Ruy Blas and the Blase Roue
Encyclopedia
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. The worse the pun, the more Victorian audiences were amused.
After a tryout in Birmingham
beginning on 3 September 1889, Ruy Blas and the Blasé Roué opened in London on 21 September 1889 at the Gaiety Theatre
and ran for 289 performances. The cast included Nellie Farren
, Fred Leslie
, Marion Hood
, Letty Lind
, Sylvia Grey
, Linda Verner, Blanche Massie, Alice Young, Charles Danby, Fred Storey and Ben Nathan. The piece toured in the British provinces and internationally, and was revised at least once during its run. It originally included a caricature of Henry Irving
, in a scene in which some of the actors wore ballet girl costumes. Irving, never having seen the show, objected, and the Lord Chamberlain
(Britain's theatrical censor, who also had not seen the show) prohibited the caricature.
. Other examples include The Bohemian G-yurl and the Unapproachable Pole (1877), Blue Beard (1882), Ariel (1883, by F. C. Burnand), Galatea, or Pygmalion Reversed
(1883), Little Jack Sheppard
(1885), Monte Cristo Jr (1886), Pretty Esmeralda (1887), Frankenstein, or The Vampire's Victim
(1887), Mazeppa, Faust up to Date
(1888), 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 George Edwardes, whom he had hired in 1885. Edwardes expanded the burlesque format from one act to full-length pieces with original music by Lutz, instead of scores compiled from popular tunes, as was the usual course before that. The theatre's choreographer and dance-master, under both Hollingshead and Edwardes, was John D'Auban
. Nellie Farren
, as the theatre's "principal boy," starred at the Gaiety for over 20 years, from 1868. Between 1885 and 1891, she co-starred with Fred Leslie, who wrote many of the Gaiety's most popular burlesques 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
.
Ruy Blas was written to mark the reopening of the Gaiety theatre and the return to the West End
of the hugely popular Gaiety company, led by Farren and Leslie, who had been on tour in the U.S. and Australia. The early scenes of the libretto make many allusions to this return. In his review, the critic Clement Scott
remarked not only on the new piece but on the redecoration of the theatre, which he found "deserving of the highest praise". The scenery and the costumes, as usual, were among the prominent attractions of a Gaiety show. Percy Anderson
's costumes were particularly admired.
The scene to which Henry Irving took exception was a comic dance, performed to Lutz's pas de quatre from Faust up to Date
, in which Fred Leslie, Ben Nathan, Charles Danby and Fred Storey were made up to resemble Irving, Wilson Barrett
, J. L. Toole and Edward Terry
. In addition to impersonating the four actors, Leslie and his colleagues were wearing petticoats, imitating the female stars who danced to the same tune in the earlier work. Reviewing the Birmingham premiere, The Era hinted broadly that this scene was vulgar and should be dropped, and the paper regretted in its review of the London first night that its hint had not been taken.
Servants, Pages, Lords, Ladies, Algauzils, Nobles, Musicians, &c., &c.
Act II
Act III
The Queen of Spain is not happy, and as soon as she is left alone she says so ("The Flower Song"). Ruy Blas and Don Caesar are introduced to the royal palace in the capacity of strolling players. Don Salluste, a corrupt court official, has private reasons to wish to humiliate the Queen, and he persuades Ruy and Caesar to disguise themselves as women and apply for posts in the royal household. They are accepted, and Salluste then accuses the Queen of smuggling men into her private apartments, disguised as women. Ruy and Caesar are arrested and jailed.
Act II
Scene 1 – Cells of misdemeanants of the first class
Ruy and Caesar find that their imprisonment is extraordinarily luxurious, but despite its attractions they escape, with the connivance of the Queen.
Scene 2 – Interior of Don Salluste's house
Ruy and Caesar attempt to burgle Don Salluste's safe and find that he has got himself locked inside it. They release him, but he is immediately arrested because in his safe are found some of the Queen's jewels, which he has stolen.
Act III – Palace gardens
Ruy Blas wins the Queen's heart by various daring deeds, including bullfighting. He is proclaimed King, and Don Caesar is appointed to the post of Lord Chamberlain vacated by the disgraced Salluste.
The theatrical newspaper The Era
reported that, entertaining though the new piece was, it had little by way of a plot, commenting: "And now the travestie, in losing some of its old attributes – a coherent plot, for instance, and other such details – has annexed so much from comic opera, so much from extravaganza, and so much from the music halls, that it fills up the entire bill from dinner time till nearing midnight." The performances, the music and the staging on the other hand, were consistently praised.
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....
. It is based on the Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....
drama Ruy Blas
Ruy Blas
Ruy Blas is a tragic drama by Victor Hugo. It was the first play presented at the Théâtre de la Renaissance and opened on November 8, 1838. Though considered by many to be Hugo’s best drama, the play initially met with only average success....
. The piece was produced by 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....
. As with many of the Gaiety burlesques, the title is a pun. The worse the pun, the more Victorian audiences were amused.
