Cinder Ellen up too Late
Encyclopedia
Cinder Ellen up too Late is a musical burlesque written by Frederick Hobson Leslie
(writing under the pseudonym A. C. Torr) and W. T. Vincent, with music arranged by Meyer Lutz
from compositions by Lionel Monckton
, Sidney Jones
, Walter Slaughter
, Osmond Carr, Scott Gatti, Jacobi, Robertson, and Leopold Wenzel
. Additional lyrics were written by Basil Hood
. The show was a burlesque of the well-known pantomime
and fairy tale
, Cinderella
.
The piece was first produced in Melbourne, Australia at the Princess's Theatre on 22 August 1891 and then in Sydney
, on 5 October at the Theatre Royal. It then debuted in London at the Gaiety Theatre
in London and ran from 24 December 1891 until 9 July 1892, a total of 181 performances. It was revised and revived later in 1892. The production was directed by Walter Raynham, with choreography by Katti Lanner and Willie Warde
and costumes by Wilhelm
. Nellie Farren
created the title role in Australia; in London the part was played by Kate James and then Letty Lind
. The piece was re-written during the run; some characters were dropped and new ones were introduced. The cast included Sylvia Grey
as Linconzina and Florence Levey as Fettalana (the stepsisters), E. J. Lonnen
as Prince Belgravia, Arthur Williams
as Sir Ludgate Hill, and Fred Leslie as "a servant". Adelaide Astor had the small role of Templina and later the larger one of Fettalana, and Topsy Sinden
danced in the piece. Lottie Collins
sang her sensationally popular song, "Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay
" as an interpolation in the show every evening.
The title was a "playful allusion" to the real first name, Ellen, of the Gaiety's famous star, Nellie Farren. After the company's return from Australia, and before the opening of Cinder Ellen in London, Farren experienced an attack of rheumatic fever
which aggravated her spinal disease. She had to withdraw from the London production of Cinder Ellen. Her illness progressively crippled her, and Farren rarely performed after this. Farren's withdrawal left Kate James to open in the title role in London.
(1883), Little Jack Sheppard
(1885), Monte Cristo Jr (1886), Pretty Esmeralda (1887), Frankenstein, or The Vampire's Victim
(1887), Mazeppa, Faust up to Date
(1888), Ruy Blas and the Blase Roue
(1888), Carmen up to Data
(1891), and Don Juan (1892, with lyrics by Adrian Ross
).
John Hollingshead
had managed the Gaiety Theatre from 1868 to 1886 as a venue for variety, continental operetta
, light comedy, and numerous musical burlesques composed or arranged by the theatre's music director, Wilhelm Meyer Lutz. Hollingshead called himself a "licensed dealer in legs, short skirts, French adaptations, Shakespeare, taste and musical glasses." In 1886, Hollingshead ceded the management of the theatre to George Edwardes
, whom he had hired in 1885. Edwardes expanded the burlesque format from mostly one-act to full-length pieces, generally with original music by Lutz instead of scores compiled from popular tunes. Nellie Farren
starred as the theatre's "principal boy" at the Gaiety for over 20 years. She was joined in 1885 by Fred Leslie, who played comic characters and wrote many of its pieces under his pseudonym, "A. C. Torr". In the early 1890s, as Burlesque went out of fashion, Edwardes changed the focus of the theatre from musical burlesque to the new genre of Edwardian musical comedy
.
Frederick Hobson Leslie
Frederick George Hobson, known as Fred Leslie , was an English actor, singer, comedian and dramatist....
(writing under the pseudonym A. C. Torr) and W. T. Vincent, with music arranged by Meyer Lutz
Meyer Lutz
Wilhelm Meyer Lutz was a German-born English composer and conductor who is best known for light music, musical theatre and burlesques of well-known works....
from compositions by Lionel Monckton
Lionel Monckton
Lionel John Alexander Monckton was an English writer and composer of musical theatre. He was Britain's most popular musical theatre composer of the early years of the 20th century.-Early life:...
, Sidney Jones
Sidney Jones
James Sidney Jones , usually credited as Sidney Jones, was an English conductor and composer, most famous for producing the musical scores for a series of musical comedy hits in the late Victorian and Edwardian periods....
