Robert Courtneidge
Encyclopedia
Robert Courtneidge was a British theatrical manager-producer and playwright. He is best remembered as the co-author of the light opera Tom Jones
(1907) and the producer of The Arcadians
(1909). He was the father of the actress Cicely Courtneidge
, who played in many of his early 20th century productions.
Courtneidge began as a comic actor in the late 1870s, working with Kate Santley
, George Edwardes
and others. In the early 1890s, he toured in Australia with Edwardes and J. C. Williamson
companies. In 1896, he became a theatre manager in Manchester
and then a West End
producer. After the turn of the century, he began to direct musical theatre
pieces and to write or co-write the book for some of his productions, including Tom Jones
(1907). His most popular productions included The Arcadians (1909), Princess Caprice (1912), Oh! Oh! Delphine (1913) and The Cinema Star (1914). He directed the hit musical The Boy
in 1917.
After the war, he presented Paddy the Next Best Thing, which had a long run, and then took a touring company to Australia, presenting a repertory of comedies. In the 1920s, he returned to producing British provincial tours and became the lessee of the Savoy Theatre
, presenting a mixture of productions ranging from Shakespeare to farce. A lifelong socialist, he joined with other managers in campaigning for fair pay and treatment of actors. He also returned briefly to acting. Later in the decade, he presented more West End musicals and operettas, producing his last show in 1930. In 1933 he wrote a novel, Judith Clifford.
, Scotland. He appeared as an amateur actor in Edinburgh
and later in Manchester
. At Christmas 1878 he made his professional debut in the pantomime
Babes in the Wood
at the Prince's Theatre
in Manchester. He toured with the Charles Dillon
and Barry Sullivan
companies, and later with Kate Santley
playing Hamet Abensellah in Vetah (1886). In 1885 he played Mr. Drinkwater in H.J. Byron's Open House, a performance praised by The Manchester Guardian as "a well-studied sketch of a vain and irritable old widower." He made his London debut in 1887 at the Adelphi Theatre
, in The Bells of Haslemere. His other roles included Pepin in Robert Reece
's English version of Auguste Coedes's Girouette (1889) and Major Styx in a Scots musical Pim Pom set in a monkey house at the zoo.
Courtneidge's wife was Rosaline May née Adams (stage name Rosie Nott). She was the daughter of the opera singer Cicely Nott and the sister of three other actresses including Ada Blanche, a well-known pantomime star. In 1892 Courtneidge and his wife went to Australia, where he played comic roles for George Edwardes
's Gaiety
company in the burlesques, Carmen up to Data
, Faust up to Date
, Miss Esmeralda and Joan of Arc. He and his wife remained in Australia during 1893 and 1894; he joined the J. C. Williamson
company, appearing in On' Change, La Mascotte
, Sweet Lavender and Princess Ida
and in pantomime. His daughter Cicely
was born while he and his wife were in Sydney
.
On returning to England, Courtneidge toured with Kate Vaughan and May Fortescue
, and in 1895 he played the Grossmith
role of the Governor in a tour of His Excellency
; The Manchester Guardian wrote, "Mr. Courtneidge … though with very little vocal power, knows how to sing a patter song." By 1896 he had taken part in 19 Christmas pantomimes.
Courtneidge remained in charge of the Prince's Theatre until 1903, but he also gained a footing as a producer and director in the West End
of London. In 1898, he produced the successful George Dance
and Carl Kiefert musical The Gay Grisette. Among his later productions in Manchester was A Midsummer Night's Dream
in 1901, in which Bottom was played by W.H. Denny and the tiny role of Peaseblossom was played by Courtneidge's eight-year-old daughter Cicely, making her stage debut.
On leaving Manchester after seven years, Courtneidge was presented with a scroll inscribed by members of the theatrical profession headed by Henry Irving
and the local community headed by C.P. Scott "to one who has done so much for the honour and dignity of the English stage". His career as a producer-director continued in the West End
. George Edwardes
invited him to direct Ivan Caryll
's comic opera, The Duchess of Dantzic
, in 1903. As an independent West End producer, Courtneidge began in 1905 with The Blue Moon
. He soon began collaborating on the books of musicals that he produced, although in some cases he contributed only the minimum needed to allow him to claim an interest in the copyright and royalties of the piece. Among the works credited to him as co-librettist are The Dairymaids (1906) and Tom Jones
(1907).
