page_title: Gaiety Theatre, London
section_title: Hollingshead years
hierarchical_section_title: Gaiety Theatre, London / Hollingshead years
caption_attribution_description: Detail from "The Pantomimes" by D.H. Friston in the January 6, 1872 Illustrated London News, showing Thespis by Gilbert and Sullivan. The original has two other pantomimes stacked above it. It has been slightly cleaned up to isolate Thespis from the illustration of Noah's Ark above. The scene is from late in Act I, either just after the gods appear to Thespis (and before they chase the other Thespians off) in the dialogue before the finale, or at the return of the Thespians within the Act I finale. Given the lack of Diana, it's probably the former. Terence Rees, in Thespis: A Gilbert and Sullivan Enigma identifies the actors on page 99. From left to right: Apollo (Fred Sullivan), Mars (Frank Wood), Jupiter (John Maclean), Thespis (J. L. Toole), Stupidas [background, in pointy hat] (Fred Payne), Preposteros [arms crossed] (Harry Payne), and Mercury (Nelly Farren)
context_page_description: The Gaiety Theatre was a West End theatre in London, located on Aldwych at the eastern end of the Strand. The theatre was first established as the Strand Musick Hall in 1864 on the former site of the Lyceum Theatre. In 1868, it became known as the Gaiety Theatre and was, at first, known for music hall and then for musical burlesque, pantomime and operetta performances. From 1868 to the 1890s, it had a major influence on the development of modern musical comedy.
  Under the management of John Hollingshead until 1886, the theatre had early success with Robert the Devil, by W. S. Gilbert, followed by many other burlesques of operas and literary works. Many of the productions starred Nellie Farren. Hollingshead's last production at the theatre was the burlesque Little Jack Sheppard, produced together with his successor, George Edwardes. Edwardes's first show, Dorothy, became a long-running hit. In the 1880s and 90s, the theatre had further success with a number of burlesques with original scores by the theatre's music director, Wilhelm Meyer Lutz, including Faust up to Date, Carmen up to Data and Cinder Ellen up too Late.
context_section_description: In 1868, the theatre was sumptuously rebuilt by John Hollingshead as the Gaiety Theatre (announcing its dramatic policy in its name), on a nearby prominent site at the centre of the Aldwych, facing the eastern end of the Strand. It was designed by the theatre architect C. J. Phipps, who also designed the Gaiety Theatre (1871) in Dublin.  A restaurant operated in the building, and patrons could eat before seeing the show and then go directly to their seats without having to worry about the weather outside.
  The Gaiety Theatre opened on 21 December 1868, with On the Cards and several companion pieces, including the successful Robert the Devil, by W. S. Gilbert, a burlesque of the opera Robert le Diable. The theatre was a venue primarily for burlesque, variety, continental operetta and light comedy under the management of John Hollingshead from 1868 to 1886, including several operettas by Jacques Offenbach and musical burlesques arranged by the theatre's music director, Wilhelm Meyer Lutz. Gilbert also wrote An Old Score for the theatre in 1869.
  Nellie Farren soon became the theatre's star "principal boy" in all the burlesques and played in other comedies. She and comic Fred Leslie starred at the theatre for over 20 years, with Edward Terry for much of that period.  Her husband, Robert Soutar was an actor, stage manager and writer for the theatre. A typical evening at the Gaiety might include a three-act comic play, a dramatic interlude, a musical extravaganza, which might also include a ballet or pantomime (in the tradition of a Harlequinade). During such four-hour-long bills-of-fare, regular patrons might skip an item on the programme to eat in one of the theatre's plush restaurants, play billiards in the on-site Billiard Room or drink in one of its several bars.
  In 1870, H. J. Byron's Uncle Dick's Darling starred a young Henry Irving.  This was the last play that theatre buff Charles Dickens saw before his death.  Irving also played in the popular and frequently played comical interlude, The Trial of Mr. Pickwick, with Gaiety favourites J. L. Toole and Nellie Farren, who played Sam Weller.  Thespis, the first collaboration between Gilbert and Sullivan, played at the theatre in 1871, with Farren as Mercury and J. L. Toole in the title role. Offenbach's Les deux aveugles played in 1872, starring Fred Sullivan.  Two Dion Boucicault plays produced here in the early 1870s were Night and Morning and Led Astray.  Among other burlesques written by Byron for the theatre from 1876 to 1879, he travestied Boucicault's Don Caesar de Bazan as Little Don Caesar de Bazan. In the late 1870s, the theatre became the first to install electric lighting on its frontstage.
  On 15 December 1880, the theatre presented Quicksands, the first major English language adaptation of a drama by Henrik Ibsen.  It was adapted by W. H. Vernon from Ibsen's The Pillars of Society. Lutz and Robert Reece's version of The Forty Thieves was performed in 1880 (following an 1878 charity production of the same story), and Aladdin in 1881. In 1883, F. C. Burnand wrote a burlesque of The Tempest called Ariel for the theatre.  Galatea, or Pygmalion Reversed was another 1883 burlesque.  Hollingshead's last production at the theatre was the burlesque Little Jack Sheppard (1885–86), produced together with his successor, George Edwardes.  Hollingshead called himself a "licensed dealer in legs, short skirts, French adaptations, Shakespeare, taste and musical glasses."
caption: A contemporary illustration of Thespis from The Illustrated London News of 6 January 1872
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