, Walter Slaughter
Walter Slaughter
Walter Alfred Slaughter was an English conductor and composer of musical comedy, comic opera and children's shows. He was engaged in the West End as a composer and musical director from 1883 to 1904.-Life and career:...
, Osmond Carr, Scott Gatti, Jacobi, Robertson, and Leopold Wenzel
Leopold Wenzel
Léopold de Wenzel , also known as Leopold Wenzel, was an Italian conductor and composer.Born in Naples, Wenzel spent most of his career working in London, with the exception of some years spent in Paris...
. Additional lyrics were written by Basil Hood
Basil Hood
Basil Willett Charles Hood was a British librettist and lyricist, perhaps best known for writing the libretti of half a dozen Savoy Operas and for his English adaptations of operettas, including The Merry Widow. He embarked on a career in the British army, writing theatrical pieces in his spare...
. The show was a burlesque of the well-known pantomime
Pantomime
Pantomime — not to be confused with a mime artist, a theatrical performer of mime—is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta, and is mostly performed during the...
and fairy tale
Fairy tale
A fairy tale is a type of short story that typically features such folkloric characters, such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants or gnomes, and usually magic or enchantments. However, only a small number of the stories refer to fairies...
, Cinderella
Cinderella
"Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper" is a folk tale embodying a myth-element of unjust oppression/triumphant reward. Thousands of variants are known throughout the world. The title character is a young woman living in unfortunate circumstances that are suddenly changed to remarkable fortune...
.
The piece was first produced in Melbourne, Australia at the Princess's Theatre on 22 August 1891 and then in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, on 5 October at the Theatre Royal. It then debuted in London at the Gaiety Theatre
Gaiety Theatre, London
The Gaiety Theatre, London was a West End theatre in London, located on Aldwych at the eastern end of the Strand. The theatre was established as the Strand Musick Hall , in 1864 on the former site of the Lyceum Theatre. It was rebuilt several times, but closed from the beginning of World War II...
in London and ran from 24 December 1891 until 9 July 1892, a total of 181 performances. It was revised and revived later in 1892. The production was directed by Walter Raynham, with choreography by Katti Lanner and Willie Warde
Willie Warde
Willie Warde was an English actor, dancer, singer and choreographer. The son of a dancer, his first theatre work was with a dance company. He was engaged to arrange dances for London productions and was later cast as a comic actor in musical theatre...
and costumes by Wilhelm
William Charles John Pitcher
William John Charles Pitcher , known as Wilhelm or C. Wilhelm, was an English artist, costume and scenery designer, best known for his designs for ballets, pantomimes, comic operas, and Edwardian musical comedies....
. Nellie Farren
Nellie Farren
Nellie Farren was an English actress and singer best known for her roles as the "principal boy" in musical burlesques at the Gaiety Theatre.Born into a theatrical family, Farren began acting as a child...
created the title role in Australia; in London the part was played by Kate James and then Letty Lind
Letty Lind
Letitia Elizabeth Rudge, better known as Letty Lind , was an English actress, dancer and acrobat, best known for her work in burlesque at the Gaiety Theatre, and in musical theatre at Daly's Theatre, in London....
. The piece was re-written during the run; some characters were dropped and new ones were introduced. The cast included Sylvia Grey
Sylvia Grey
Sylvia Grey was an English actress and dancer best remembered for her roles in burlesque productions in London during the Victorian era.-Life and career:...
as Linconzina and Florence Levey as Fettalana (the stepsisters), E. J. Lonnen
E. J. Lonnen
E. J. Lonnen was an English actor and comedian known for his performances in musical burlesques and musicals, particularly at the Gaiety Theatre, London at the end of the Victorian era.-Biography:...
as Prince Belgravia, Arthur Williams
Arthur Williams (actor)
Arthur Williams was an English actor, singer and playwright best remembered for his roles in comic operas, musical burlesques and Edwardian musical comedies...
as Sir Ludgate Hill, and Fred Leslie as "a servant". Adelaide Astor had the small role of Templina and later the larger one of Fettalana, and Topsy Sinden
Topsy Sinden
Harriet Augusta Sinden , better known as Topsy Sinden, was an English dancer, actress and singer. She was best known for her performances in Edwardian musical comedy and pantomime, both in London and on tour. Sinden was an accomplished tap dancer and skirt dancer.-Life and career:Sinden was born...
danced in the piece. Lottie Collins
Lottie Collins
Lottie Collins was an English singer and dancer, most famous for introducing the song "Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay!"-Life:...
sang her sensationally popular song, "Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay
Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay
"Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay" is a vaudeville and music hall song, copyrighted by Henry J. Sayers, and introduced in Boston, Massachusetts in Tuxedo in 1891. The song was best known in the version sung by Lottie Collins in London music halls in 1892....