In 1909, Courtneidge became lessee of the Shaftesbury Theatre
. In the same year, he had his biggest success, with The Arcadians, which ran for more than 800 performances. This was followed in 1911 by The Mousmé, an oriental piece in a vein already familiar from The Mikado
, The Geisha
and San Toy
. Despite a lavish production, including a spectacular earthquake scene, it was only modestly successful.
In 1912, Courtneidge joined several other theatre managers in opposing an attempt to abolish theatre censorship. The managers believed that a licence from the Lord Chamberlain
to present a piece insured them against legal action by the police, local authority or anyone else. Among those whom Courtneidge joined in this successful opposition were Edwardes, Herbert Beerbohm Tree
, Charles Frohman
, Gerald du Maurier
and Rupert D'Oyly Carte
. In the same year, Courtneidge presented an English version of Leo Fall
's Der liebe Augustin, as Princess Caprice
, with a cast including Courtice Pounds
and Courtneidge's daughter Cicely. There was some feeling in theatrical circles that Cicely's elevation to star status was due more to her being Robert Courtneidge's daughter than to any special talent.
Of Courtneidge's two productions in 1913, Ivan Caryll
's American musical Oh! Oh! Delphine received a strong reception, but the The Pearl Girl was only a moderate success. In 1914 Cicely Courtneidge and Jack Hulbert
starred in The Cinema Star, an adaptation by Hulbert and Harry Graham
of Die Kino-Königin, a 1913 German comic opera by Jean Gilbert
. It was a hit for Courtneidge and ran to full houses at the Shaftesbury Theatre
until Britain and Germany went to war in August 1914; anti-German sentiment brought the run to a premature and abrupt halt. Courtneidge's next shows, My Lady Frayle, Oh, Caesar! and The Light Blues (all 1916, the last of which included a young Noel Coward
in its cast) all failed, and the patriotic operetta Young England was only a modest success.
After these financial setbacks, Courtneidge next produced less expensive extravaganza
s in the provinces, including Oh, Caesar! Petticoat Fair, Fancy Fair (the last two of which he wrote) and Too Many Girls. He directed the hit musical The Boy
(1917) at the Adelphi Theatre
.
. The reviewer of The Times expressed the hope that people in Ireland would not hear of the show: "Ireland has enough grievances to go on with". Nevertheless, the play was a popular success, and ran for 867 performances. Following this, Courtneidge took a touring company to Australia, presenting a repertory of comedies including The Man from Toronto, Somerset Maugham's Home and Beauty, and a work by an Australian author, Saving Grace. Among the company members was Courtneidge's younger daughter Rosaline. He returned to England by way of the U.S., where he presented Paddy the Next Best Thing in New York. Alexander Woolcott in The New York Times
was no more laudatory than his critical counterpart in London, but the play ran well.
In the 1920s Courtneidge returned to producing British provincial tours, including the old-fashioned Gabrielle (1921; composed by George Clutsam
, Archibald Joyce
and others), which was successful for several years. In 1923, he became the lessee of the Savoy, where his first production was The Young Idea by the 22-year-old Coward. He followed this with a mixture of productions ranging from Shakespeare to farce.
During the 1920s, Courtneidge, a lifelong socialist, joined with other managers including Arthur Bourchier
in campaigning for fair pay for chorus members and players of small parts. Many other managements lagged behind in this, for instance not paying salaries during rehearsals. Courtneidge said in 1924, "There is a large section of theatrical managers who will not deal justly. The actor is again forced to the wall, and compelled to fight for his rights." He had earlier resigned from the Actors' Association, of which he had been a founder member, disagreeing with its closed shop
policy, but his indignation at a proposed new standard contract for actors led him to rejoin.
In 1925, Courtneidge returned briefly to acting. After a tryout at his old Manchester theatre, the Prince's, he brought the old farce On 'Change to the Savoy, winning good notices for his performance in the leading role of a vain and touchy Scottish professor, which he had first played in the 1880s. Although Cicely had made her career away from his management since World War I, Courtneidge regularly featured his younger daughter Rosaline in his casts, in such plays as The Sport of Kings (1924) and The Unfair Sex (1925), until her early death in 1926 at the age of 23.