After a tryout in Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
beginning on 3 September 1889, Ruy Blas and the Blasé Roué opened in London on 21 September 1889 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...
and ran for 289 performances. The cast included 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...
, Fred Leslie
Frederick Hobson Leslie
Frederick George Hobson, known as Fred Leslie , was an English actor, singer, comedian and dramatist....
, 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...
, Letty Lind
Letty Lind
Letitia Elizabeth Rudge, better known as Letty Lind , was an English actress, dancer and acrobat, best known for her work in burlesque at the Gaiety Theatre, and in musical theatre at Daly's Theatre, in London....
, 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:...
, Linda Verner, Blanche Massie, Alice Young, Charles Danby, Fred Storey and Ben Nathan. The piece toured in the British provinces and internationally, and was revised at least once during its run. It originally included a caricature of 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...
, in a scene in which some of the actors wore ballet girl costumes. Irving, never having seen the show, objected, and 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....
(Britain's theatrical censor, who also had not seen the show) prohibited the caricature.
Background
This type of burlesque, or "travesty", was popular in Britain during the Victorian eraVictorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
. Other examples include The Bohemian G-yurl and the Unapproachable Pole (1877), Blue Beard (1882), Ariel (1883, by F. C. Burnand), 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), Little Jack Sheppard
Little Jack Sheppard
Little Jack Sheppard is a burlesque melodrama written by Henry Pottinger Stephens and William Yardley, with music by Meyer Lutz, with songs contributed by Florian Pascal, Corney Grain, Arthur Cecil, Michael Watson, Henry J. Leslie, Alfred Cellier and Hamilton Clarke...
(1885), Monte Cristo Jr (1886), Pretty Esmeralda (1887), Frankenstein, or The Vampire's Victim
Frankenstein, or The Vampire's Victim
Frankenstein, or The Vampire's Victim is a musical burlesque written by Richard Henry . The music was composed by Meyer Lutz...
(1887), Mazeppa, Faust up to Date
Faust up to date
Faust up to Date is a musical burlesque with a score written by Meyer Lutz . The libretto was written by G. R. Sims and Henry Pettitt...
(1888), 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 George Edwardes, whom he had hired in 1885. Edwardes expanded the burlesque format from one act to full-length pieces with original music by Lutz, instead of scores compiled from popular tunes, as was the usual course before that. The theatre's choreographer and dance-master, under both Hollingshead and Edwardes, was John D'Auban
John D'Auban
Frederick John D'Auban was an English dancer, choreographer and actor of the Victorian and Edwardian eras. Famous during his lifetime as the ballet-master at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, he is best remembered as the choreographer of many of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas.After performing as a...
. 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," starred at the Gaiety for over 20 years, from 1868. Between 1885 and 1891, she co-starred with Fred Leslie, who wrote many of the Gaiety's most popular burlesques 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...
.
Ruy Blas was written to mark the reopening of the Gaiety theatre and the return to 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 the hugely popular Gaiety company, led by Farren and Leslie, who had been on tour in the U.S. and Australia. The early scenes of the libretto make many allusions to this return. In his review, the critic Clement Scott
Clement Scott
Clement Scott was an influential English theatre critic for the Daily Telegraph, and a playwright and travel writer, in the final decades of the 19th century...
remarked not only on the new piece but on the redecoration of the theatre, which he found "deserving of the highest praise". The scenery and the costumes, as usual, were among the prominent attractions of a Gaiety show. Percy Anderson
Percy Anderson
Percy Anderson was an English stage designer and painter, best known for his work for the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree's company at His Majesty’s Theatre and Edwardian musical comedies.-Life and career:...
's costumes were particularly admired.
The scene to which Henry Irving took exception was a comic dance, performed to Lutz's pas de quatre from 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...
, in which Fred Leslie, Ben Nathan, Charles Danby and Fred Storey were made up to resemble Irving, Wilson Barrett
Wilson Barrett
Wilson Barrett was an English manager, actor, and playwright.With his company, Barrett is credited with attracting the largest crowds of English theatregoers ever because of his success with melodrama, an instance being his production of The Silver King at the Princess's Theatre of London.The...
, J. L. Toole and Edward Terry
Edward O'Connor Terry
Edward O'Connor Terry , English actor, who became one of the most influential actors and comedians of the Victorian era.-Life and career:...
. In addition to impersonating the four actors, Leslie and his colleagues were wearing petticoats, imitating the female stars who danced to the same tune in the earlier work. Reviewing the Birmingham premiere, The Era hinted broadly that this scene was vulgar and should be dropped, and the paper regretted in its review of the London first night that its hint had not been taken.
Cast
- Ruy Blas – 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...
- Don Caesar de Bazan – Fred Leslie
- Queen of Spain – Marion HoodMarion HoodMarion Hood was an English soprano who performed in opera and musical theatre in the last decades of the 19th century...
