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. The worse the pun, the more Victorian audiences were amused. [ [http://www.peopleplayuk.org.uk/collections/object.php?object_id=1666&back=%2Fguided_tours%2Fmusicals_tour%2Ffirst_musicals%2Fburlesques.php%3F Information about "Ruy Blas" and the Gaiety Burlesques] ]

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, Frederick Leslie, Marion Hood, Letty Lind, Sylvia Grey, Linda Verner, Blanche Massie, Alice Young, Charles Danby, Lilly Harold, Dalton Sommers, Fred Storey and Ben Nathan. [Hollingshead, p. 57] The piece toured in the British provinces and internationally. It 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 personally, objected, and the Lord Chamberlain (who also had not seen the show) prohibited the caricature. [Hollingshead, pp. 57–58]

Background

This type of burlesque, or travesty was popular in Britain at the time. 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), "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). [ [http://www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/Archive/August/prog1detail1.htm Programme for "Carmen up to Data"] ]

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." [http://www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/Gaiety.htm Arthur Lloyd Music Hall site (on Gaiety) "Cuttings"] accessed 01 Mar 2007] 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. ["Theatrical Humour in the Seventies", "The Times", 20 February 1914, p. 9, col. D] 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". [Stewart, Maurice. 'The spark that lit the bonfire', in "Gilbert and Sullivan News" (London) Spring 2003.] In the early 1990s, as Burlesque went out of fashion, Edwardes changed the focus of the theatre from musical burlesque to the new genre of Edwardian musical comedy.

Notes

References

*Adams, William Davenport. [http://books.google.com/books?id=tjwOAAAAIAAJ&dq=%22faust+up+to+date%22+stone+florence+lonnen&source=gbs_summary_s&cad=0 "A dictionary of the drama"] (1904) Chatto & Windus
*Hollingshead, John. "Good Old Gaiety: An Historiette & Remembrance" (1903) London:Gaity Theatre Co

External links

* [http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchdetail.cfm?trg=1&strucID=537608&imageID=TH-30238&parent_id=537607&word=&snum=&s=&notword=&d=&c=&f=&sScope=&sLevel=&sLabel=&total=4&num=0&imgs=12&pNum=&pos=1# Photo of Farren and Leslie in "Ruy Blas"]
* [http://www.peopleplayuk.org.uk/guided_tours/musicals_tour/first_musicals/burlesques.php Information about Burlesque from the PeoplePlay UK website]
* [http://www.peopleplayuk.org.uk/collections/object.php?object_id=1597 Poster and further information from the PeoplePlay UK website]