Courtneidge returned to presenting West End musical shows in 1927, directing Lehár
's The Blue Mazurka (1927) with English lyrics by Harry Graham at Daly's Theatre
. His last London musical was The Damask Rose (1930), an attempt to emulate with Chopin
's music the success of Lilac Time
, a piece written around Schubert
's music. The adaptation was by Clutsam (who had adapted Lilac Time), with Courtneidge as co-author of the book. A strong cast included Walter Passmore
, and the piece won friendly notices. His final production was at the Prince's and on tour, a musical, Lavender (1930), with music by Clutsam. In the same year, Courtneidge published his memoirs I was an actor once, and in 1933 he wrote a novel, Judith Clifford.
Courtneidge retired to Brighton
, where he died in 1939 at the age of 79.
Tom Jones (opera)
Tom Jones is a comic opera in three acts by Edward German founded upon Henry Fielding's 1749 novel, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, with a libretto by Robert Courtneidge and Alexander M. Thompson and lyrics by Charles H. Taylor....
(1907) and the producer of The Arcadians
The Arcadians (musical)
The Arcadians is an Edwardian musical comedy styled a "Fantastic Musical Play" in three acts by Mark Ambient and Alexander M. Thompson, with lyrics by Arthur Wimperis and music by Lionel Monckton and Howard Talbot...
(1909). He was the father of the actress Cicely Courtneidge
Cicely Courtneidge
Dame Esmerelda Cicely Courtneidge DBE was an English actress and comedienne. The daughter of the producer Robert Courtneidge, she was appearing in his productions in the West End, by the age of 16, and was quickly promoted from minor to major roles in his Edwardian musical comedies.After the...
, who played in many of his early 20th century productions.
Courtneidge began as a comic actor in the late 1870s, working with Kate Santley
Kate Santley
Kate Santley was an American-born English actress, singer, comedienne, and theatre manager. Her brother was the English baritone, Sir Charles Santley, famous in Wagner's Flying Dutchman among other roles.-Musical theatre career:...
, 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....
and others. In the early 1890s, he toured in Australia with Edwardes and J. C. Williamson
J. C. Williamson
James Cassius Williamson was an American actor and later Australia's foremost theatrical manager, founding J. C. Williamson Ltd....
companies. In 1896, he became a theatre manager in Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
and then a 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...
producer. After the turn of the century, he began to direct musical theatre
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
pieces and to write or co-write the book for some of his productions, including Tom Jones
Tom Jones (opera)
Tom Jones is a comic opera in three acts by Edward German founded upon Henry Fielding's 1749 novel, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, with a libretto by Robert Courtneidge and Alexander M. Thompson and lyrics by Charles H. Taylor....
(1907). His most popular productions included The Arcadians (1909), Princess Caprice (1912), Oh! Oh! Delphine (1913) and The Cinema Star (1914). He directed the hit musical The Boy
The Boy (musical)
The Boy is a musical comedy with a book by Fred Thompson and Percy Greenbank , music by Lionel Monckton and Howard Talbot and lyrics by Greenbank and Adrian Ross...
in 1917.
After the war, he presented Paddy the Next Best Thing, which had a long run, and then took a touring company to Australia, presenting a repertory of comedies. In the 1920s, he returned to producing British provincial tours and became the lessee of 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,...
, presenting a mixture of productions ranging from Shakespeare to farce. A lifelong socialist, he joined with other managers in campaigning for fair pay and treatment of actors. He also returned briefly to acting. Later in the decade, he presented more West End musicals and operettas, producing his last show in 1930. In 1933 he wrote a novel, Judith Clifford.
Early years
Courtneidge was born in GlasgowGlasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, Scotland. He appeared as an amateur actor in Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
and later in Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
. At Christmas 1878 he made his professional debut in the 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...
Babes in the Wood
Babes in the Wood
Babes in the Wood is a traditional children's tale, as well as a popular pantomime subject. It has also been the name of some other unrelated works. The expression has passed into common language, referring to inexperienced innocents entering unawares into any potentially dangerous or hostile...
at the Prince's Theatre
Prince's Theatre, Manchester
The Prince's Theatre in Oxford Street, Manchester, England, was built at a cost of £20,000 in 1864. Under the artistic and managerial leadership of Charles Calvert, "Manchester's most celebrated actor-manager", it soon became a great popular success...
