a novel employment of electricity, incandescent lights breaking out upon the breastplates and helmets of the ballet. It was the first time such an effect, which has since become quite common, was attempted. In July, 1884, John Hollingshead brought the Gaiety company here with the burlesque of The Forty Thieves. In the next year Hayden Coffin and J. L. Shine appeared in a comic opera, The Lady of the Locket. In 1886 a version of Jules Verne's and D'Ennery's Round the World in Eighty Days was splendidly mounted here under the direction of Marius, with Charles Cartwright, Collette, Kate Vaughan; and another elaborate spectacle, The Palace of Pearl, was produced. Not long afterwards, 1887, the dramatic was abandoned for the variety show. Expectation was on tiptoe when, in the first week of February, 1891, D'Oyly Carte opened his magnificent new theatre, with its marble vestibule and staircase and splendid decorations, in Cambridge Circus as THE ENGLISH OPERA HOUSE, with Arthur Sullivan's grand opera Ivanhoe. The supposition, however, that an opera could be forced into a long run like a drama was one of those absurd calculations which experts so often make. Soon came the fiasco. There was not another English opera ready, and the house that was built for the purpose of exploiting national music had to fall back for its second work on La Basoche! Sarah Bernhardt appeared as Cleopatra here in 1892. D'Oyly Carte turned the theatre into a company, who converted it into a variety show, but for a long time it was a terrible muddle. Even when the company was placed under the management of Augustus Harris, the muddle was quite as bad. I shall never forget the first night of the new entertainment, the mixture of variety turns and melo drama; poor William Rignold as a brave British officer killing his wife to save her from the sepoys. The entertainment struggled on long after midnight, amid the jeers and hostile demonstrations of the audience. Nothing prospered at the house until Mr. Morton, who I verily believe would make a theatre pay on the top of a Dartmoor tor, undertook the management. From that time the Palace Theatre has been one of the best paying of the variety shows. There still remain a few more extinct West End theatres, now quite forgotten, to be mentioned, to render my list complete. At the end of the eighteenth century, Charles Dibdin fitted up a little theatre at the corner of Leicester Place -the post office now occupies the site for his entertainment of songs and sketches, which he called THE SANS SOUCI. Edmund Kean, when a boy, appeared here in some acrobatic performances. After Dibdin's time it was used more by amateurs than professionals, except for benefits. "Baron" Nicholson, in his memoirs, 1820, calls it "an elegant little theatre," but it was too small for any effective representations. In 1832 it was opened by subscription for vaudevilles. Two years afterwards a French company occupied it. After that it was closed. From 1819 to 1823 THE ARGYLL ROOMS, Regent Street, was fitted up for French plays, under the patronage of the aristocracy. These were given by subscription every Friday from March to September. The performance commenced at nine and terminated at twelve; after which the company adjourned to the ballroom to finish up the night's amusement with dancing. This, however, was a private theatre, as only subscribers were admitted. In 1832 a theatre was opened in Windmill Street, Haymarket, and called THE ALBION, a name which, three years afterwards, was changed to the New Queen's. Its entire existence extended over only four years. years. famous tragedy actress, Sally Booth, performed here, though its ordinary programme was very pronounced melodrama. The In the same year (1832) an undertaker named Gale, of York Street, Westminster, erected upon a plot of ground he owned (for which it may be presumed he could find no other purpose) THE WESTMINSTER THEATRE. It stood just about the spot on which is now the stage entrance of the Imperial. Its first manager was T. D. Davenport, who is generally believed to have been the original of Dickens's Crummles. Dibdin Pitt and John Douglass were his successors, and several actors who afterwards won a name for themselves, William Davidge, Joseph Rayner, and Munyard, appeared here. The Westminster Theatre never obtained a licence, and was in existence only about four years. Between 1834 and 1840 there was a theatre in High Street, Kensington, called THE ROYAL KENT; but it was a mere box, and would hold only about two hundred and fifty persons. Nevertheless, it had "a royal entrance" down a back court. Brown, a well-known light comedian, Wynne, an actor of some repute, the brother of Augustus Sala, frequently mentioned in the memoirs of the latter, and Denvil, the original representative of Manfred, were, at one time, among the company. Indeed, it was from here that Bunn engaged Denvil for Drury Lane, to play the part of Byron's melancholy hero. |