Little Jack Sheppard
Encyclopedia
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
. The comedy lampooned the serious plays based on the life of Jack Sheppard
, especially the popular 1839 play by John Buckstone, which was in turn based on the novel
of that year by William Harrison Ainsworth
.
The piece opened at the Gaiety Theatre
in London on 26 December 1885 and initially ran for 155 performances. It featured Nellie Farren
as Jack Sheppard
, Fred Leslie as Jonathan Wild
, David James
as Blueskin. Marion Hood
and Sylvia Grey
. Other cast members included Willie Warde
, who also choreographed the dances. The piece was presented in the U.S. and Australia in 1886 and was given revivals and extensive tours in Britain for nearly a decade.
This production was to be John Hollingshead
's last burlesque at the Gaiety Theatre, and George Edwardes
joined as his co-producer. Hollingshead had created a popular following at the Gaiety Theatre for musical burlesque. Other examples include The Bohemian G-yurl and the Unapproachable Pole (1877), Blue Beard (1882), Ariel (1883, by F. C. Burnand), and Galatea, or Pygmalion Reversed
(1883). Beginning with Little Jack Sheppard, however, Hollingshead's successor, George Edwardes, expanded the format of the burlesqes to full-length pieces with original music by Meyer Lutz
, instead of scores compiled from popular tunes. These included Monte Cristo Jr (1886); Pretty Esmeralda (1887), Frankenstein, or The Vampire's Victim
(1887), Mazeppa, Faust up to Date
(1888), Ruy Blas and the Blasé Roué
(1888), Carmen up to Data
(1890), Cinder Ellen up too Late
(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 Edwardes, whom he had hired in 1885. Nellie Farren
, as the theatre's "principal boy", and Fred Leslie starred at the Gaiety for over 20 years. Leslie 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
.
Many works of literature and theatre have been based on Sheppard's life. Perhaps the most prominent theatrical work is John Gay
's The Beggar's Opera
(1728). Sheppard was the inspiration for the character of Macheath, and his nemesis, Peachum, is based on Jonathan Wild. A melodrama, Jack Sheppard, The Housebreaker, or London in 1724, by William Thomas Moncrieff
was published in 1825. Ainsworth's popular novel was published in Bentley's Miscellany
from January 1839, with illustrations by George Cruikshank
. Ainsworth's novel was adapted into a successful play by John Buckstone. The Ainsworth and Buckstone versions portrayed Sheppard as a swashbucking hero, and the fear that young people might emulate Sheppard's behaviour led the Lord Chamberlain
to ban, at least in London, the licensing of any plays
with "Jack Sheppard" in the title for forty years.
in London on 26 December 1885 and ran for 155 performances. It featured Nellie Farren
as Jack Sheppard
, Fred Leslie as Jonathan Wild
, David James
as Blueskin and Marion Hood
as Winifred Other cast members included Willie Warde
(who also choreographed the dances) and Sylvia Grey
. The production marked the first appearances at the Gaiety of David James and Fred Leslie, and it was Marion Hood's first appearance in burlesque. Leslie introduced parodic elements caricaturing Oscar Wilde
into his portrayal of Jonathan Wild In June 1886, the production was moved from the Gaiety to the less fashionable Grand Theatre, Islington
, to make way for Henry E. Dixey
's company. A new cast was engaged for the Islington production, while a touring company including most of the original principals took the piece around the English provinces. In December 1886, the touring company, still led by Farren and Leslie, returned to London and took over at the Grand Theatre.
The piece was produced in New York in 1886 at The Bijou Theatre and had its Australian premiere in Melbourne
in December 1886 at the Opera House, with Fanny Robina as Jack and Lionel Brough
as Wild. In 1887, a second English touring production was launched, with a new cast. Little Jack Sheppard continued to play in the provinces until late 1891. It was revived at the Gaiety in 1894, with a cast including Ellaline Terriss
and Seymour Hicks
.