in Manchester. He toured with the Charles Dillon
Charles Dillon
Charles J. Dillon was an English actor-manager and tragedienne.In 1840, he appeared at the City Theatre, London, as Hamlet, giving a performance which attracted some critical attention. He toured extensively, to improve his reputation. Becoming actor-manager of the Theatre Royal, Wolverhampton in...
and Barry Sullivan
Barry Sullivan (stage actor)
Barry Sullivan , was an acclaimed stage actor who played many classical parts in England, Australia and America.-Early life:...
companies, and later with Kate Santley
Kate Santley
Kate Santley was an American-born English actress, singer, comedienne, and theatre manager. Her brother was the English baritone, Sir Charles Santley, famous in Wagner's Flying Dutchman among other roles.-Musical theatre career:...
playing Hamet Abensellah in Vetah (1886). In 1885 he played Mr. Drinkwater in H.J. Byron's Open House, a performance praised by The Manchester Guardian as "a well-studied sketch of a vain and irritable old widower." He made his London debut in 1887 at the Adelphi Theatre
Adelphi Theatre
The Adelphi Theatre is a 1500-seat West End theatre, located on the Strand in the City of Westminster. The present building is the fourth on the site. The theatre has specialised in comedy and musical theatre, and today it is a receiving house for a variety of productions, including many musicals...
, in The Bells of Haslemere. His other roles included Pepin in Robert Reece
Robert Reece
Robert Reece was a British comic playwright and librettist active in the Victorian era. He wrote many successful musical burlesques, comic operas, farces and adaptations from the French, including the English-language adaptation of the operetta Les cloches de Corneville, which became the...
's English version of Auguste Coedes's Girouette (1889) and Major Styx in a Scots musical Pim Pom set in a monkey house at the zoo.
Courtneidge's wife was Rosaline May née Adams (stage name Rosie Nott). She was the daughter of the opera singer Cicely Nott and the sister of three other actresses including Ada Blanche, a well-known pantomime star. In 1892 Courtneidge and his wife went to Australia, where he played comic roles for 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....
's Gaiety
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...
company in the burlesques, 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....
, 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...
, Miss Esmeralda and Joan of Arc. He and his wife remained in Australia during 1893 and 1894; he joined the J. C. Williamson
J. C. Williamson
James Cassius Williamson was an American actor and later Australia's foremost theatrical manager, founding J. C. Williamson Ltd....
company, appearing in On
La mascotte
La mascotte is an opéra comique by Edmond Audran. The French libretto was by Alfred Duru and Henri Charles Chivot. The story concerns a farm girl who is believed to bring good luck to whoever possesses her, so long as she remains a virgin...
, Sweet Lavender and 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 in pantomime. His daughter Cicely
Cicely Courtneidge
Dame Esmerelda Cicely Courtneidge DBE was an English actress and comedienne. The daughter of the producer Robert Courtneidge, she was appearing in his productions in the West End, by the age of 16, and was quickly promoted from minor to major roles in his Edwardian musical comedies.After the...
was born while he and his wife were 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 returning to England, Courtneidge toured with Kate Vaughan and 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 in 1895 he played the Grossmith
George Grossmith
George Grossmith was an English comedian, writer, composer, actor, and singer. His performing career spanned more than four decades...
role of the Governor in a tour of His Excellency
His Excellency (opera)
His Excellency is a two-act comic opera with a libretto by W. S. Gilbert and music by F. Osmond Carr. The piece concerns a practical-joking governor whose pranks threaten to make everyone miserable, until the Prince Regent kindly foils the governor's plans...
; The Manchester Guardian wrote, "Mr. Courtneidge … though with very little vocal power, knows how to sing a patter song." By 1896 he had taken part in 19 Christmas pantomimes.
Management
In 1896 Courtneidge became manager of the Prince's Theatre in Manchester. The following year, reviewing his progress to date, The Manchester Guardian wrote:Courtneidge remained in charge of the Prince's Theatre until 1903, but he also gained a footing as a producer and director in the 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...
of London. In 1898, he produced the successful George Dance
George Dance (dramatist)
George Dance was an English lyricist and librettist in the 1890s and an important theatrical manager at the beginning of the 20th century....
and Carl Kiefert musical The Gay Grisette. Among his later productions in Manchester was A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a play that was written by William Shakespeare. It is believed to have been written between 1590 and 1596. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta...
in 1901, in which Bottom was played by W.H. Denny and the tiny role of Peaseblossom was played by Courtneidge's eight-year-old daughter Cicely, making her stage debut.
