Who wrote 1892 farce 'Charley's Aunt'?
"Where's Charley? Where's Charley? is a musical with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by George Abbott. The story was based on the play ""Charley's Aunt"" by Brandon Thomas. The musical debuted on Broadway in 1948 and was revived on Broadway and in the West End. Ray Bolger starred, and sang the popular song ""Once In Love With Amy"". The setting is Oxford University in the year 1892 where a group of college seniors are bidding farewell to the years gone by (""The Years Before Us""). In his dorm room, graduating Jack Chesney is excitedly talking with his"
"his home in Bloomsbury, London, in 1914, aged 65, after a brief illness. He was buried in Brompton Cemetery. In its obituary notice, ""The Times"" quoted him as saying, ""I hoped to go down to fame as a great actor. If I go at all it will be as the author of ""Charley's Aunt."""" Brandon Thomas Walter Brandon Thomas (24 December 1848 – 19 June 1914) was an English actor, playwright and songwriter, best known as the author of the farce ""Charley's Aunt"". Born in Liverpool to a family with no theatrical connections, Thomas worked in commerce, and as an"
"1891, Thomas had a conspicuous artistic and financial success in a triple bill at Terry's Theatre. At the instigation of George Edwardes, he invested £1,000 in a production of three one-act plays: his own ""The Lancashire Sailor"", Weedon Grossmith's ""A Commission"", and Cecil Clay's ""A Pantomime Rehearsal"". He took prominent roles in all three, displaying his versatility as ""a romantic young lover, a delightfully cynical model and as the heavy, stupid Captain."" The production ran for 152 performances, transferring to the Shaftesbury Theatre and making a good profit. Thomas's outstanding hit was the farce ""Charley's Aunt"". It was written for"
"on tour in the English provinces, beginning at Bury St Edmunds on 29 February 1892. The Royalty Theatre in London became unexpectedly vacant, and Penley took it, opening ""Charley's Aunt"" there on 21 December 1892. For the first few weeks in London, Thomas played the role of Sir Francis Chesney, the benevolent father of one of the undergraduates; he regularly played the part in later revivals until shortly before his death. The play was an immediate success and transferred to the larger Globe Theatre on 30 January 1893. It ran for a record-breaking 1,466 performances across four years, closing on"
"Charley's (Big-Hearted) Aunt Charley's (Big-Hearted) Aunt is a 1940 British comedy film directed by Walter Forde starring Arthur Askey and Richard Murdoch as Oxford 'scholars'. The film is one of many to be made based on the Victorian farce Charley's Aunt. Arthur Askey's professional nickname was ""Big-Hearted Arthur"", which was added to the title to distinguish it from Jack Benny's version, for its (limited) American release. Oxford students Arthur (Arthur Askey), Stinker (Richard Murdoch), and Albert (Graham Moffatt) are in danger of being ""sent down"" (expelled) for bad behaviour. Learning the Dean of Bowgate College is an amateur Egyptologist, Arthur—who"
"years. She had the theatre rebuilt and it reopened in 1883. In this period, it featured opera-bouffes adapted from the French. M. L. Mayer and plays in French. It was increasingly hard for the theatre to compete with larger new London theatres. In 1891, the theatre started a policy of modern drama, presenting plays by Ibsen and George Bernard Shaw. When the theatre finally had a great success, with ""Charley's Aunt"" in 1892, its popularity led to its transference after only a month to a larger theatre. In 1895–96 the theatre underwent another renovation. Arthur Bourchier's ""The Chili Widow"" ran"
"his friend, the actor W. S. Penley. Later the two disagreed (and went to court) about how much, if any, of the plot was Penley's invention rather than Thomas's. Penley told a journalist in 1894, ""The play was my idea and Brandon Thomas wrote it. Later on, we went down into the country and worked at it. Then we worked it out on the stage."" Penley produced the play and took the star role of Lord Fancourt Babberley, an undergraduate whose friends Jack and Charley persuade him to impersonate the latter's aunt. The early performances of the play were given"
"19 December 1896. It was simultaneously toured by seven companies in the United Kingdom. The piece was successfully staged throughout the English-speaking world and, in translation, in many other countries. It had a major success on Broadway in 1893 and was revived there several times. In 1894, it was given both German and French premieres and was produced in Berlin every Christmas for many years. In 1895, ""The Theatre"" recorded that ""Charley's Aunt"" had been taken up in country after country. ""From Germany it made its way to Russia, Holland, Denmark and Norway, and was heartily welcomed everywhere."" Thereafter, it"