, 2 January 1886, was as follows:
Act I
"After a preliminary chorus of rustics, introducing the now threadbare allusion to three acres and a cow, we have the musical courtship of fascinating Winifred Wood and her lover Thames Darrell. Thames is being persecuted by his wicked uncle Sir Rowland Trenchard who has enlisted Jonathan Wild in his pay, and the latter presently brings his chorus of pretty Janissaries upon the scene. An attempt is made to seize Thames, who is, however, rescued by Jack and Blueskin, aided by an army of blue satin-clad swell mobsmen."
Act II
"The second act shows Jack carousing with his boon companions in a hall gorgeous enough to be Aladdin's Palace, but which is understood to be merely the 'cave of harmony' at the 'Crown and Sovereign' in the Mint. Here Blueskin presides over a free-and-easy with all the genial aplomb of a music hall chairman, and obliges the company with a spirited rendering of the quaint old ditty 'Botany Bay', which is, of course, given with the time-honoured whistling variations in the chorus. The 'harmony of the evening' is now rudely disturbed by Wild and his janissaries who, this time assisted by the military, take Jack prisoner."
Act III
"The third act transports us to the interior of Newgate, where we find Jack carving his name on the walls of the condemned cell, and keeping up his spirits by engaging in a duet and a pas de deux with his jailer, Wild. Blueskin now contrives to enter the prison in the guise of a turnkey, and with his help Jack effects his escape, the series of scenes in which the pair are shown traversing the cells and scaling the walls being apparently intended as a parody of the present fashion of mechanical scene changes.
"The final meet of all the characters takes place on Willesden green, where Wild and Sir Rowland are denounced as Jacobite
s by Jack, who receives as a reward the King's pardon, and forthwith marries the girl of his choice."
Chorus of Peasants, Janissaries, Blueboys, Jacobites, Bridesmaids and Soldiers
The musical numbers were composed by Meyer Lutz, except as otherwise indicated:
Melodrama
The term melodrama refers to a dramatic work that exaggerates plot and characters in order to appeal to the emotions. It may also refer to the genre which includes such works, or to language, behavior, or events which resemble them...
written by Henry Pottinger Stephens
Henry Pottinger Stephens
Henry Pottinger Stephens, also known as Henry Beauchamp , was an English dramatist and journalist. With a variety of partners, he wrote burlesques, comic operas and musical comedies that briefly rivalled the Savoy Operas in popular esteem.-Life and career:"Pot" Stephens was born in Barrow-on-Soar,...
and William Yardley
William Yardley (cricketer)
William Yardley was an English cricketer who played first-class cricket for Kent from 1868 to 1878 and for Cambridge University from 1869 to 1872. In the early 1870s, only WG Grace was reckoned his superior amongst amateur batsmen...
, with music 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....
, with songs contributed by Florian Pascal, Corney Grain
Richard Corney Grain
Richard Corney Grain , known by his stage name Corney Grain, was an entertainer and songwriter of the late Victorian era.-Biography:...
, Arthur Cecil
Arthur Cecil
Arthur Cecil Blunt, better known as Arthur Cecil was an English actor, comedian, playwright and theatre manager. He is probably best remembered for playing the role of Box in the long-running production of Cox and Box, by Arthur Sullivan and F. C...
, Michael Watson, Henry J. Leslie, 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...
and Hamilton Clarke
Hamilton Clarke
James Hamilton Siree Clarke , better known as Hamilton Clarke, was an English conductor, composer and organist...
. The comedy lampooned the serious plays based on the life of Jack Sheppard
Jack Sheppard
Jack Sheppard was a notorious English robber, burglar and thief of early 18th-century London. Born into a poor family, he was apprenticed as a carpenter but took to theft and burglary in 1723, with little more than a year of his training to complete...
, especially the popular 1839 play by John Buckstone, which was in turn based on the novel
Jack Sheppard (novel)
Jack Sheppard is a novel by William Harrison Ainsworth serially published in Bentley's Miscellany from 1839 to 1840, with illustrations by George Cruikshank...
of that year by William Harrison Ainsworth
William Harrison Ainsworth
William Harrison Ainsworth was an English historical novelist born in Manchester. He trained as a lawyer, but the legal profession held no attraction for him. While completing his legal studies in London he met the publisher John Ebers, at that time manager of the King's Theatre, Haymarket...