On leaving Manchester after seven years, Courtneidge was presented with a scroll inscribed by members of the theatrical profession headed by Henry Irving
Henry Irving
Sir Henry Irving , born John Henry Brodribb, was an English stage actor in the Victorian era, known as an actor-manager because he took complete responsibility for season after season at the Lyceum Theatre, establishing himself and his company as...
and the local community headed by C.P. Scott "to one who has done so much for the honour and dignity of the English stage". His career as a producer-director continued in the 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...
. 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....
invited him to direct Ivan Caryll
Ivan Caryll
Félix Marie Henri Tilkin , better known by his pen name Ivan Caryll, was a Belgian composer of operettas and Edwardian musical comedies in the English language...
's comic opera, The Duchess of Dantzic
The Duchess of Dantzic
The Duchess of Dantzic is a comic opera in three acts, set in Paris, with music by Ivan Caryll and a book and lyrics by Henry Hamilton, based on the play Madame Sans-Gêne by Victorien Sardou and Emile Moreau. Additional lyrics by Adrian Ross...
, in 1903. As an independent West End producer, Courtneidge began in 1905 with The Blue Moon
The Blue Moon (musical)
The Blue Moon is an Edwardian musical comedy with music composed by Howard Talbot and Paul Rubens, lyrics by Percy Greenbank and Rubens and a book by Harold Ellis and by Alexander M. Thompson...
. He soon began collaborating on the books of musicals that he produced, although in some cases he contributed only the minimum needed to allow him to claim an interest in the copyright and royalties of the piece. Among the works credited to him as co-librettist are The Dairymaids (1906) and Tom Jones
Tom Jones (opera)
Tom Jones is a comic opera in three acts by Edward German founded upon Henry Fielding's 1749 novel, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, with a libretto by Robert Courtneidge and Alexander M. Thompson and lyrics by Charles H. Taylor....
(1907).
In 1909, Courtneidge became lessee of the Shaftesbury Theatre
Original Shaftesbury Theatre
The Original Shaftesbury Theatre was a theatre in central London between 1888 and 1941. It was built by John Lancaster for his wife, Ellen Wallis, a well-known Shakespearean actress. The theatre was designed by C. J. Phipps and built by Messrs...
. In the same year, he had his biggest success, with The Arcadians, which ran for more than 800 performances. This was followed in 1911 by The Mousmé, an oriental piece in a vein already familiar from 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 Geisha
The Geisha
The Geisha, a story of a tea house is an Edwardian Musical Comedy in two acts. The score was composed by Sidney Jones to a libretto by Owen Hall, with lyrics by Harry Greenbank. Additional songs were written by Lionel Monckton and James Philip....
and San Toy
San Toy
San Toy, or The Emperor's Own is a "Chinese" musical comedy in two acts, first performed at Daly's Theatre, London, on 21 October 1899, and ran for 768 performances...
. Despite a lavish production, including a spectacular earthquake scene, it was only modestly successful.
In 1912, Courtneidge joined several other theatre managers in opposing an attempt to abolish theatre censorship. The managers believed that a licence from 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 present a piece insured them against legal action by the police, local authority or anyone else. Among those whom Courtneidge joined in this successful opposition were Edwardes, Herbert Beerbohm Tree
Herbert Beerbohm Tree
Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree was an English actor and theatre manager.Tree began performing in the 1870s. By 1887, he was managing the Haymarket Theatre, winning praise for adventurous programming and lavish productions, and starring in many of its productions. In 1899, he helped fund the...
, Charles Frohman
Charles Frohman
Charles Frohman was an American theatrical producer. Frohman was producing plays by 1889 and acquired his first Broadway theatre by 1892. He discovered and promoted many stars of the American theatre....
, Gerald du Maurier
Gerald du Maurier
Sir Gerald Hubert Edward Busson du Maurier was an English actor and manager. He was the son of the writer George du Maurier and brother of Sylvia Llewelyn Davies. In 1902, he married the actress Muriel Beaumont with whom he had three daughters: Angela du Maurier , Daphne du Maurier and Jeanne...
and Rupert D'Oyly Carte
Rupert D'Oyly Carte
Rupert D'Oyly Carte was an English hotelier, theatre owner and impresario, best known as proprietor of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and Savoy Hotel from 1913 to 1948....
