Frankenstein, or The Vampire's Victim

Infobox Musical
name = Frankenstein
subtitle = or The Vampire's Victim


caption = Sheet music cover
music = Meyer Lutz
lyrics = Richard Butler
Henry Chance Newton
book = Richard Butler
Henry Chance Newton
basis =
productions = 1887 West End
awards =

"Frankenstein, or The Vampire's Victim" (sometimes called Frankenstein, or The Model Man) is a musical burlesque written by Richard Henry (a pseudonym of Richard Butler and Henry Chance Newton). The music was composed by Meyer Lutz. The piece is a burlesque of the Mary Shelley novel "Frankenstein" and the Adelphi Theatre drama based on the novel.

Opening at the Gaiety Theatre, London on 24 December 1887, the production was a flop, closing after a week. It starred Nellie Farren as a female Dr. Frankenstein and Fred Leslie as a monster who is in touch with his feminine side. The Victorian audiences found the piece too feminist in tone. In addition, the public was annoyed at George Edwardes, who had reduced the size of the inexpensive "pit" in favour of more "stalls". [Hollingshead, pp. 14 and 55] The piece also featured Marion Hood, E. J. Lonnen, Emily Cross, Sylvia Grey, Sybil Grey, the dancer John D'Augan, and Frank Thornton.

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), "Mazeppa", "Faust up to Date" (1888), "Ruy Blas and the Blase Roue" (1888), "Carmen up to Data" (1890), 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 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.

Notes

References

* [http://pages.towson.edu/flynn/stagef.htm Information about versions of "Frankenstein", including this burlesque]
*Hollingshead, John. "Good Old Gaiety: An Historiette & Remembrance" (1903) London:Gaity Theatre Co
*Hollingshead, John. "Gaiety Chronicles" (1898) A. Constable & co.: London (available online [http://books.google.com/books?id=CzgOAAAAIAAJ&dq=john+hollingshead+gaiety+chronicles here] )

External links

* [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]