Benjamin Nottingham Webster
Encyclopedia
Actor-manager
An actor-manager is a leading actor who sets up their own permanent theatrical company and manages the company's business and financial arrangements, sometimes taking over the management of a theatre, to perform plays of their own choice and in which they will usually star...
and dramatist.
Career
First appearing as HarlequinHarlequin
Harlequin or Arlecchino in Italian, Arlequin in French, and Arlequín in Spanish is the most popularly known of the zanni or comic servant characters from the Italian Commedia dell'arte and its descendant, the Harlequinade.-Origins:...
, and then in small parts at Drury Lane
Drury Lane
Drury Lane is a street on the eastern boundary of the Covent Garden area of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. The northern part is in the borough of Camden and the southern part in the City of Westminster....
, he went to the Haymarket Theatre
Haymarket Theatre
The Theatre Royal Haymarket is a West End theatre in the Haymarket in the City of Westminster which dates back to 1720, making it the third-oldest London playhouse still in use...
in 1829, and was given leading comedy character business.
Webster was the lessee of the Haymarket from 1837 to 1853; he built the new Adelphi Theatre
Adelphi Theatre
The Adelphi Theatre is a 1500-seat West End theatre, located on the Strand in the City of Westminster. The present building is the fourth on the site. The theatre has specialised in comedy and musical theatre, and today it is a receiving house for a variety of productions, including many musicals...
(1859); later the Olympic Theatre
Olympic Theatre
The Olympic Theatre, sometimes known as the Royal Olympic Theatre, was a 19th-century London theatre, opened in 1806 and located at the junction of Drury Lane, Wych Street, and Newcastle Street. The theatre specialised in comedies throughout much of its existence...
, Princess's Theatre, London
Princess's Theatre, London
The Princess's Theatre or Princess Theatre was a theatre in Oxford Street, London. The building opened in 1828 as the "Queen's Bazaar" and housed a diorama by Clarkson Stanfield and David Roberts. It was converted into a theatre and opened in 1836 as the Princess's Theatre, named for then Princess...
and St James's Theatre
St James's Theatre
The St James's Theatre was a 1,200-seat theatre located in King Street, at Duke Street, St James's, London. The elaborate theatre was designed with a neo-classical exterior and a Louis XIV style interior by Samuel Beazley and built by the partnership of Peto & Grissell for the tenor and theatre...
s came under his control; and he was the patron of all the contemporary playwrights and many of the best actors, who owed their opportunity of success to him.
As a character actor he was unequalled in his day, especially in such parts as Triplet in Masks and Faces, Joey Ladle in No Thoroughfare, and John Peerybingle in his own dramatization of The Cricket on the Hearth.
He wrote, translated or adapted nearly a hundred plays. Webster took his formal farewell of the stage in 1874.
Personal life
His daughter, Harriette Georgiana (d. 1897), was the first wife of Edward Levy-Lawson, 1st Baron BurnhamBaron Burnham
Baron Burnham, of Hall Barn in the Parish of Beaconsfield in the County of Buckingham, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1903 for the influential newspaper magnate Sir Edward Levy-Lawson, 1st Baronet, owner of the Daily Telegraph...
.
His son, W.S. Webster, had three children — Benjamin Webster
Ben Webster (actor)
Ben Webster was a British-born actor, and the husband of actress Dame May Whitty, and father of the British-American stage actress, Margaret Webster. His father, W. S. Webster, was the son of the famous actor Benjamin Nottingham Webster.Ben Webster was born on June 2, 1864 in London and married...
(b. 1864; married to Miss (Dame) May Whitty
May Whitty
Dame May Whitty, DBE , born Mary Louise Whitty, was an English stage actress who appeared in numerous films in later life, achieving recognition in several character roles.-Background:...
), Annie (Mrs A.E. George) and Lizzie (Mrs Sydney Brough) — all well known on the London stage, and further connected with it in each case by marriage.
Further reading
- ScottClement ScottClement Scott was an influential English theatre critic for the Daily Telegraph, and a playwright and travel writer, in the final decades of the 19th century...
, The Drama of Yesterday and To-Day (London, 1899) - MatthewsBrander MatthewsJames Brander Matthews , was a U.S. writer and educator. Matthews was the first U.S. professor of dramatic literature.-Biography:...
and HuttonLaurence HuttonLaurence Hutton was an American essayist and critic, born in New York City and educated privately there. He was an inveterate traveler and for about 20 years spent his summers abroad. From about 1870 he contributed continually to periodicals. From 1886 to 1898 he was the literary editor of...
, Actors and Actresses of Great Gritain and the United States (New York, 1886)