Nellie Stewart
Encyclopedia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n actress and singer, known as "Our Nell" and "Sweet Nell".
Born into a theatrical family, Stewart began acting as a child. As a young woman, she built a career playing in 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:...
and 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. In the mid-1880s, she began a long relationship with the theatrical manager, George Musgrove
George Musgrove
George Musgrove was an English-born Australian theatre producer.-Early life:Musgrove was born at Surbiton, England, the son of Thomas John Watson Musgrove, an accountant, and his wife, Fanny Hodson, an actress and sister of Georgiana Rosa Hodson who married William Saurin Lyster...
. In the 1890s, Stewart had fewer successful roles. Overwork had taken a toll on her voice, and she took several years off from performing, giving birth to a daughter with Musgrove.
In 1902, Stewart had one of her greatest successes in the title role in Sweet Nell of Old Drury, and found another success at the end of the decade in Sweet Kitty Bellairs. After this, she continued to perform in both comedy and drama, and worked in theatre management, through the 1920s.
Life and career
Eleanor Towzey (Nellie) Stewart was born in SydneySydney
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 20 November 1858. Her father, Richard Stewart (originally Towsey)(c. 1826–1902), was an actor and singer who, in 1857, married Mrs. Guerin, née Theodosia Yates, a great-granddaughter of the famous actor and actress Richard Yates and Mary Ann Yates. Nellie's mother came to Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
in 1840 and took leading parts in opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
. She played the title role in Maritana
Maritana
Maritana is a grand opera in three acts composed by William Vincent Wallace, with a libretto by Edward Fitzball . The opera is based on the play Don César de Bazan by Adolphe d'Ennery and Philippe François Pinel Dumanoir , which was also the source material for Jules Massenet's opéra comique Don...
when the opera was first produced at Sydney. Her two daughters by Guerin were well known on the Australian stage as Docie (born Docy) and Maggie Stewart. The theatre was thus in Nellie Stewart's blood, but she was brought up strictly. The family had moved to 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...
where Nellie went first to the old model school, and afterwards for a time to a boarding-school. She was taught fencing by her father, dancing by Henry Leopold and, later on, singing by David Miranda, father of Lalla Miranda.
Early career
At about five years of age, Stewart played a juvenile role with Charles KeanCharles Kean
Charles John Kean , was born at Waterford, Ireland, the son of the actor Edmund Kean.After preparatory education at Worplesdon and at Greenford, near Harrow, he was sent to Eton College, where he remained three years...
in The Stranger, and as the years went on took children's parts in 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...
. In 1877 she sang and danced through seven parts in a family production called Rainbow Revels, and in 1878 she played Ralph Rackstraw in an early production in Melbourne of H.M.S. Pinafore
H.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...
. In the following year she was a member of her father's company which toured India, and then went on to the United States to play a small town tour.
Towards the end of 1880, she received an offer to play the principal boy in Sinbad the Sailor at Melbourne, which she accepted, and the pantomime had great success, running for 14 weeks and earning Stewart some recognition. In 1881 she was Griolet in La fille du tambour-major
La fille du tambour-major
La fille du tambour-major is an opéra comique, or operetta, in three acts by Jacques Offenbach. The French libretto was written by Alfred Duru and Henri Charles Chivot ....
and the Countess in Olivette. During the next 13 years, Stuart was to take leading parts in 35 comic opera
Comic opera
Comic opera denotes a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending.Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a new operatic genre, opera buffa, emerged as an alternative to opera seria...
s. In December 1883, she played the title role in 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...
's 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...
. As principal boy in the following Christmas pantomime, Stewart was careless when climbing the beanstalk, fell and broke her arm, had it set in the theatre, and completed the part. Forty years later, she recorded that her understudies seldom had an opportunity to appear.
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...
, Phyllis in 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....
, Yum-Yum in The Mikado
The Mikado
The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations...
, the title role in 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...
and Clairette in La fille de Madame Angot
La fille de Madame Angot
La fille de Madame Angot is an opéra comique in three acts by Charles Lecocq. The French text was by Clairville, Paul Siraudin and Victor Koning.-Performance history:...
. She was a great favourite with the public, but her immense vitality led to restlessness and mannerisms which were commented on by the more intelligent of her critics, whom she afterwards thanked in her autobiography. About this time she formed an association with the well-known theatrical manager, George Musgrove
George Musgrove
George Musgrove was an English-born Australian theatre producer.-Early life:Musgrove was born at Surbiton, England, the son of Thomas John Watson Musgrove, an accountant, and his wife, Fanny Hodson, an actress and sister of Georgiana Rosa Hodson who married William Saurin Lyster...
