Faust up to date

Infobox Musical
name = Faust up to Date
subtitle =


caption = Sheet music
music = Meyer Lutz
lyrics = G. R. Sims
Henry Pettitt
book = G. R. Sims
Henry Pettitt
basis =
productions = 1888 West End
awards =

"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. The piece was first performed at the Gaiety Theatre, London on 30 October 1888, produced by George Edwardes and ran until August 1889. It starred Florence St. John as Margaret, E. J. Lonnen as Mephistopheles, Fanny Robina as Faust, George Stone as Valentine, and Mabel Love as Totchen. [ [http://www.collectorspost.com/cgi-bin/ShopLoader.cgi?Actors/mabel_love.html Mabel Love biography] ] A highlight of the piece was a dance for four women. [http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9905E5DE163BE033A25752C3A9669D94699FD7CF "NY Times" review of the London opening, containing some information about the plot] ] It was revived in July 1892, with Florence St. John again playing the role of Margaret, Edmund Payne as Mephistopheles and Arthur Williams as Valentine. The piece enjoyed subsequent productions in New York, [ [http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9504E4DF1E30E633A25752C1A9649D94689FD7CF "NY Times" review] ] Australia (with Robert Courtneidge as Valentine) [ [http://math.boisestate.edu/gas/british/authors/courtneidge.html Courtneidge biography] ] and elsewhere.

"Faust up to Date" was a spoof of Gounod's opera Faust, which had first been performed in London in 1864, and followed on from an earlier Lutz musical "Mephistopheles, or Faust and Marguerite".

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", "Ruy Blas and the Blase Roue" (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.

References

* [http://books.google.com/books?id=tjwOAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA503&lpg=PA503&dq=%22faust+up+to+date%22+stone+florence+lonnen&source=web&ots=JfjM4DFTob&sig=EE-NWDI2ZgnSn7DlxXomKAvw_Os&hl=en#PPA502-IA1,M1 Adams, William Davenport. "A dictionary of the drama" (1904), p. 502 Chatto & Windus]
*Hollingshead, John. "Good Old Gaiety: An Historiette & Remembrance" (1903) London:Gaity Theatre Co
*Advertisement in "The Times", 30 October 1888
*Review in "The Times", 31 October 1888

Notes

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 additional information from the People Play UK website]
* [http://peopleplayuk.org.uk/collections/object.php?object_id=575&back=%2Fcollections%2Fdefault.php%3Fsearch_name%3Dperformance_category_search%26amp%3Brun_search%3Dtrue%26amp%3Bcperformance_type%3D109%26amp%3Bctab%3D3 Additional poster and information from the People Play UK website]
* [http://library.kent.ac.uk/library/special/html/specoll/WILLPOST.HTM London cast list]
* [http://www.classicpix.com/cat/psdbi/max.html?temp_param1=0587055154 Poster of the show]