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Frank Thornton (Savoyard)
Encyclopedia
Frank Thornton was an English actor, singer, comedian and producer. Despite a successful stage career in comedies in London, on tour and abroad, Thornton is probably best remembered as the understudy to George Grossmith
in a series of Gilbert and Sullivan
operas from 1877 to 1884.
Thornton began his stage career giving drawing-room entertainments while simultaneously working in a commercial office in London, keeping his theatrical activities secret from his office employers for four years. He was engaged by Richard D'Oyly Carte
as understudy to George Grossmith in the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, also playing roles in some of the curtain raiser
s played with the operas. In 1881, he created a small principal role in Patience
and resigned from his office post. In 1883, he played the Lord Chancellor in a tour of Iolanthe
.
Thornton left the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
in 1884 and began a long series of tours of Australia in stage comedies, notably The Private Secretary
, interspersed with appearances in burlesques, farces and other plays on the London stage and on tour. He rejoined D'Oyly Carte in the 1890s in London and on tour, and later returned to touring Australia in comedies including Charley's Aunt
.
and Richard Temple.
Thornton first appeared on stage as the Foreman in a production of Trial by Jury
in 1877. In the same year, he was invited to audition for Richard D'Oyly Carte
's forthcoming production of The Sorcerer
at the Opera Comique
and was considered for the leading role of John Wellington Wells, but Grossmith was preferred, and Thornton was offered the position of understudy.
(1878), he understudied both Grossmith (as Sir Joseph Porter) and Temple (as Dick Deadeye). When Grossmith's father suffered a fatal collapse, Thornton took over in mid-performance to allow his colleague to go to his father. He played Sir Joseph and Deadeye at other times during the run. He had roles in short companion pieces, Cups and Saucers
, After All!
, and In the Sulks
. During the run of the next Gilbert and Sullivan
opera, The Pirates of Penzance
, Thornton understudied, and occasionally played, the principal roles of General Stanley and Samuel. During these four years, he continued to keep his office job, contriving to keep his managers there ignorant of his theatrical work: "A coat or hat conspicuously displayed often served to encourage the belief that he was 'somewhere about' the great warehouse when, in fact, he had rushed away to the Opera Comique for a rehearsal."
In 1881, Thornton created the small principal role of Major Murgatroyd in the new Gilbert and Sullivan opera Patience
. He at last felt able to resign his office job, where he felt his prospects were limited. He also occasionally deputised for Grossmith as Bunthorne and took a role for a time in the curtain raiser Uncle Samuel
. In 1882, he realised an ambition to act in a strong serious dramatic role. For Florence Terry's farewell performance, a revival of W. S. Gilbert
's play Broken Hearts
was billed. A strong cast was chosen, including Terry's sister Marion Terry
, May Fortescue
and Julia Gwynne
, but the two actors who had previously played the role of the misanthropic dwarf Mousta were unavailable. Thornton asked to play the part. "What, Major Murgatroyd?" said Gilbert, thinking the idea preposterous, but he gave Thornton a chance and was impressed. Thornton again appeared in Broken Hearts at his own benefit performance at the Savoy Theatre
in February 1883. The theatrical newspaper The Era
wrote, "Mr Frank Thornton's usual line of characters could hardly have prepared the audience for the strength and passion he infused into the part of Mousta." At the benefit, among other items, Grossmith premiered his musical sketch, The Drama on Crutches.
Thornton continued as Grossmith's understudy as the Lord Chancellor in the next Savoy opera
, Iolanthe
, but when the production went on tour in 1883, Thornton was given the role, also serving as stage manager for the touring company. In 1884 Carte sent him to New York to supervise the first American production of Princess Ida
. The theatrical newspaper, The Era, reported, "The complete and effective manner in which Princess Ida has been put on the stage at the Fifth-avenue Theatre
, New York, is due to the taste, experience and indefatigable labours of Mr Frank Thornton of the Savoy, who was sent out by Mr Carte especially to superintend the production."