"in ""The Private Secretary"" at the Globe Theatre. He succeeded Herbert Beerbohm Tree in the role, and was famous for his portrayal of it for many years. Penley re-joined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in 1891, playing Punka, the Rajah of Chutneypore, in ""The Nautch Girl"" at the Savoy Theatre, while Rutland Barrington stepped out of the role to tour with Jessie Bond. Barrington returned to the company later that year, and Penley resumed his career in non-musical theatre. On 29 February 1892 Penley produced the farce ""Charley's Aunt"" at the Theatre Royal, Bury St. Edmunds, appearing in the role"
"run of 1,466 performances and numerous subsequent productions all around the world, film and musical theatre adaptations. Although Thomas never repeated the prodigious success of ""Charley's Aunt"", he maintained a career as an actor and dramatist until his death, acting mostly in comedy, but with occasional serious roles in the plays of Shakespeare and others. Thomas was born in Mount Pleasant, Liverpool, the eldest of the three children of Walter Thomas (d. 1878), a bootseller, and his wife, Hannah, ""née"" Morris. He was educated at the Liverpool Institute and later at a private school in Prescot, Lancashire. At the age"
"the Duke of York's Theatre. Nina Boucicault Nina Boucicault (27 February 1867 – 2 August 1950) was an English actress born to playwright Dion Boucicault and his wife, actress Agnes Kelly Robertson. She had three brothers, Dion William (1855–1876), Dion Boucicault Jr. and Aubrey Boucicault. She had two sisters Eva and Patrice. Her debut was at the Louisville Opera House and as a child she performed with her father. Beginning in 1892, she played Kitty Verdun in the original production of the hit comedy ""Charley's Aunt"". She was the first to play the title role in J. M. Barrie's ""Peter"
"the part of Colonel Chesney, whom he played in the theater adaptation. However, the film director Viktor Titov saw Dzhigarkhanyan in the role of Judge Criggs. Hello, I'm Your Aunt! Hello, I'm Your Aunt! () is a Soviet 1975 comedy directed by Viktor Titov and is loosely based on the play ""Charley's Aunt"" by Brandon Thomas. Produced by T/O Ekran. The film was an immense hit; many lines of dialogue (for example ""I am an old soldier and don't know words of love"") subsequently became catch phrases themselves. The action takes place at the beginning of 20th century. Unemployed and"
"""The Private Secretary"", a role that he repeated several times. In 1892, Penley created the title role in ""Charley's Aunt"", which played for a record-setting 1,466 performances in London, and in revivals of the play. He retired from the stage in 1901 and managed the Great Queen Street Theatre until 1907. He was also one of the proprietors of ""The Church Family Newspaper"". Penley was born at St Peters, Broadstairs, Kent, the only son of William George Robinson Penley (1823–1903), a schoolmaster, and his first wife, Emily Ann, ""née"" Wooton, the widow of Walter Pilcher. Although Penley's relatives included the"
"in 1860. He died in West Farms, New York, on April 11, 1874. Charles W. Taylor Charles Western Taylor ( - April 11, 1874), often billed as C. W. Taylor, was a well-known actor and dramatist in the United States in the mid-19th century. He is best known today, though only as a footnote, for writing one of the first stage adaptations of ""Uncle Tom's Cabin"". Taylor was born in Walsall, England, about 1800 and first appeared on stage in Norfolk, Virginia, in 1819. He soon after debuted in New York in the ""Forest Rose"". He long acted in parts"
"now stands on the site. The Globe opened with Henry J. Byron's comedy ""Cyril's Success"", which ""Old and New London"" described as a great success. Later presentations included: Globe Theatre (Newcastle Street) The Globe was a Victorian theatre built in 1868 and demolished in 1902. It was the third of five London theatres to bear the name. It was also known at various times as the Royal Globe Theatre or Globe Theatre Royal. Its repertoire consisted mainly of comedies and musical shows. The theatre's most famous production was ""Charley's Aunt"" by Brandon Thomas, which enjoyed a record-setting run at the"
"Etienne Girardot Etienne Girardot (22 February 1856 – 10 November 1939) was a diminutive stage and film actor of Anglo-French parentage born in London, England. The son of French painter Ernest Gustave Girardot, he studied at an art school, but left at age seventeen to go on stage. Having played in the provinces, he made his debut on the London stage at the Haymarket Theatre. He went to America in 1893, where he continued his career. He was a success, with numerous Broadway shows to his credit, including the 1893 production of ""Charley's Aunt"", in which he played Lord Fancourt"