, which lasted until his death. She had an unbounded affection and admiration for him, and he was the "great and good man" to whose memory she dedicated her autobiography My Life Story.
In 1887 she retired from the stage for 12 months and went to London with Musgrove, returning to Australia in January 1888 to play in 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...
, with the composer, 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...
, conducting. In March 1888 she sang Marguerite in Charles Gounod
Charles Gounod
Charles-François Gounod was a French composer, known for his Ave Maria as well as his operas Faust and Roméo et Juliette.-Biography:...
's Faust
Faust (opera)
Faust is a drame lyrique in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part 1...
at Melbourne for 24 consecutive nights, an extraordinary feat, but it was probably the beginning of the overstraining of her voice, which some years later she was to lose altogether. In April 1888 she played Elsie in The Yeoman of the Guard, at a salary of £15 a week, her highest salary up to that time.
In 1889 she played for a successful season in Paul Jones. She then went to London and played Susan in the unsuccessful Blue-eyed Susan, a burlesque written by George Robert Sims
George Robert Sims
George Robert Sims was an English journalist, poet, dramatist, novelist and bon vivant.Sims began writing lively humour and satiric pieces for Fun magazine and The Referee, but he was soon concentrating on social reform, particularly the plight of the poor in London's slums...
. The play was not a good one, and Stewart had difficulty overcoming her nervousness in London, seldom singing her best there. She felt depressed and later wrote that she was unable to give her natural vivacity full play. She retired for two additional years, during which time she gave birth to a daughter, Nancye Doris Stewart (1893–1973), the child of her lover Musgrove, before returning to Australia. In September 1893, Stewart began playing a repertoire of nine operas including Gianetta in The Gondoliers
The Gondoliers
The Gondoliers; or, The King of Barataria is a Savoy Opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 7 December 1889 and ran for a very successful 554 performances , closing on 30 June 1891...
and the title role in La Cigale. During the next two years, the principal parts in Ma Mié Rosette and Mam'zelle Nitouche
Mam'zelle Nitouche
Mam'zelle Nitouche is a vaudeville-opérette by Hervé. The libretto was by Henri Meilhac and Albert Millaud.-Performance history:It was first performed at the Théâtre des Variétés, Paris on 26 January 1883.- Roles :-Synopsis:...
were among Stewart's successes.
Later career
The Belle of New York (theatre)
The Belle of New York is a musical comedy in two acts, with book and lyrics by Hugh Morton and music by Gustave Kerker, about a Salvation Army girl who reforms a spendthrift, makes a great sacrifice and finds true love....
with Edna May
Edna May
Edna May Pettie , known on stage as Edna May, was an American actress and singer. A popular postcard beauty, May was famous for her leading roles in Edwardian Musical Comedies.- Life and career :...
in the principal part. Stewart returned to the stage at Christmas 1899 as principal boy in the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is a West End theatre in Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster, a borough of London. The building faces Catherine Street and backs onto Drury Lane. The building standing today is the most recent in a line of four theatres at the same location dating back to 1663,...
pantomime, The Forty Thieves. Her salary was £50 a week, and she felt a special pleasure in working in a theatre with the associations of Drury Lane. She was cast as principal boy in the following year, but became ill on the opening day and returned to Melbourne soon afterwards.
When the Duke
George V of the United Kingdom
George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....
and Duchess of York
Mary of Teck
Mary of Teck was the queen consort of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, as the wife of King-Emperor George V....
came to Australia to open the first federal parliament
Parliament of Australia
The Parliament of Australia, also known as the Commonwealth Parliament or Federal Parliament, is the legislative branch of the government of Australia. It is bicameral, largely modelled in the Westminster tradition, but with some influences from the United States Congress...
, Stewart sang the ode "Australia" at the beginning of the musical programme. In February 1902 she had one of the greatest parts in her career, Nell Gwynne in Sweet Nell of Old Drury. Other comedy parts followed in Mice and Men and Zaza. It was in the last play that Stewart reached her largest salary, £80 a week.