" as an interpolation in the show every evening.
The title was a "playful allusion" to the real first name, Ellen, of the Gaiety's famous star, Nellie Farren. After the company's return from Australia, and before the opening of Cinder Ellen in London, Farren experienced an attack of rheumatic fever
Rheumatic fever
Rheumatic fever is an inflammatory disease that occurs following a Streptococcus pyogenes infection, such as strep throat or scarlet fever. Believed to be caused by antibody cross-reactivity that can involve the heart, joints, skin, and brain, the illness typically develops two to three weeks after...
which aggravated her spinal disease. She had to withdraw from the London production of Cinder Ellen. Her illness progressively crippled her, and Farren rarely performed after this. Farren's withdrawal left Kate James to open in the title role in London.
Background
This type of burlesque was popular in Britain at the time. Other examples include The Bohemian G-yurl and the Unapproachable Pole (1877), Blue Beard (1882), Ariel (1883, by F. C. Burnand), Galatea, or Pygmalion ReversedGalatea, or Pygmalion Reversed
Galatea, or Pygmalion Re-Versed is a musical burlesque that parodies the Pygmalion legend, and specifically W. S. Gilbert's play Pygmalion and Galatea. The libretto was written by Henry Pottinger Stephens and W. Webster. The score was composed by Wilhelm Meyer Lutz...
(1883), Little Jack Sheppard
Little Jack Sheppard
Little Jack Sheppard is a burlesque melodrama written by Henry Pottinger Stephens and William Yardley, with music by Meyer Lutz, with songs contributed by Florian Pascal, Corney Grain, Arthur Cecil, Michael Watson, Henry J. Leslie, Alfred Cellier and Hamilton Clarke...
(1885), Monte Cristo Jr (1886), Pretty Esmeralda (1887), Frankenstein, or The Vampire's Victim
Frankenstein, or The Vampire's Victim
Frankenstein, or The Vampire's Victim is a musical burlesque written by Richard Henry . The music was composed by Meyer Lutz...
(1887), Mazeppa, Faust up to Date
Faust up to date
Faust up to Date is a musical burlesque with a score written by Meyer Lutz . The libretto was written by G. R. Sims and Henry Pettitt...
(1888), Ruy Blas and the Blase Roue
Ruy Blas and the Blase Roue
Ruy Blas and the Blasé Roué is a burlesque written by A. C. Torr and Herbert F. Clark with music by Meyer Lutz. It is based on the Victor Hugo drama Ruy Blas. The piece was produced by George Edwardes. As with many of the Gaiety burlesques, the title is a pun...
(1888), Carmen up to Data
Carmen up to Data
Carmen up to Data is a musical burlesque with a score written by Meyer Lutz. The piece was a spoof of Bizet's 1875 opera Carmen. The libretto was written by G. R. Sims and Henry Pettitt....
(1891), and Don Juan (1892, with lyrics by Adrian Ross
Adrian Ross
For the NFL player see Adrian Ross Arthur Reed Ropes , better known under the pseudonym Adrian Ross, was a prolific writer of lyrics, contributing songs to more than sixty British musical comedies in the late 19th and early 20th centuries...
).
John Hollingshead
John Hollingshead
John Hollingshead was an English theatrical impresario, journalist and writer during the latter half of the 19th century. He is best remembered as the first manager of the Gaiety Theatre, London...
had managed the Gaiety Theatre from 1868 to 1886 as a venue for variety, continental operetta
Operetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
, light comedy, and numerous musical burlesques composed or arranged by the theatre's music director, Wilhelm Meyer Lutz. Hollingshead called himself a "licensed dealer in legs, short skirts, French adaptations, Shakespeare, taste and musical glasses." In 1886, Hollingshead ceded the management of the theatre to George Edwardes
George Edwardes
George Joseph Edwardes was an English theatre manager of Irish ancestry who brought a new era in musical theatre to the British stage and beyond....