. In the same year, Courtneidge presented an English version of Leo Fall
Leo Fall
Leo Fall was an Austrian composer of operettas.-Life:Born in Olmütz , Leo Fall was taught by his father Moritz Fall , a bandmaster and composer, who settled in Berlin. The younger Fall studied at the Vienna Conservatory before rejoining his father in Berlin...
's Der liebe Augustin, as Princess Caprice
Princess Caprice
Princess Caprice is a musical theatre work described as a "comedy with music", in three acts, with music by Leo Fall. The book was adapted by Alexander M. Thompson from Fall's operetta Der liebe Augustin by Rudolf Bernauer and Ernst Welisch. The lyrics were by A. Scott-Craven, Harry Beswick and...
, with a cast including Courtice Pounds
Courtice Pounds
Charles Courtice Pounds , better known by the stage name Courtice Pounds, was an English singer and actor known for his performances in the tenor roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and his later roles in Shakespeare plays and Edwardian musical comedies.As a young member...
and Courtneidge's daughter Cicely. There was some feeling in theatrical circles that Cicely's elevation to star status was due more to her being Robert Courtneidge's daughter than to any special talent.
Of Courtneidge's two productions in 1913, Ivan Caryll
Ivan Caryll
Félix Marie Henri Tilkin , better known by his pen name Ivan Caryll, was a Belgian composer of operettas and Edwardian musical comedies in the English language...
's American musical Oh! Oh! Delphine received a strong reception, but the The Pearl Girl was only a moderate success. In 1914 Cicely Courtneidge and Jack Hulbert
Jack Hulbert
John Norman "Jack" Hulbert was a British actor, specialising primarily in comedy productions.-Biography:Born in Ely, Cambridgeshire, he was the elder and more successful brother of Claude. He was educated at Cambridge and appeared in many shows and revues, mainly with the Cambridge Footlights. He...
starred in The Cinema Star, an adaptation by Hulbert and Harry Graham
Harry Graham (poet)
Jocelyn Henry Clive 'Harry' Graham was an English writer. He was a successful journalist and later, after distinguished military service, a leading lyricist for operettas and musical comedies, but he is now best remembered as a writer of humorous verse in the tradition of grotesquerie and black...
of Die Kino-Königin, a 1913 German comic opera by Jean Gilbert
Jean Gilbert
Jean Gilbert was a German operetta composer and conductor. His real name was Max Winterfeld. He adopted the name of Jean Gilbert for the production of his first operetta in 1901.Gilbert was born in Hamburg...
. It was a hit for Courtneidge and ran to full houses at the Shaftesbury Theatre
Shaftesbury Theatre
The Shaftesbury Theatre is a West End Theatre, located on Shaftesbury Avenue, in the London Borough of Camden.-History:The theatre was designed for the brothers Walter and Frederick Melville by Bertie Crewe and opened on 26 December 1911 with a production of The Three Musketeers, as the New...
until Britain and Germany went to war in August 1914; anti-German sentiment brought the run to a premature and abrupt halt. Courtneidge's next shows, My Lady Frayle, Oh, Caesar! and The Light Blues (all 1916, the last of which included a young Noel Coward
Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...
in its cast) all failed, and the patriotic operetta Young England was only a modest success.
After these financial setbacks, Courtneidge next produced less expensive extravaganza
Extravaganza
An extravaganza is a literary or musical work characterized by freedom of style and structure and usually containing elements of burlesque, pantomime, music hall and parody. It sometimes also has elements of cabaret, circus, revue, variety, vaudeville and mime...
s in the provinces, including Oh, Caesar! Petticoat Fair, Fancy Fair (the last two of which he wrote) and Too Many Girls. He directed the hit musical The Boy
The Boy (musical)
The Boy is a musical comedy with a book by Fred Thompson and Percy Greenbank , music by Lionel Monckton and Howard Talbot and lyrics by Greenbank and Adrian Ross...
(1917) at the Adelphi Theatre
Adelphi Theatre
The Adelphi Theatre is a 1500-seat West End theatre, located on the Strand in the City of Westminster. The present building is the fourth on the site. The theatre has specialised in comedy and musical theatre, and today it is a receiving house for a variety of productions, including many musicals...
.