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
. It was intended to work over to New York, but the 1906 San Francisco earthquake
1906 San Francisco earthquake
The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 was a major earthquake that struck San Francisco, California, and the coast of Northern California at 5:12 a.m. on Wednesday, April 18, 1906. The most widely accepted estimate for the magnitude of the earthquake is a moment magnitude of 7.9; however, other...
compelled the company to abandon the tour, all the scenery for the repertoire season having been destroyed. Miss Stewart returned to Australia, but it was not until 1909 that she had another success in Sweet Kitty Bellairs, which was alternated with Zaza, Rosalind in As You Like It, and Sweet Nell, over a long season. In March 1910 she essayed a part in pure comedy, Maggie Wylie in What Every Woman Knows, in which the actress's own charm successfully grappled with the problem of playing the part of a woman supposed to have none. This was succeeded by Princess Mary in the costume play, When Knighthood was in Flower, and a successful performance of the title role in Trilby. She also made her sole film in 1911, reprising her stage success as the title character in Sweet Nell of Old Drury
Sweet Nell of Old Drury
Sweet Nell of Old Drury is a 1911 Australian silent film directed by Raymond Longford about the relationship between Nell Gwynne and King Charles II. It is based on the 1900 play of the same name by Paul Kester...
for director Raymond Longford
Raymond Longford
Raymond Longford was a prolific Australian film director, writer, producer and actor during the silent era. Longford was a major director of the silent film era of the Australian cinema. He formed a production team with Lottie Lyell...
.
A lean period followed and the effect of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
on the theatres led to Stewart losing practically all her savings. In January 1916 she was deeply depressed by grief over the death of George Musgrove, until she was persuaded by Hugh Donald McIntosh
Hugh D. McIntosh
Hugh Donald "Huge Deal" McIntosh was an Australian show-business entrepreneur born to parents of Scottish and Irish origin and modest means in Sydney's Surry Hills, then a ramshackle suburb with a reputation for crime and vice among the largely Irish immigrant population. His policeman father Hugh...
to take up work again in a condensed version of Sweet Nell at the Tivoli Theatre
Tivoli Theatre
Tivoli Theatre is the name of a number of notable theatres:in Asia*Tivoli Theatre , Indiain Australia*Tivoli Theatre , Australia*Tivoli Theatre , Australiain Europa*Teatro Tívoli, Barcelona, Spain...
. He also employed her to help in the production of the London hits Chu Chin Chow
Chu Chin Chow
Chu Chin Chow is a musical comedy written, produced and directed by Oscar Asche, with music by Frederic Norton, based on the story of Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves...
and The Lilac Domino
The Lilac Domino
Der lila Domino is an operetta in three acts by Charles Cuvillier. The original German libretto is by Emmerich von Gatti and Béla Jenbach, about a gambling count who falls in love at a masquerade ball with a noblewoman wearing a lilac domino mask.The operetta achieved far greater popularity in...
. Later on she did similar work for J. C. Williamson Limited.
In 1923 Stewart published her autobiography, My Life's Story, an interesting record of her life. In later years she made occasional appearances for charities, on one occasion at over 60 years of age playing Romeo in the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
to the Juliet of her daughter, Nancye. When nearly 70 years of age she played an astonishing revival of Sweet Nell of Old Drury, and took the emotional part of Cavallini in Romance in July 1930. She died after a short illness at the age of 72. She was survived by her daughter, Nancye.
Stewart held a place by herself on the Australian stage. Beautiful in face and figure, full of vivacity, a natural actress, she had also an excellent soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
voice which she lost in middle life probably from over-working it. She took her art seriously, lived carefully and never lost her figure. She had unusual success at playing "younger" parts late in life. She had great versatility, and after being for many years at the head of her profession in Australia in light opera, she was able, after the loss of her voice, to take leading parts in non-musical comedy and drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
. Though not judged a great actress, she was an effective one in both emotional and comic parts. Her autobiography displays a woman of charming character, kindly, appreciative of the good work of others, and free from the petty jealousies often associated with stage life. She had the admiration, affection and respect of Australian playgoers, both men and women, for 50 years.
Recognition
In 1989 Stewart was honoured, together with Williamson, on a postage stampPostage stamp
A postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...
issued by Australia Post
Australia Post
Australia Post is the trading name of the Australian Government-owned Australian Postal Corporation .-History:...
. Her portrait is at the National Gallery of Victoria
National Gallery of Victoria
The National Gallery of Victoria is an art gallery and museum in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is the oldest and the largest public art gallery in Australia. Since December 2003, NGV has operated across two sites...
, Melbourne.
External links
- Nellie Stewart Collection in the Performing Arts Collection, the Arts Centre, Melbourne (costumes, news clippings, photographs, programmes, record sleeves etc.)
- A Nellie Stewart theatre poster at the State Library of TasmaniaState Library of TasmaniaThe State Library of Tasmania is the organisation which runs the library system in the state of Tasmania, Australia. The State Library operates as part of the Tasmanian Department of Education, and maintains close ties with Tasmanian schools and senior secondary colleges.The headquarters of the...
image collection.