The Private Secretary
to produce the piece and play the part of the Rev Robert Spalding in New York. The production ran until April 1885, after which Thornton briefly returned to London. He played Spalding in the London production for a week, to give the regular performer, W. S. Penley
, a brief holiday during its long West End
run, and then sailed for Sydney, having secured the Australasian production rights to The Private Secretary. His tour of over 16,000 miles through Australia and New Zealand with the play "proved the greatest success ever scored in the Antipodes". During his first visit to Australia, he also appeared as the Lord Chancellor in Iolanthe and as John Wellington Wells in the first Australian production of The Sorcerer in 1886 and as the Learned Judge in Trial.
Thornton played Lurcher in Alfred Cellier
's Dorothy
on tour both in Britain and Australia. His performance was described by the critic of The Western Mail
as "quaint and excruciatingly funny; a thing to be seen and remembered." He then returned to the London stage, playing Quasimodo in a "melodramatic burlesque" of Victor Hugo
, Miss Esmeralda, with Marion Hood
and Letty Lind
, and, later, Sybil Grey
at the Gaiety Theatre
. He received good notices for this production, but was less well reviewed in his next role, as an amateur detective in the farce A Mare's Nest, of which The Era wrote, "he made it rather grim and repulsive than humorous." He was judged back on form in a double bill of farce, Lot 49, and the burlesque Frankenstein, or The Vampire's Victim
, at the Gaiety in January 1888, with Nellie Farren
and Sybil Grey.
In September 1888 he assembled a company and sailed once again to Australia, with a repertory of four comedies, Mamma by Sydney Grundy
, Bonny Boy, Sweet Lavender by Arthur Wing Pinero
, and The Private Secretary. Mamma provoked protest in the pages of The Sydney Morning Herald
, which "considered the play too naughty for Antipodean audiences, and said so very plainly." Thornton invited a Supreme Court judge to attend and say if the criticism was fair, and the judge pronounced in his favour.
and in June 1891 he created the role of Pyjama, the Grand Vizier, in The Nautch Girl
for D'Oyly Carte. After this closed, he toured with the company in The Vicar of Bray
, leaving the company again in 1892. In London, he appeared in La Rosière in 1893 and later in that year he began his third tour of Australia, with Charley's Aunt
and, again, The Private Secretary. On his return to London he appeared in G. Stuart Ogilvie's romantic drama, The Sin of Saint Hulda, with Lewis Waller
. In 1897-98 he made a further tour of Australia with the play, The Strange Adventures of Miss Brown.
In 1899 he starred in a farce, Facing the Music, with Lionel Brough
, and later took the play on tour in the UK. While playing in Belfast in 1900, he collapsed on stage and was forced to take a break from the production. He made another trip to Australia in 1902, having secured the rights to the play The Test Match by Gerald FitzGibbon and Fred Bowyer.
Thornton died in 1918 at the age of 73.
George Grossmith
George Grossmith was an English comedian, writer, composer, actor, and singer. His performing career spanned more than four decades...
in a series of Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
operas from 1877 to 1884.
Thornton began his stage career giving drawing-room entertainments while simultaneously working in a commercial office in London, keeping his theatrical activities secret from his office employers for four years. He was engaged by Richard D'Oyly Carte
Richard D'Oyly Carte
Richard D'Oyly Carte was an English talent agent, theatrical impresario, composer and hotelier during the latter half of the Victorian era...
as understudy to George Grossmith in the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, also playing roles in some of the curtain raiser
Curtain raiser (drama)
A curtain raiser is a performance, stage act, show, actor or performer that opens a show for the main attraction. The term is derived from the act of raising the stage curtain...
s played with the operas. In 1881, he created a small principal role in Patience
Patience (opera)
Patience; or, Bunthorne's Bride, is a comic opera in two acts with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. First performed at the Opera Comique, London, on 23 April 1881, it moved to the 1,292-seat Savoy Theatre on 10 October 1881, where it was the first theatrical production in the...
and resigned from his office post. In 1883, he played the Lord Chancellor in a tour of Iolanthe
Iolanthe
Iolanthe; or, The Peer and the Peri is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It is one of the Savoy operas and is the seventh collaboration of the fourteen between Gilbert and Sullivan....
