The Adelphi Theatre

“ The novel was turned into a melodrama, in which Mrs Keeley’s clever embodiment of that “marvellous boy” made for months and months the fortunes of the Adelphi Theatre; while the sonorous musical voice of Paul Bedford as Blueskin in the same play brought into vogue a song with the refrain,
“Nix my dolly, pals, fake away!”
which travelled everywhere, and made the patter of thieves and burglars “familiar in our mouths as household words.” It deafened us in the streets, where it was as popular with the organ-grinders and German bands as Sullivan’s brightest melodies ever were in a later day. ”

“ Rudolph having married her in ignorance of that fact, and by a coincidence which, though intensely melo-dramatic, every body foresees who has ever been three times to the Adelphi theatre.
To describe the last scene would be the height of presumption in PUNCH. Nobody but “Satan” Montgomery, or the Adelphi play-bill, is equal to the task. We quote, as preferable, the latter authority:—“Grand inauguration of Wilhelm, the rightful heir. CORAL CAVES and CRYSTAL STREAMS: these are actually obtained by a HYDRO-SCENIC EFFECT! As the usual area devoted to illusion becomes a reality!” ”

“ During the season of 1830, for his friend Samuel James Arnold, he undertook the active management of the Adelphi Theatre. His version of Scribe and Auber's opera ‘Gustave Trois, or the Masked Ball,’ in which he vindicated the character of Madame Ankarström, who was still living, was produced with much success at Covent Garden on 13 Nov. 1833. In 1838 he undertook the libretto for an opera by Mendelssohn on the siege of Calais by Edward III. A long correspondence ensued with the composer (Planché, Recollections, i. 279–316) , but ultimately the work was abandoned. ”

“ In the autumn of 1844 the Adelphi reopened under the management of Benjamin Webster and Madame Celeste, and the golden period of Miss Woolgar's career at that theatre began. On 14 October she showed dramatic feeling as Lazarillo in Boucicault's 'Don Cesar de Bazan.' At the Haymarket on 18 Nov. (owing to the sudden illness of Madame Vestris) she played Lady Ahce Hawthorn, on half a day's notice, in the same author's new comedy 'Old Heads and Young Hearts.' She returned to the Adelphi at Easter 1845, and afterwards fulfilled some provincial engagements with her father. ”

“ In September, 1909, it was produced for a short run at the Adelphi Theatre in London. The Great Divide portrayed the conflict of the ideals of Puritanism, with its capacity of self-torture, and the freer conceptions of life prevalent in the West. ”

“ To this day the term Adelphi guests is used as a byword.
Webster is responsible for about a hundred plays, the names of many of which cannot now be traced. Several are in part based on French originals. In addition to those named are ‘High Ways and By Ways,’ a farce in two acts (Cumberland's ‘British Drama’) ; ‘Paul Clifford,’ a drama in three acts, and ‘The Golden Farmer,’ a drama in two acts (both in Cumberland's ‘Minor Theatre’) ; ‘The Old Gentleman,’ a comedy in one act (Duncombe's ‘British Theatre’) ; ‘The Modern Orpheus,’ a farce in one act ”

“ Oriel Coll. Oxf. Rector of Burgh next Aylsham, Norfolk. J.P. for Norfolk.
Yates, Frederick, 1810-11, b. 1794. Actor. The friend, pupil and partner of Charles Matthews, with whom he was co-proprietor of the Adelphi Theatre; died 1842. ”

“ In October this year the venerable Mrs. Garrick departed this life, when seated in her armchair in the front drawing-room of her house in the Adelphi. She had ordered her maid-servants to place two or three gowns upon chairs, to determine in which she would appear at Drury Lane Theatre that evening, it being a private view of Mr. Elliston’s improvements for the season. Perhaps no lady in public and private life held a more unexceptionable character. ”

“ Everybody ought to go and see him. Young ladies having a taste for sentimental-looking men, who wear their hair à la jeune France; natural historians who want to see guinea-pigs fly; gamesters who would like to be made “fly” to a card trick or two; connoisseurs, who wish to see how plum-pudding may be made in hats, will all be gratified by a visit to the Adelphi.
MACBETH AT THE SURREY.
We heard the “Macbeth choruses” exquisitely performed, and saw the concluding combat furiously fought at this theatre. ”