.
The piece opened 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 on 26 December 1885 and initially ran for 155 performances. It featured 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...
as Jack Sheppard
Jack Sheppard
Jack Sheppard was a notorious English robber, burglar and thief of early 18th-century London. Born into a poor family, he was apprenticed as a carpenter but took to theft and burglary in 1723, with little more than a year of his training to complete...
, Fred Leslie as Jonathan Wild
Jonathan Wild
Jonathan Wild was perhaps the most infamous criminal of London — and possibly Great Britain — during the 18th century, both because of his own actions and the uses novelists, playwrights, and political satirists made of them...
, David James
David James (actor)
David James was an English comic actor and one of the founders of London's Vaudeville Theatre.He was born in London to Moses Belasco, a tailor of Sephardic Jewish origin, and Sophia Jacobs...
as Blueskin. 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 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:...
. Other cast members included 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...
, who also choreographed the dances. The piece was presented in the U.S. and Australia in 1886 and was given revivals and extensive tours in Britain for nearly a decade.
Background
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...
's last burlesque at the Gaiety Theatre, and 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....
joined as his co-producer. Hollingshead had created a popular following at the Gaiety Theatre for musical burlesque. Other examples include The Bohemian G-yurl and the Unapproachable Pole (1877), Blue Beard (1882), Ariel (1883, by F. C. Burnand), and Galatea, or Pygmalion Reversed
Galatea, 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). Beginning with Little Jack Sheppard, however, Hollingshead's successor, George Edwardes, expanded the format of the burlesqes to full-length pieces with original music 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....
, instead of scores compiled from popular tunes. These included 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 Blasé Roué
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....
(1890), Cinder Ellen up too Late
Cinder Ellen up too Late
Cinder Ellen up too Late is a musical burlesque written by Frederick Hobson Leslie 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...
(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 Edwardes, whom he had hired in 1885. 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...
, as the theatre's "principal boy", and Fred Leslie starred at the Gaiety for over 20 years. Leslie 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...
.
Many works of literature and theatre have been based on Sheppard's life. Perhaps the most prominent theatrical work is John Gay
John Gay
John Gay was an English poet and dramatist and member of the Scriblerus Club. He is best remembered for The Beggar's Opera , set to music by Johann Christoph Pepusch...
's The Beggar's Opera
The Beggar's Opera
The Beggar's Opera is a ballad opera in three acts written in 1728 by John Gay with music arranged by Johann Christoph Pepusch. It is one of the watershed plays in Augustan drama and is the only example of the once thriving genre of satirical ballad opera to remain popular today...
(1728). Sheppard was the inspiration for the character of Macheath, and his nemesis, Peachum, is based on Jonathan Wild. A melodrama, Jack Sheppard, The Housebreaker, or London in 1724, by William Thomas Moncrieff
William Thomas Moncrieff
William Thomas Moncrieff was an English dramatist.-Biography:He was born in London, the son of a Strand tradesman named Thomas. The name Moncrieff he assumed for theatrical purposes...
was published in 1825. Ainsworth's popular novel was published in Bentley's Miscellany
Bentley's Miscellany
Bentley's Miscellany was an English literary magazine started by Richard Bentley. It was published between 1836 and 1868.-Contributors:Already a successful publisher of novels, Bentley began the journal in 1836 and invited Charles Dickens to be its first editor...
from January 1839, with illustrations by George Cruikshank
George Cruikshank
George Cruikshank was a British caricaturist and book illustrator, praised as the "modern Hogarth" during his life. His book illustrations for his friend Charles Dickens, and many other authors, reached an international audience.-Early life:Cruikshank was born in London...