.
Thornton left the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company was a professional light opera company that staged Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas. The company performed nearly year-round in the UK and sometimes toured in Europe, North America and elsewhere, from the 1870s until it closed in 1982. It was revived in 1988 and...
in 1884 and began a long series of tours of Australia in stage comedies, notably The Private Secretary
The Private Secretary
The Private Secretary is a popular 1883 farce in three acts, by Sir Charles Henry Hawtrey. The play was adapted from the German Der Bibliothekar, a book by Gustav von Moser....
, interspersed with appearances in burlesques, farces and other plays on the London stage and on tour. He rejoined D'Oyly Carte in the 1890s in London and on tour, and later returned to touring Australia in comedies including Charley's Aunt
Charley's Aunt
Charley's Aunt is a farce in three acts written by Brandon Thomas. It broke all historic records for plays of any kind, with an original London run of 1,466 performances....
.
Life and career
Thornton started his career giving drawing-room entertainments in the London area, while working during the day at a merchant's office. Originally unpaid, as his entertainments gained popularity he was able to earn "a modest but useful guinea" and, as a manager, to recruit other entertainers, including George GrossmithGeorge Grossmith
George Grossmith was an English comedian, writer, composer, actor, and singer. His performing career spanned more than four decades...
and Richard Temple.
Thornton first appeared on stage as the Foreman in a production of Trial by Jury
Trial by Jury
Trial by Jury is a comic opera in one act, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was first produced on 25 March 1875, at London's Royalty Theatre, where it initially ran for 131 performances and was considered a hit, receiving critical praise and outrunning its...
in 1877. In the same year, he was invited to audition for Richard D'Oyly Carte
Richard D'Oyly Carte
Richard D'Oyly Carte was an English talent agent, theatrical impresario, composer and hotelier during the latter half of the Victorian era...
's forthcoming production of The Sorcerer
The Sorcerer
The Sorcerer is a two-act comic opera, with a libretto by W. S. Gilbert and music by Arthur Sullivan. It was the British duo's third operatic collaboration. The plot of The Sorcerer is based on a Christmas story, An Elixir of Love, that Gilbert wrote for The Graphic magazine in 1876...
at the Opera Comique
Opera Comique
The Opera Comique was a 19th-century theatre constructed in Westminster, London, between Wych Street and Holywell Street with entrances on the East Strand. It opened in 1870 and was demolished in 1902, to make way for the construction of the Aldwych and Kingsway...
and was considered for the leading role of John Wellington Wells, but Grossmith was preferred, and Thornton was offered the position of understudy.
D'Oyly Carte years
In the production of The Sorcerer he appeared as "the oldest inhabitant" of the village of Ploverleigh. For the first run of H.M.S. PinaforeH.M.S. Pinafore
H.M.S. Pinafore; or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It opened at the Opera Comique in London, England, on 25 May 1878 and ran for 571 performances, which was the second-longest run of any musical...
(1878), he understudied both Grossmith (as Sir Joseph Porter) and Temple (as Dick Deadeye). When Grossmith's father suffered a fatal collapse, Thornton took over in mid-performance to allow his colleague to go to his father. He played Sir Joseph and Deadeye at other times during the run. He had roles in short companion pieces, Cups and Saucers
Cups and Saucers
Cups and Saucers is a one-act "satirical musical sketch" written and composed by George Grossmith. It was first produced in 1876 on tour as a vehicle for Grossmith and Florence Marryat, as part of Entre Nous, their series of piano sketches...
, After All!
After All!
After All! is a one-act comic opera with a libretto by Frank Desprez and music by Alfred Cellier. It was first performed at the Savoy Theatre under the management of Richard D'Oyly Carte, along with H.M.S...