“ Yet we suppose if these young ladies were to marry, and not volunteer to put ten thousand pounds in the pockets of some liberally disposed manager, we should hear a very pitiful story of their ingratitude to their patrons and the public. It is the way of the world. There is a Mr. Reeve at this theatre (the Adelphi in the Strand) of whom report had spoken highly in his particular department as a mimic, and in whom we were considerably disappointed. He is not so good as Matthews, who, after all, is by no means a fac-simile of those he pretends to represent. ”

“ In course of a dispute with the 'Edinburgh Dramatic Review' it came out that Murray's salary had been 46l. a week, with 100l. annually for his expenses as manager.
Refusing an offer to act at Covent Garden, Murray remained at Edinburgh, and secured the lease not only of the Theatre Royal, but also, in conjunction with Yates, of the playhouse in Leith Walk which had been known during the previous ten years as the Pantheon and latterly as the Caledonian, but was now renamed the Adelphi. The partnership with Yates lasted only one year. ”

“ Rice stayed through the whole season, playing an engagement of twenty one weeks, then considered something extraordinary. For a long period he performed at the Adelphi and the Pavilion Theatres the same evening, and it was calculated that in so doing he had travelled considerably more than a thousand miles, while being encored five times at each theatre for 126 nights, it was easy to set down the figure of 1,260 as representing the number of times he had sung "Jim Crow," during that period. ”

“ So popular was “flash” with the “bloods” of high life, that it constituted the best paying literary capital for certain authors and dramatists. Pierce Egan issued Boxiana, and Life in London, six portly octavo volumes, crammed with Slang; and Moncrieff wrote the most popular farce of the day, Tom and Jerry (adapted from the latter work) , which, to use newspaper Slang, “took the town by storm,” and, with its then fashionable vulgarisms, made the fortune of the old Adelphi Theatre, and was without exception the most wonderful instance of a continuous theatrical run in ancient or modern times. ”

“ He mainly occupied himself with directing the music at the theatre, and in composition for the stage. His opera, ‘The Flying Dutchman,’ was produced at the Adelphi in 1826, and ‘The Cornish Miners’ at the English Opera House in 1827. ”

“ She then returned to Dublin, to Crow Street Theatre, and, engaged by R. W. Elliston [q. v.] , appeared, 16 Nov. I818, at the Olympic, speaking an opening address by Moncrieff. The following year she accompanied her manager to Drury Lane. Mrs. Edwin was also seen at the Haymarket, the Adelphi, the Surrey, and other London theatres, and played at Scarborough, Weymouth, Cheltenham, &c. At a comparatively early age she retired from the stage with a competency. ”

“ Grisi, and some badinage is directed at the "stars" of the Italian Opera.
A'Beckett further undertook, along with Mark Lemon, a skit upon another of the Byronic dramas—"Sardanapalus"—which they reproduced as "Sardanapalus, or the 'Fast' King of Assyria." The Adelphi was the theatre of operations; 1853 was the year; and while Miss Woolgar was Sardanapalus, Paul Bedford was Arbaces, Keeley was Salymenia (mother of the Queen) , Miss Maskell was Beleses, and Miss Mary Keeley was Altada. Arbaces is here shown as impervious to the charm of melody:—
Such music to my ears is a mere hum ”

“ Therefore, 'tis the brother-authors, "hoi Adelphoi," who have blundered. Undoubtedly. An Adelphi audience is not to be satisfied with a one-scene piece, when that scene is without any incident in it worth a melodramatic father's cuss. ”

“ This veteran actor had earned a great reputation many years ago. His name will go down to future generations of playgoers as that of one who was a master of the art of embodying on the stage every variety of character. No man has played with success in a greater number of characters than the proprietor of the Adelphi. ”

“ There always has been a strong theatrical element amongst the clientele of Gatti's, and the authors who [Pg 231] wrote the Adelphi melodramas—Dion Boucicault, Henry Pettitt, George R. Sims, Robert Buchanan and others—used constantly to be amongst the people lunching and dining in the Gallery. In their theatrical enterprises the Gattis never forgot the Adelaide Gallery, and the one thing essential in an Adelphi melodrama was that it should conclude in time to allow the audience to sup at the restaurant. ”