1920s and 30s
In 1920, Courtneidge presented the non-musical comedy Paddy the Next Best Thing at the Savoy TheatreSavoy 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,...
. The reviewer of The Times expressed the hope that people in Ireland would not hear of the show: "Ireland has enough grievances to go on with". Nevertheless, the play was a popular success, and ran for 867 performances. Following this, Courtneidge took a touring company to Australia, presenting a repertory of comedies including The Man from Toronto, Somerset Maugham's Home and Beauty, and a work by an Australian author, Saving Grace. Among the company members was Courtneidge's younger daughter Rosaline. He returned to England by way of the U.S., where he presented Paddy the Next Best Thing in New York. Alexander Woolcott in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
was no more laudatory than his critical counterpart in London, but the play ran well.
In the 1920s Courtneidge returned to producing British provincial tours, including the old-fashioned Gabrielle (1921; composed by George Clutsam
George Clutsam
George Howard Clutsam was an Australian pianist, composer and writer, best remembered as the arranger of Lilac Time. Clutsam published over 150 songs.-Life:...
, Archibald Joyce
Archibald Joyce
Archibald Joyce was a light music composer known for his early waltzes.He first came to prominence with the publication of his Song d'Automne Waltz which fast became a hit...
and others), which was successful for several years. In 1923, he became the lessee of the Savoy, where his first production was The Young Idea by the 22-year-old Coward. He followed this with a mixture of productions ranging from Shakespeare to farce.
During the 1920s, Courtneidge, a lifelong socialist, joined with other managers including Arthur Bourchier
Arthur Bourchier
Arthur Bourchier was an English actor and theatre manager. He married and later divorced the actress Violet Vanbrugh....
in campaigning for fair pay for chorus members and players of small parts. Many other managements lagged behind in this, for instance not paying salaries during rehearsals. Courtneidge said in 1924, "There is a large section of theatrical managers who will not deal justly. The actor is again forced to the wall, and compelled to fight for his rights." He had earlier resigned from the Actors' Association, of which he had been a founder member, disagreeing with its closed shop
Closed shop
A closed shop is a form of union security agreement under which the employer agrees to hire union members only, and employees must remain members of the union at all times in order to remain employed....
policy, but his indignation at a proposed new standard contract for actors led him to rejoin.
In 1925, Courtneidge returned briefly to acting. After a tryout at his old Manchester theatre, the Prince's, he brought the old farce On 'Change to the Savoy, winning good notices for his performance in the leading role of a vain and touchy Scottish professor, which he had first played in the 1880s. Although Cicely had made her career away from his management since World War I, Courtneidge regularly featured his younger daughter Rosaline in his casts, in such plays as The Sport of Kings (1924) and The Unfair Sex (1925), until her early death in 1926 at the age of 23.
Courtneidge returned to presenting West End musical shows in 1927, directing Lehár
Franz Lehár
Franz Lehár was an Austrian-Hungarian composer. He is mainly known for his operettas of which the most successful and best known is The Merry Widow .-Biography:...
's The Blue Mazurka (1927) with English lyrics by Harry Graham at Daly's Theatre
Daly's Theatre
Daly's Theatre was a theatre in the City of Westminster. It was located at 2 Cranbourn Street, just off Leicester Square. It opened on 27 June 1893, and was demolished in 1937.-Early years:...
. His last London musical was The Damask Rose (1930), an attempt to emulate with Chopin
Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....
's music the success of Lilac Time
Lilac Time
Lilac Time can refer to:*Das Dreimäderlhaus, a 1922 operetta also produced under the name Lilac Time*The Lilac Time, a British alternative rock band...
, a piece written around Schubert
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
's music. The adaptation was by Clutsam (who had adapted Lilac Time), with Courtneidge as co-author of the book. A strong cast included Walter Passmore
Walter Passmore
Walter Henry Passmore was an English singer and actor best known as the first successor to George Grossmith in the comic baritone roles in Gilbert and Sullivan operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company....
, and the piece won friendly notices. His final production was at the Prince's and on tour, a musical, Lavender (1930), with music by Clutsam. In the same year, Courtneidge published his memoirs I was an actor once, and in 1933 he wrote a novel, Judith Clifford.
Courtneidge retired to Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
, where he died in 1939 at the age of 79.
External links
- Robert Courtneidge at the IBDB database
- Information about The Arcadians and Courtneidge