"on Broadway several times until 1970. ""Charley's Aunt"" was given in a German translation as ""Charleys Tante"" at Weimar in August 1894. The first French production (""La Marraine de Charley"") was the following month at the Théàtre de Cluny in Paris, where it ran for nearly 300 performances. The play was produced in Berlin every Christmas for many years. In 1895, ""The Theatre"" recorded that ""Charley's Aunt"" had been taken up in country after country. ""From Germany it made its way to Russia, Holland, Denmark and Norway, and was heartily welcomed everywhere."" Thomas and Penley quarrelled and went to law"
"1875. Its record of 1,362 performances was bested in 1892 by ""Charley's Aunt"". Several of Gilbert and Sullivan's comic operas broke the 500-performance barrier, beginning with ""H.M.S. Pinafore"" in 1878, and Alfred Cellier and B.C. Stephenson's 1886 hit, ""Dorothy"", ran for 931 performances. After W.S. Gilbert, Oscar Wilde became the leading poet and dramatist of the late Victorian period. Wilde's plays, in particular, stand apart from the many now forgotten plays of Victorian times and have a much closer relationship to those of the Edwardian dramatists such as Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950), whose career began in the last"
"after which it transferred to the larger Globe in 1893. ""Charley's Aunt"" became an unprecedented hit, running for 1,466 performances in London, a record that lasted for decades. The original run finally ended in December 1896, but the play was revived several times. ""The Times"" commented that it was probable that although the ""long runs filled his pockets, [they] broke his strength"". Penley's last new role was as the eccentric Lord Markham, in the comedy ""A Little Ray of Sunshine"", by Mark Ambient and Wilton Heriot, in which he toured from May 1898 and opened at the Royalty in January"
"Nina Boucicault Nina Boucicault (27 February 1867 – 2 August 1950) was an English actress born to playwright Dion Boucicault and his wife, actress Agnes Kelly Robertson. She had three brothers, Dion William (1855–1876), Dion Boucicault Jr. and Aubrey Boucicault. She had two sisters Eva and Patrice. Her debut was at the Louisville Opera House and as a child she performed with her father. Beginning in 1892, she played Kitty Verdun in the original production of the hit comedy ""Charley's Aunt"". She was the first to play the title role in J. M. Barrie's ""Peter Pan"", beginning in 1904 at"
"touring production of Brandon Thomas's popular farce ""Charley's Aunt"". Davidson played the part of Lord Fancourt Babberley, who masquerades as the rich aunt of a fellow-Oxford undergraduate—a frenetic role for which Cullen believes Davidson was eminently suitable. During his theatrical days, Davidson maintained high standards of personal morality, observed strict teetotalism and gave regular Bible readings to the elderly in the towns in which he performed on tour. He later gave an account of an incident from November 1894 when he was performing in London. While walking along the Thames Embankment in a thick fog, he said, he encountered a"
"to the Diggings"" co-written by William Creswick and R Shepherd<br> ""Uncle Tom's Cabin"" co-written by William Creswick and William Bodham Donne<br> ""The Marriage Day"" or ""The Life Chase"" co-written by R Shepherd<br> ""Old Joe and Young Joe"" or ""The Martini Family"" also performed at the Surrey Theatre Dec 1860. Adapted from the French play ""The Martini Family"" or ""O.J and Y.J""<br> ""Eustache"" or ""Eustache Baudin"" also performed at the Olympic Theatre, New York City, USA Apr 1862; Richmond Theatre, Virginia, USA Mar, May and Nov 1863; Salt Lake City, USA Oct 1863 (adaption); Brooklyn Academy of Music, NY USA Nov"
"13 March 1891. The Lord Chamberlain's Office censorship was avoided by the formation of a subscription-only Independent Theatre Society, which included Thomas Hardy and Henry James among its members. Again, for the Society, George Bernard Shaw premièred ""Widowers' Houses"", his first play, here the following year. When the theatre finally had a great success, with Brandon Thomas’s play ""Charley's Aunt"" in 1892, its popularity led to its transference after only a month to the larger Globe Theatre. In 1895–96 the Royalty's manager was Arthur Bourchier, and the theatre underwent another renovation, by architect Walter Emden. Bourchier produced, among other plays,"
"for 300 performances. Albery was the author of a large number of other plays and adaptations, including ""Coquettes"" (1870); ""Pickwick"", a four-act drama (based on Dickens's ""The Pickwick Papers"" (1871); ""Pink Dominos"" (1877), a farce that ran for an extremely successful 555 performances and was one of a series of adaptations from the French which he made for the Criterion Theatre, where his wife, the actress Mary Moore (who after his death became Lady Charles Wyndham (1861—1931)), played the leading parts; ""Jingle"" (a farcical version of ""Pickwick""), produced at the Lyceum in 1878; and ""Oriana"" (with music by Frederic Clay)."