- Donna Elto – Letty LindLetty LindLetitia Elizabeth Rudge, better known as Letty Lind , was an English actress, dancer and acrobat, best known for her work in burlesque at the Gaiety Theatre, and in musical theatre at Daly's Theatre, in London....
- Donna Christina – 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:...
- Duchess Agio Uncertanti – Linda Verner
- Tarara, a trumpeter – Blanche MasseyBlanche MasseyBlanche Massey was a Gaiety Girl and actress best known for her stage appearances in London and the United States in the 1890s. Among her appearances in many productions with the George Edwardes company, especially Edwardian musical comedies, she was perhaps most remembered for A Gaiety Girl...
(miscredited as Blanche Massie) - An officer – Alice Young
- Don Salluste – Charles Danby (later replaced by Dalton Sommers)
- Major Domo – Ben Nathan
- Court Physician – Fred Storey
- Cerayonez – William Benson
Servants, Pages, Lords, Ladies, Algauzils, Nobles, Musicians, &c., &c.
Musical numbers
Act I- Chorus, "Bolero"
- Song, "The Villain" – Don Salluste
- Chorus, "Hail to our Queen"
- Song, "The Song of my Heart" – Queen of Spain
- Chorus, "Private Theatricals"
- Trio, "Razzle Dazzle" – Ruy Blas, Don Caesar and Don Salluste
- Pas seul, "Danse espagnole" – Donna Christina
- Eccentric dance – Court Physician
- Duet and pas de deux, "Ma's Advice" – Ruy Blas and Don Caesar
- Finale, "We're discovered"
Act II
- Song and duet, "The Whistling Lullaby" – Don Caesar and Ruy Blas
- Song, "The Flower Song" – Queen of Spain
- Chorus, "Good Night"
- Song, "Stick to the Whisky you're used to – Don Caesar
- Duet, "I've just had a Wire" – Ruy Blas and Don Caesar
- Duet, "Johnny Jones and his Sister Sue" – Donna Etto and Don Salluste
- Letty Lind Waltz (composed by C. Paston Cooper and danced by Letty Lind)
- Pas de quatre, "Blanc et noir" – Ruy Blas, Donna Etto, Don Caesar and Court Physician
- Finale, "The Sweep's Chorus"
Act III
- Fan chorus
- Pas de deux – Donna Christina and Court Physician
- Dance, "Rigodon"
- Song, "What Price That?" – Ruy Blas
- Song, "Love's Message" – Queen of Spain
- Pas de deux – Ruy Blas and Donna Etto
- Pas seul – Don Caesar
- Pas de quatre – Don Caesar, Don Salluste, Major Domo and Court Physician
- Finale
Synopsis
Act I – Throne room in royal palaceThe Queen of Spain is not happy, and as soon as she is left alone she says so ("The Flower Song"). Ruy Blas and Don Caesar are introduced to the royal palace in the capacity of strolling players. Don Salluste, a corrupt court official, has private reasons to wish to humiliate the Queen, and he persuades Ruy and Caesar to disguise themselves as women and apply for posts in the royal household. They are accepted, and Salluste then accuses the Queen of smuggling men into her private apartments, disguised as women. Ruy and Caesar are arrested and jailed.
Act II
Scene 1 – Cells of misdemeanants of the first class
Ruy and Caesar find that their imprisonment is extraordinarily luxurious, but despite its attractions they escape, with the connivance of the Queen.
Scene 2 – Interior of Don Salluste's house
Ruy and Caesar attempt to burgle Don Salluste's safe and find that he has got himself locked inside it. They release him, but he is immediately arrested because in his safe are found some of the Queen's jewels, which he has stolen.
Act III – Palace gardens
Ruy Blas wins the Queen's heart by various daring deeds, including bullfighting. He is proclaimed King, and Don Caesar is appointed to the post of Lord Chamberlain vacated by the disgraced Salluste.
Critical reception
The critics generally viewed the libretto as a departure from the old traditions of burlesque, because its resemblance to the original work was tangential, and because Hugo's Ruy Blas was not well enough known in England to be a fruitful subject for parody. In The Theatre, Clement Scott wrote, "As to the play on which the burlesque is supposed to be founded, save in the first act, where it is fairly closely followed, we hear but little of it." Moonshine magazine went so far as to call Ruy Blas "Probably the worst burlesque ever seen … for it does not give the faintest caricature of the original."The theatrical newspaper The Era
The Era (newspaper)
The Era was a British weekly paper, published from 1838 to 1939. Originally a general newspaper, it became noted for its sports coverage, and later for its theatrical content.-History:...
reported that, entertaining though the new piece was, it had little by way of a plot, commenting: "And now the travestie, in losing some of its old attributes – a coherent plot, for instance, and other such details – has annexed so much from comic opera, so much from extravaganza, and so much from the music halls, that it fills up the entire bill from dinner time till nearing midnight." The performances, the music and the staging on the other hand, were consistently praised.