which he called his "recitals". To keep within the audiences gaze, he still performed occasional coster songs and performed them alongside his chara
caption: "My Old Dutch" from 1892
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