, and In the Sulks
In the Sulks
In the Sulks is a one-act comic opera with a libretto by Frank Desprez and music by Alfred Cellier. It was first performed at the Opera Comique on 21 February 1880; revived 3 April 1880 to 2 April 1881 as a curtain raiser to The Pirates of Penzance, and again from 23 or 25 April to 2 May 1881 and...
. During the run of the next Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
opera, The Pirates of Penzance
The Pirates of Penzance
The Pirates of Penzance; or, The Slave of Duty is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. The opera's official premiere was at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City on 31 December 1879, where the show was well received by both audiences...
, Thornton understudied, and occasionally played, the principal roles of General Stanley and Samuel. During these four years, he continued to keep his office job, contriving to keep his managers there ignorant of his theatrical work: "A coat or hat conspicuously displayed often served to encourage the belief that he was 'somewhere about' the great warehouse when, in fact, he had rushed away to the Opera Comique for a rehearsal."
In 1881, Thornton created the small principal role of Major Murgatroyd in the new Gilbert and Sullivan opera Patience
Patience (opera)
Patience; or, Bunthorne's Bride, is a comic opera in two acts with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. First performed at the Opera Comique, London, on 23 April 1881, it moved to the 1,292-seat Savoy Theatre on 10 October 1881, where it was the first theatrical production in the...
. He at last felt able to resign his office job, where he felt his prospects were limited. He also occasionally deputised for Grossmith as Bunthorne and took a role for a time in the curtain raiser Uncle Samuel
Uncle Samuel
Uncle Samuel is a one-act comic opera with a libretto by Arthur Law and music by George Grossmith. It was first produced at the Opera Comique on 3 May 1881 to 8 October 1881, as companion piece to Patience. The piece also toured from December 1887 to June 1888 as a companion piece to H.M.S...
. In 1882, he realised an ambition to act in a strong serious dramatic role. For Florence Terry's farewell performance, a revival of W. S. Gilbert
W. S. Gilbert
Sir William Schwenck Gilbert was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his fourteen comic operas produced in collaboration with the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan, of which the most famous include H.M.S...
's play Broken Hearts
Broken Hearts
Broken Hearts is a blank verse play by W. S. Gilbert in three acts styled "An entirely original fairy play". It opened at the Royal Court Theatre in London on 9 December 1875, running for three months, and toured the provinces in 1876...
was billed. A strong cast was chosen, including Terry's sister Marion Terry
Marion Terry
Marion Bessie Terry was an English actress. In a career spanning half a century, she played leading roles in more than 125 plays. Always in the shadow of her more famous sister Ellen, Terry nevertheless achieved considerable success in the plays of W. S...
, May Fortescue
May Fortescue
May Fortescue was a singer and actor-manager of the Victorian era and a protégée of playwright W. S. Gilbert. She was a member of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company from 1881 to 1883, when she left the company due to an engagement to a nobleman, young Arthur William Cairns, Lord Garmoyle...
and Julia Gwynne
Julia Gwynne
Julia Gwynne was an English opera singer and actress best remembered for her performances with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company from 1879 to 1883...
, but the two actors who had previously played the role of the misanthropic dwarf Mousta were unavailable. Thornton asked to play the part. "What, Major Murgatroyd?" said Gilbert, thinking the idea preposterous, but he gave Thornton a chance and was impressed. Thornton again appeared in Broken Hearts at his own benefit performance at the Savoy Theatre
Savoy Theatre
The Savoy Theatre is a West End theatre located in the Strand in the City of Westminster, London, England. The theatre opened on 10 October 1881 and was built by Richard D'Oyly Carte on the site of the old Savoy Palace as a showcase for the popular series of comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan,...
in February 1883. The theatrical newspaper The Era
The Era (newspaper)
The Era was a British weekly paper, published from 1838 to 1939. Originally a general newspaper, it became noted for its sports coverage, and later for its theatrical content.-History:...
wrote, "Mr Frank Thornton's usual line of characters could hardly have prepared the audience for the strength and passion he infused into the part of Mousta." At the benefit, among other items, Grossmith premiered his musical sketch, The Drama on Crutches.