. Ainsworth's novel was adapted into a successful play by John Buckstone. The Ainsworth and Buckstone versions portrayed Sheppard as a swashbucking hero, and the fear that young people might emulate Sheppard's behaviour led the Lord Chamberlain
Lord Chamberlain
The Lord Chamberlain or Lord Chamberlain of the Household is one of the chief officers of the Royal Household in the United Kingdom and is to be distinguished from the Lord Great Chamberlain, one of the Great Officers of State....
to ban, at least in London, the licensing of any plays
Licensing Act 1737
The Licensing Act or Theatrical Licensing Act of 21 June 1737 was a landmark act of censorship of the British stage and one of the most determining factors in the development of Augustan drama...
with "Jack Sheppard" in the title for forty years.
Productions
Little Jack Sheppard opened at the Gaiety TheatreGaiety 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 on 26 December 1885 and ran for 155 performances. It featured 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...
as Jack Sheppard
Jack Sheppard
Jack Sheppard was a notorious English robber, burglar and thief of early 18th-century London. Born into a poor family, he was apprenticed as a carpenter but took to theft and burglary in 1723, with little more than a year of his training to complete...
, Fred Leslie as Jonathan Wild
Jonathan Wild
Jonathan Wild was perhaps the most infamous criminal of London — and possibly Great Britain — during the 18th century, both because of his own actions and the uses novelists, playwrights, and political satirists made of them...
, David James
David James (actor)
David James was an English comic actor and one of the founders of London's Vaudeville Theatre.He was born in London to Moses Belasco, a tailor of Sephardic Jewish origin, and Sophia Jacobs...
as Blueskin and 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...
as Winifred Other cast members included 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...
(who also choreographed the dances) and 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:...
. The production marked the first appearances at the Gaiety of David James and Fred Leslie, and it was Marion Hood's first appearance in burlesque. Leslie introduced parodic elements caricaturing Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
into his portrayal of Jonathan Wild In June 1886, the production was moved from the Gaiety to the less fashionable Grand Theatre, Islington
Islington
Islington is a neighbourhood in Greater London, England and forms the central district of the London Borough of Islington. It is a district of Inner London, spanning from Islington High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the area around the busy Upper Street...
, to make way for Henry E. Dixey
Henry E. Dixey
Henry E. Dixey was an American actor and theatre producer. He was born January 6, 1859 in Boston, Massachusetts. He made his stage debut in Boston in 1868, joining the variety stock actors at the Howard Athenaeum, where in 1869 he played the character Peanuts in the Augustin Daly play Under the...
's company. A new cast was engaged for the Islington production, while a touring company including most of the original principals took the piece around the English provinces. In December 1886, the touring company, still led by Farren and Leslie, returned to London and took over at the Grand Theatre.
The piece was produced in New York in 1886 at The Bijou Theatre and had its Australian premiere in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
in December 1886 at the Opera House, with Fanny Robina as Jack and 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...
as Wild. In 1887, a second English touring production was launched, with a new cast. Little Jack Sheppard continued to play in the provinces until late 1891. It was revived at the Gaiety in 1894, with a cast including Ellaline Terriss
Ellaline Terriss
Ellaline Terriss, born Ellaline Lewin , was a popular English actress and singer, best known for her performances in Edwardian musical comedies...
and Seymour Hicks
Seymour Hicks
Sir Arthur Seymour Hicks , better known as Seymour Hicks, was a British actor, music hall performer, playwright, screenwriter, theatre manager and producer. He married the actress Ellaline Terriss in 1893...
.
Synopsis
The plot, as reported in The EraThe 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:...
, 2 January 1886, was as follows:
Act I
"After a preliminary chorus of rustics, introducing the now threadbare allusion to three acres and a cow, we have the musical courtship of fascinating Winifred Wood and her lover Thames Darrell. Thames is being persecuted by his wicked uncle Sir Rowland Trenchard who has enlisted Jonathan Wild in his pay, and the latter presently brings his chorus of pretty Janissaries upon the scene. An attempt is made to seize Thames, who is, however, rescued by Jack and Blueskin, aided by an army of blue satin-clad swell mobsmen."
