Charley's Aunt
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The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey CHARLEY’S AUNT: Know-the-Show Guide Charley’s Aunt By Brandon Thomas Directed by Joseph Discher Know-the-Show Audience Guide Researched and written by the Education Department of The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey Cover art by Scott McKowen. The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey CHARLEY’S AUNT: Know-the-Show Guide In This Guide – Charley’s Aunt: Director’s Notes ........................................................................... 2 – The Life of Brandon Thomas ................................................................................. 4 – Charley’s Aunt: A Synopsis ................................................................................... 6 – Who’s Who in Charley’s Aunt ............................................................................... 8 – Famous Faces: Charley’s Aunt(s) ........................................................................... 9 – In This Production .............................................................................................. 10 – Victorian Theatre and Audiences ........................................................................ 11 – Explore Online: Links ........................................................................................ 12 1 The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey CHARLEY’S AUNT: Know-the-Show Guide a musical version called Where’s Charley? starring Ray Bolger as Charley, with lyrics by Frank Loesser, a televised version by Playhouse 90 with Art Carney as Babbs, and an American Playhouse version in 1987 with Victor Garber as Jack and Charles Grodin as Babbs. Not to mention a 1975 Director’sCharley’s Soviet television version entitled Hello, I’m Your Aunt… Notes Though Brandon Thomas wrote more than a dozen plays and worked often as a character actor, Charley’s Aunt is the work for which he remains Aunt best known. He played the role of Sir Colonel Francis Chesney for the first Charley’s Aunt was officially commissioned by the local hunt in Bury St. few weeks of the London run of Charley’s Aunt and regularly played the Edmunds, which sponsored a new play every year for its annual social part in later revivals until shortly before his death. In his obituary notice, festivities known as the “Hunt Bespeak.” Brandon Thomas’ play was The Times of London quoted Thomas as having said, “I hoped to go down first performed at Theatre Royal Bury St. Edmunds (Suffolk) in February to fame as a great actor. If I go at all it will be as the author of Charley’s 1892. It was produced by actor W. S. Penley, a friend of Thomas’, who Aunt.” appeared in the principal role of Lord Fancourt Babberly. We’re in love… Charley’s Aunt broke all historic records for plays of any kind, with an No fool of a flirtation business, original London run of 1,466 but the real downright serious thing. performances across four years, closing on December 19, I must confess that I was unfamiliar with Charley’s Aunt when I was first 1896. It was also a success on offered the opportunity to direct it here at The Shakespeare Theatre. As Broadway in 1893 where it had I read it, I could not understand how the play had escaped my notice. another long run. It has toured Why had I not seen a production? Strangely enough, it has been rarely internationally and has been produced in the past few decades. Yet it has everything an audience could revived and adapted for films and want in a comedy. musicals, including a silent film version starring Sydney Chaplin, Charley’s Aunt is a classic example of a three-act, fast-paced, incredibly fun romp of a farce; perhaps even a pioneer of the form, having preceded gems like Oscar Wilde’s The Importance Rendering of W.S. Penley as the of Being Earnest (1895) and Feydeau’s A Flea in Her Ear original Charley’s Aunt by Alfred Bryan, 1893. Entr’acte Annual. (1907). It has young lovers, scheming parents and 2 The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey CHARLEY’S AUNT: Know-the-Show Guide guardians, an unflappable butler, improbable disguises, false identities, witty dialogue, high manners, physical comedy and cross-dressing. From the moment Jack and Charley enlist their friend to impersonate Charley’s aunt, the play moves from one unbelievably absurd situation to the next with domino-effect LEFT: Program from the alacrity, as the two college gents try to keep up with the lie they original London production. have perpetrated in order to propose to the women they love. Source: Wikipedia. BELOW: Poster for the San It would be easy to fixate only on the play’s broad comedy and Francisco run of the popular wind up with only fluff and silliness on stage. But no matter how Broadway production of Where’s Charley? featuring high a level of preposterousness the play can rise to, at the heart