Thornton continued as Grossmith's understudy as the Lord Chancellor in the next Savoy opera
Savoy opera
The Savoy Operas denote a style of comic opera that developed in Victorian England in the late 19th century, with W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan as the original and most successful practitioners. The name is derived from the Savoy Theatre, which impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte built to house...
, Iolanthe
Iolanthe
Iolanthe; or, The Peer and the Peri is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It is one of the Savoy operas and is the seventh collaboration of the fourteen between Gilbert and Sullivan....
, but when the production went on tour in 1883, Thornton was given the role, also serving as stage manager for the touring company. In 1884 Carte sent him to New York to supervise the first American production of Princess Ida
Princess Ida
Princess Ida; or, Castle Adamant is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was their eighth operatic collaboration of fourteen. Princess Ida opened at the Savoy Theatre on January 5, 1884, for a run of 246 performances...
. The theatrical newspaper, The Era, reported, "The complete and effective manner in which Princess Ida has been put on the stage at the Fifth-avenue Theatre
Fifth Avenue Theatre
Fifth Avenue Theatre was a Broadway theatre in New York City in the United States located at 31 West 28th Street and Broadway. It was demolished in 1939....
, New York, is due to the taste, experience and indefatigable labours of Mr Frank Thornton of the Savoy, who was sent out by Mr Carte especially to superintend the production."
Overseas tours and West End shows
In 1884 Thornton was engaged by the holder of the American production rights to the farceFarce
In theatre, a farce is a comedy which aims at entertaining the audience by means of unlikely, extravagant, and improbable situations, disguise and mistaken identity, verbal humour of varying degrees of sophistication, which may include word play, and a fast-paced plot whose speed usually increases,...
The Private Secretary
The Private Secretary
The Private Secretary is a popular 1883 farce in three acts, by Sir Charles Henry Hawtrey. The play was adapted from the German Der Bibliothekar, a book by Gustav von Moser....
to produce the piece and play the part of the Rev Robert Spalding in New York. The production ran until April 1885, after which Thornton briefly returned to London. He played Spalding in the London production for a week, to give the regular performer, W. S. Penley
W. S. Penley
William Sydney Penley was an English actor, singer and comedian best remembered as producer and star of the phenomenally successful 1892 Brandon Thomas farce, Charley's Aunt and as the Reverend Robert Spalding in many productions of The Private Secretary.-Life and career:Penley was born at...
, a brief holiday during its long West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
run, and then sailed for Sydney, having secured the Australasian production rights to The Private Secretary. His tour of over 16,000 miles through Australia and New Zealand with the play "proved the greatest success ever scored in the Antipodes". During his first visit to Australia, he also appeared as the Lord Chancellor in Iolanthe and as John Wellington Wells in the first Australian production of The Sorcerer in 1886 and as the Learned Judge in Trial.
Thornton played Lurcher in Alfred Cellier
Alfred Cellier
Alfred Cellier was an English composer, orchestrator and conductor.In addition to conducting and music directing the original productions of several of the most famous Gilbert and Sullivan works and writing the overtures to some of them, Cellier conducted at many theatres in London, New York and...
's Dorothy
Dorothy (opera)
Dorothy is a comic opera in three acts with music by Alfred Cellier and a libretto by B. C. Stephenson. The story involves a rake who falls in love with his disguised fiancée.It was first produced at the Gaiety Theatre in London on in 1886...
on tour both in Britain and Australia. His performance was described by the critic of The Western Mail
Western Mail (Western Australia)
The Western Mail, or Western Mail, was the name of two weekly newspapers published in Perth, Western Australia.-West Australian newspapers:...
as "quaint and excruciatingly funny; a thing to be seen and remembered." He then returned to the London stage, playing Quasimodo in a "melodramatic burlesque" of Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....