"of Lord Fancourt Babberley (who reluctantly impersonates a rich widow from Brazil). Brandon Thomas wrote the play as a vehicle for Penley; later the two disagreed (and went to court) about how much, if any, of the plot was Penley's invention rather than Thomas's. Penley told a journalist in 1894, ""The play was my idea and Brandon Thomas wrote it. Later on, we went down into the country and worked at it. Then we worked it out on the stage."" The provincial production was a success, and Penley then produced the play in London at the Royalty in December 1892,"
"written by George Jessop for William J. Scanlan and, on October 31, 1892, Comstock played Valentine at the Standard Theatre in ""The Family Circle"", a Sydney Rosenfeld adaptation of Bisson's ""Rue Pigalle 115"". Comstock was the original Kitty Verdun in the American production of ""Charley's Aunt"" at the Standard Theatre on October 2, 1894, and that May 10 in London at the Adelphi Theatre she played Wilbur's Ann in the David Belasco and Franklyn Fyles drama ""The Girl I Left Behind Me"". Comstock later toured with Joseph Jefferson playing Bertha in a stage adaption of the Charles Dickens novella ""The"
"Globe Theatre (Newcastle Street) The Globe was a Victorian theatre built in 1868 and demolished in 1902. It was the third of five London theatres to bear the name. It was also known at various times as the Royal Globe Theatre or Globe Theatre Royal. Its repertoire consisted mainly of comedies and musical shows. The theatre's most famous production was ""Charley's Aunt"" by Brandon Thomas, which enjoyed a record-setting run at the theatre, having transferred to it from the Royalty Theatre. Earlier theatres with the name ""Globe Theatre"" included Shakespeare’s Bankside house, which closed in 1642, and the former Rotunda"
"entrenched objectification of women, which Shaw saw pervading all levels of Victorian society down to its most basic nuclear element, the family."" Mrs. Warren's Profession Mrs. Warren's Profession is a play written by George Bernard Shaw in 1893, and first performed in London in 1902. The play is about a former prostitute, now a madam (brothel proprietor), who attempts to come to terms with her disapproving daughter. It is a problem play, offering social commentary to illustrate Shaw's belief that the act of prostitution was not caused by moral failure but by economic necessity. Elements of the play were borrowed"
"her providing an occasional home for the Independent Theatre Society, who produced plays on a subscription-only basis – hence evading the censorship of the Lord Chamberlain's Office. The London première's of Henrik Ibsen's ""Ghosts"" (on 13 March 1891) and Émile Zola's ""Thérèse Raquin"" (on 9 October 1891), led to a storm of protest, with some critics calling for the withdrawal of Santley's licence. George Bernard Shaw's first play, ""Widowers' Houses"", premièred for the Society at the theatre on 9 December 1892. When the theatre finally had a great success, with Brandon Thomas's play, ""Charley's Aunt"", its popularity led to its"
"his face, wishing that all the world might wonder on him.' "" In 1592, the events were dramatized in the play ""Arden of Faversham"". The paternity of the play has been long disputed, with William Shakespeare being the most prominent of the candidates. The play was later adapted by George Lillo into a domestic tragedy. Alice Arden's story was also adapted into a broadside ballad, ""The complaint and lamentation of Mistresse Arden of Feversham in Kent"". Alice Arden Alice Arden (1516–1551) was an English murderer. She was the daughter of John Brigantine and Alice Squire, who conspired to have her"
"Louise Closser Hale Louise Closser Hale (October 13, 1872 – July 26, 1933) was an American actress, playwright, and novelist. Louise Closser was born in Chicago, Illinois. Her father was Joseph A. Closser (1844–1887), a wealthy grain dealer and her mother was Louise M. Closser (1847–1932). She studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City, and at Emerson College of Oratory in Boston. She made her theatrical debut in Detroit in an 1894 production of ""In Old Kentucky"". Her first theatrical success came in 1903, when she appeared in a Broadway production of George Bernard Shaw's"
"farce ""Charley's Aunt"", they produced it as the musical comedy ""Where's Charley?"", with a score by Frank Loesser. Among the backers of ""Where's Charley?"" were Rodgers and Hammerstein, which helped secure additional investment. The show was a hit and helped establish Feuer and Martin on Broadway—they would go on to produce ""Guys and Dolls"". In the aftermath of ""Guys and Dolls""'s success, Feuer and Martin were interested in adapting John Steinbeck's 1945 novel ""Cannery Row"" into a musical. They felt that some of the characters, such as marine biologist Doc, would work well in a musical, but that many of"
"threatening to dispute the letter. Amy is upset at everyone for making a fool of her uncle. Donna Lucia reassures her and gives the girls the letter. Sir Francis and Donna Lucia are engaged (he made the proposal before he realized her identity); the young couples can marry; and Babbs confesses his feelings to Ela. The play was originally given at Bury St. Edmunds on 29 February 1892, commissioned by the local hunt, which sponsored a new play every year for its annual social festivities, known as the ""Hunt Bespeak."" Penley produced the piece and played Lord Fancourt Babberly, Both"