“ Something new in Melodrama is wanted, and Melodrama "all of the modern time" is played out, unless a genius can hit on a new sensation. The Adelphi piece, however, has its advantages, and among these its chiefest is, that it necessitates the taking of light refreshment immediately afterwards. ”

“ Towse saw admirable performances of Shakespeare,563 Sheridan, and Goldsmith, as well as E. A. Sothern as Lord Dundreary before the part had been made the piece of broad buffoonery which it later became in America. The Adelphi was the home of melodrama, well played. But the performances which made the chief impression upon the boy were those of the famous actor-manager Samuel Phelps, who in the fifties and early sixties raised Sadler’s Wells Theater, in the shabby and despised suburb of Islington, into a famous shrine of dramatic art, and who later appeared in other London theaters. ”

“ Alec D'Urbeville, who would be thoroughly in his element in an Adelphi Drama of the most approved type, ancient or modern. He is just the sort of stage-scoundrel who from time to time seeks to take some mean advantage of a heroine in distress, on which occasions said heroine (of Adelphi Drama) will request him to "unhand her," or to "stand aside and let her pass;" whereupon the dastardly ruffian retaliates with a diabolical sneer of fiendish malice, his eyes ablaze with passion, as, making his melodramatic exit at the O.P. wing, he growls, "Aha! a day will come!" ”

“ The severity of Demea, and easiness of Micio, throw mutual light; and we could not be so well acquainted with the misanthropy of Alceste, were it not for the fashionable complaisant character of Philinte311.” Accordingly, in the modern drama, we often find, that if one of the lovers be a gay companion, the other is grave and serious; like Frankly and Bellamy, in the Suspicious Husband, or Absolute and Faulkland in the Rivals. Yet in the Adelphi, the contrast, perhaps, is too direct, and too constantly obtruded on the attention of the audience. ”

“ The theatre was crowded to overflowing, and the ducal couple with their suite were early in the court boxes. Although no special announcement had been made, the evening was evidently looked upon as a festival occasion, and every one was attired a la grande toilette, the ladies vieing with one another in the richness and brilliancy of their dress.
Prince Adelsberg, who was in the ducal box, was as much excited as if he had written the drama himself. ”

“ Nevertheless, Adelaida, stout and blonde and soft and pathetic, is the real heroine of the theatre, the prima. She is very good at sobbing; and afterwards the men exclaim involuntarily, out of their strong emotion, 'bella, bella!' The women say nothing. They sit stiffly and dangerously as ever. ”

“ The Adelphi was one of the newer theaters in that neighborhood. Its name has been changed now. At this time Whittall was reputed to be the owner, but I do not know if this was so. It was perfectly clear, though, that Max Krueger was Whittall's creature, “Wild Hyacinth,” I should say, was not showing at the Adelphi, but at the Yorktown, farther down Broadway, which was much larger and had a greater seating capacity.
A deceitful air of activity pervaded the offices. Apart from rehearsals, theatrical business seems to consist of lengthy conversations which end exactly where they begin. ”

“ Unfortunately, however, the murdered man, with that superhuman strength which on the stage and in novels always accompanies the agony of death, had managed in falling from the dog-cart to throw the marriage certificate up a fir tree! There it is found by a worthy farmer who talks that conventional rustic dialect which, though unknown in the provinces, is such a popular element in every Adelphi melodrama; and it ultimately falls into the hands of an unscrupulous young man who succeeds in blackmailing Mr. Bourchier and in marrying his daughter. ”

“ There, in spite of the widespread feeling for realism, the mass of the people desire to be amused and are bored by anything with the form of art. So now Adler is connected with the People's Theatre, which gives all sorts of shows, from Gordin's plays to ludicrous history, frivolous comic opera, and conventional melodrama. But Adler acts for the most part only in the better sort. He is an actor of unusual power and vividness. Indeed, in his case, as in that of some other Bowery actors, it is only the Yiddish dialect 137 which stands between him and the distinction of a wide reputation. ”

“ Theatre so much as a Ghost, especially when he appears in a bloody Shirt. A Spectre has very often saved a Play, though he has done nothing but stalked across the Stage, or rose through a Cleft of it, and sunk again without speaking one Word. ”