, Miss Esmeralda, with Marion Hood
Marion Hood
Marion Hood was an English soprano who performed in opera and musical theatre in the last decades of the 19th century...
and 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....
, and, later, Sybil Grey
Sybil Grey
Sybil Grey was a British opera singer during the Victorian era best known for creating a series of minor roles in productions by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, including roles in several of the famous Gilbert and Sullivan operas, between 1880 to 1888...
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...
. He received good notices for this production, but was less well reviewed in his next role, as an amateur detective in the farce A Mare's Nest, of which The Era wrote, "he made it rather grim and repulsive than humorous." He was judged back on form in a double bill of farce, Lot 49, and the burlesque 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...
, at the Gaiety in January 1888, with 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...
and Sybil Grey.
In September 1888 he assembled a company and sailed once again to Australia, with a repertory of four comedies, Mamma by Sydney Grundy
Sydney Grundy
Sydney Grundy was an English dramatist. Most of his works were adaptations of European plays, and many became successful enough to tour throughout the English-speaking world...
, Bonny Boy, Sweet Lavender by Arthur Wing Pinero
Arthur Wing Pinero
Sir Arthur Wing Pinero was an English actor and later an important dramatist and stage director.-Biography:...
, and The Private Secretary. Mamma provoked protest in the pages of The Sydney Morning Herald
The Sydney Morning Herald
The Sydney Morning Herald is a daily broadsheet newspaper published by Fairfax Media in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1831 as the Sydney Herald, the SMH is the oldest continuously published newspaper in Australia. The newspaper is published six days a week. The newspaper's Sunday counterpart, The...
, which "considered the play too naughty for Antipodean audiences, and said so very plainly." Thornton invited a Supreme Court judge to attend and say if the criticism was fair, and the judge pronounced in his favour.
Return to D'Oyly Carte and later years
Thornton returned to England in September 1890,and in June 1891 he created the role of Pyjama, the Grand Vizier, in The Nautch Girl
The Nautch Girl
thumb|right|250px|Solomon , with Gilbert and Sullivan irate at his success at the SavoyThe Nautch Girl, or, The Rajah of Chutneypore is a comic opera in two acts, with a book by George Dance, lyrics by Dance and Frank Desprez and music by Edward Solomon...
for D'Oyly Carte. After this closed, he toured with the company in The Vicar of Bray
The Vicar of Bray (opera)
The Vicar of Bray is a comic opera by Edward Solomon with a libretto by Sydney Grundy which opened at the Globe Theatre, in London, on 22 July 1882, for a run of only 69 performances. The public was not amused at a clergyman's being made the subject of ridicule, and the opera was regarded by some...
, leaving the company again in 1892. In London, he appeared in La Rosière in 1893 and later in that year he began his third tour of Australia, with Charley's Aunt
Charley's Aunt
Charley's Aunt is a farce in three acts written by Brandon Thomas. It broke all historic records for plays of any kind, with an original London run of 1,466 performances....
and, again, The Private Secretary. On his return to London he appeared in G. Stuart Ogilvie's romantic drama, The Sin of Saint Hulda, with Lewis Waller
Lewis Waller
William Lewis Waller was an English actor and theatre manager. His father was a civil engineer.Born in Spain, he first appeared on the London stage in 1883, at Tooles, and for some years added to his reputation as a capable actor...
. In 1897-98 he made a further tour of Australia with the play, The Strange Adventures of Miss Brown.
In 1899 he starred in a farce, Facing the Music, with Lionel Brough
Lionel Brough
Lionel Brough was a British actor and comedian. After beginning a journalistic career and performing as an amateur, he became a professional actor, performing mostly in Liverpool during the mid-1860s...
, and later took the play on tour in the UK. While playing in Belfast in 1900, he collapsed on stage and was forced to take a break from the production. He made another trip to Australia in 1902, having secured the rights to the play The Test Match by Gerald FitzGibbon and Fred Bowyer.
Thornton died in 1918 at the age of 73.