Act II
"The second act shows Jack carousing with his boon companions in a hall gorgeous enough to be Aladdin's Palace, but which is understood to be merely the 'cave of harmony' at the 'Crown and Sovereign' in the Mint. Here Blueskin presides over a free-and-easy with all the genial aplomb of a music hall chairman, and obliges the company with a spirited rendering of the quaint old ditty 'Botany Bay', which is, of course, given with the time-honoured whistling variations in the chorus. The 'harmony of the evening' is now rudely disturbed by Wild and his janissaries who, this time assisted by the military, take Jack prisoner."
Act III
"The third act transports us to the interior of Newgate, where we find Jack carving his name on the walls of the condemned cell, and keeping up his spirits by engaging in a duet and a pas de deux with his jailer, Wild. Blueskin now contrives to enter the prison in the guise of a turnkey, and with his help Jack effects his escape, the series of scenes in which the pair are shown traversing the cells and scaling the walls being apparently intended as a parody of the present fashion of mechanical scene changes.
"The final meet of all the characters takes place on Willesden green, where Wild and Sir Rowland are denounced as Jacobite
Jacobitism
Jacobitism was the political movement in Britain dedicated to the restoration of the Stuart kings to the thrones of England, Scotland, later the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Kingdom of Ireland...
s by Jack, who receives as a reward the King's pardon, and forthwith marries the girl of his choice."
Roles and original cast
The original cast was as follows:- Jack Sheppard – Nellie FarrenNellie FarrenNellie 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...
- Thames Darrell – Mathilde Wadman
- Blueskin – David JamesDavid James (actor)David James was an English comic actor and one of the founders of London's Vaudeville Theatre.He was born in London to Moses Belasco, a tailor of Sephardic Jewish origin, and Sophia Jacobs...
- Jonathan Wild – Fred Leslie
- Sir Rowland Trenchard – Mr. Odell
- Abraham Mendez – F. Wood
- Mr. Kneebone – Willie WardeWillie WardeWillie 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...
- Mr. Wood – Mr. Guise
- Captain Cuff – Emily Duncan
- Shotbolt – Miss Ross
- Marvel – Miss Raines
- Ireton – Emily Robina
- Quilt Arnold – Miss Handley
- Little Gog – Miss Pearce
- Little Magog – Miss Tyler
- Mrs. Sheppard – Harriet Coveney
- Winifred Wood – Marion HoodMarion HoodMarion Hood was an English soprano who performed in opera and musical theatre in the last decades of the 19th century...
- Edgworth Bess – Bessie Sanson
- Polly Stanmore – 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:...
- Kitty Kettleby – Miss Eunice
Chorus of Peasants, Janissaries, Blueboys, Jacobites, Bridesmaids and Soldiers
Musical numbers
- If you take into your head (Duet) – Florian Pascal
- Winifred Wood – Pascal
- A Fairy Tale (Duet) – Hamilton ClarkeHamilton ClarkeJames Hamilton Siree Clarke , better known as Hamilton Clarke, was an English conductor, composer and organist...
- There once was a time, my darling – Alfred CellierAlfred CellierAlfred 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...
- Farewell to Old England
- Polyglot Duet
- Keep the ball a-rolling (Quintet)
- Chorus and march of Janissaries – Pascal
- Jonathan Wild – Arthur CecilArthur CecilArthur Cecil Blunt, better known as Arthur Cecil was an English actor, comedian, playwright and theatre manager. He is probably best remembered for playing the role of Box in the long-running production of Cox and Box, by Arthur Sullivan and F. C...
- Jack's alive 'O
- They call me the Belle of Dollis Hill – Pascal
- You mustn't believe all you hear
- Silver star – Pascal
- Leave the whole business to me (Trio)
- Botany BayBotany Bay (song)"Botany Bay" is a song from the musical burlesque, Little Jack Sheppard, a comedy staged in London, England, in 1885 and Melbourne, Australia, in 1886. The show was written by Henry Pottinger Stephens and William Yardley, though the music for "Botany Bay" was written by Florian Pascal, a pseudonym...
– Pascal - All nations (Duet)
- Chorus of Peasants and Bridesmaids