, whom he had hired in 1885. Edwardes expanded the burlesque format from mostly one-act to full-length pieces, generally with original music by Lutz instead of scores compiled from popular tunes. Nellie Farren
Nellie Farren
Nellie Farren was an English actress and singer best known for her roles as the "principal boy" in musical burlesques at the Gaiety Theatre.Born into a theatrical family, Farren began acting as a child...
starred as the theatre's "principal boy" at the Gaiety for over 20 years. She was joined in 1885 by Fred Leslie, who played comic characters and wrote many of its pieces under his pseudonym, "A. C. Torr". In the early 1890s, as Burlesque went out of fashion, Edwardes changed the focus of the theatre from musical burlesque to the new genre of Edwardian musical comedy
Edwardian Musical Comedy
Edwardian musical comedies were British musical theatre shows from the period between the early 1890s, when the Gilbert and Sullivan operas' dominance had ended, until the rise of the American musicals by Jerome Kern, Rodgers and Hart, George Gershwin and Cole Porter following World War I.Between...
.
Characters and casts
The following list shows the names of the 1891 London cast, followed by the names of the 1892 cast:- Cinder-Ellen – Kate James; Letty LindLetty LindLetitia Elizabeth Rudge, better known as Letty Lind , was an English actress, dancer and acrobat, best known for her work in burlesque at the Gaiety Theatre, and in musical theatre at Daly's Theatre, in London....
- Linconzina – Sylvia GreySylvia GreySylvia Grey was an English actress and dancer best remembered for her roles in burlesque productions in London during the Victorian era.-Life and career:...
; Katie Seymour - Fettalana – Florence Levey; Adelaide Astor
- Mrs. Kensington Gore – Emily Miller; Miss Holmes
- Lord Taplow – Maud Hodson; Florence Lloyd
- Lord Eastbourne – Blanche MasseyBlanche MasseyBlanche Massey was a Gaiety Girl and actress best known for her stage appearances in London and the United States in the 1890s. Among her appearances in many productions with the George Edwardes company, especially Edwardian musical comedies, she was perhaps most remembered for A Gaiety Girl...
; Ethel Earle - Lord Soho – Hetty Hamer; Louie PoundsLouie PoundsLouisa Emma Amelia "Louie" Pounds was an English singer and actress, known for her performances in musical comedies and in mezzo-soprano roles with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company....
- Mrs. Bayswater – Miss Kate Welwyn (1892 only)
- Sir Peterborough Court – Violet Durkin; Maud Boyd
- Lord Whitefriars – Miss Dunville; Miss Farrington (called Lord Blackfriars in 1892)
- Sir Waterloo Bridge – Miss Norton; Lily Harold
- Catherina – Lilian Price
- Grazina – Maud Wilmot; Alice Gilbert
- Furnivalzina – Violet Monckton
- Griffina – Eva Greville; Bob Robina
- Templina – Adelaide Astor; Miss Maud
- Victorina – Lily McIntyre; Topsy SindenTopsy SindenHarriet Augusta Sinden , better known as Topsy Sinden, was an English dancer, actress and singer. She was best known for her performances in Edwardian musical comedy and pantomime, both in London and on tour. Sinden was an accomplished tap dancer and skirt dancer.-Life and career:Sinden was born...
- Pages (1892 only) – Phoebe Carlo and Lilian Sedgewick
- Prince Belgravia – E. J. LonnenE. J. LonnenE. J. Lonnen was an English actor and comedian known for his performances in musical burlesques and musicals, particularly at the Gaiety Theatre, London at the end of the Victorian era.-Biography:...
; Maggie Duggan - Sir Ludgate Hill – Arthur WilliamsArthur Williams (actor)Arthur Williams was an English actor, singer and playwright best remembered for his roles in comic operas, musical burlesques and Edwardian musical comedies...
; Charles Danby - Lord Leatherhead (1892 only) – Fred Storey
- Charles Hollywell (1892 only) – Arthur PlayfairArthur PlayfairArthur Wyndham Playfair was an English actor and singer. Beginning in Victorian burlesque and comic operas, Playfair became known for his roles in Edwardian musical comedy and, later, in musical revues.-Biography:...
- Peckham – Mr. Harris; Mr. Barry
- Gnorwood – Mr. Walker; E. D. Wardes
- Footman – Mr. Hill (both productions)
- A Servant – Fred Leslie (both productions)