Ray Bolger. • Poster for the of the play is one powerful theme that grounds it in reality—a 1941 film version starring force that has at one time or another, made us all do some very Jack Benny as “Babbs,” 20th Century-Fox Pictures. foolish things: love. What are the lengths we will go to for love? Source: Osdan Galleries. What are the sacrifices we will make and the indignities we will suffer for it? And in the end, it is love that makes all the trouble worth it. To me, this is what drives the play’s characters, action and the comedy itself. Crafting the many moments of comedy with this cast has been a daily dose of fun. But underneath it all has been this theme, which I hope makes your journey through the play just a bit more dear and delightful. It has been a gift to work on a play like this and to share it with you. May the laughter it provides be a satisfying tonic for these times. -Joseph Discher, Director 3 The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey CHARLEY’S AUNT: Know-the-Show Guide at the Court Theatre in London. He made his first professional stage The Life appearance there at age 30, in April 1879, as Sandy in The Queen’s Shilling. Thomas continued to write, and the Kendals accepted his new play Brandon Thomas Comrades for their theatre. It opened at the Court in 1882, with a cast including Arthur Cecil, D. G. Boucicault and Marion Terry. He remained of Walter Brandon Thomas (December in their company playing small roles until 1885, when he joined Rosina 24, 1848 – June 19, 1914) was Vokes’s company as its leading man on an American tour. Upon his born in Mount Pleasant, Liverpool return to London, he attracted significant attention in Sweet Lavender by to Hannah and Walter Thomas, a Arthur Wing Pinero. In the role of the banker Geoffrey Wedderburn, “he boot seller. He was educated at at once leapt into favor as a strong and virile representative of elderly the Liverpool Institute and later at men.” a private school in Lancashire. At the age of 14, he enlisted in the In 1888, Thomas married Marguerite Blanche Leverson, the daughter Royal Marines but was bought out of a diamond merchant. Thomas and his wife had three children; Amy after six weeks and apprenticed to a Brandon Thomas and Jevan Roderick Brandon Thomas each had theatrical shipbuilder. He learned bookkeeping careers, but Sylvia M. Brandon Thomas did not. and was a clerk with local Liverpool timber merchants until 1875 when In 1891, Thomas found great artistic and financial success in a triple he and his family moved to Hull. bill at Terry’s Theatre. He invested £1,000 (roughly $155,000 today) in a production of three one-act plays: his own The Lancashire Sailor, Weedon Thomas augmented his salary with Grossmith’s A Commission, and Cecil Clay’s A Pantomime Rehearsal. He Walter Brandon Thomas, by occasional journalism, and The took prominent roles in all three, displaying his versatility as “a romantic Napoleon Sarony albumen cabinet Times noted that at 17 he published card, circa 1885. The National young lover, a delightfully cynical model, and as the heavy, stupid Portrait Gallery. “a striking pamphlet” attacking the Captain.” hymn-writers Moody and Sankey. Thomas’ chief love, however, was the theatre. He appeared as an Despite this praise, Thomas’ outstanding hit was as a writer with a farce amateur in Hull, singing and reciting at concerts, performing in music entitled Charley’s Aunt. The title role was written for his friend, the actor halls and drawing room entertainments, playing the piano and singing W. S. Penley. Penley produced the play and took the star role of Lord his own songs. Through the influence of a local businessman, Albert Fancourt Babberly. The early performances of the play were given Rollit, he secured an engagement with William and Madge Kendal on tour in the English provinces in February 1892. When the 4 The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey CHARLEY’S AUNT: Know-the-Show Guide CHARLEY’S AUNT: A TRIUMPH! Royalty Theatre in London became unexpectedly vacant, Penley took it, opening Charley’s Aunt there in December, 1892. For the first few Charley’s Aunt was an immediate success and in January, 1893 it weeks, Thomas played the role of Colonel Sir Francis Chesney. He transferred to the much larger Globe Theatre, only a month after regularly played the part in revivals until shortly before his death. it opened. It ran for a record-breaking 1,466 performances across four years, closing on December 19, 1896. The play was also Thomas’ career as a character actor continued to prosper. In 1892, he simultaneously toured by seven companies throughout the United played in W. S. Gilbert’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, a parody of Kingdom at this time. Hamlet, and Faithful James by B. C. Stephenson, both at the Court The piece was successfully staged Theatre. In 1895, he starred in a THE CLAIM TO throughout the English-speaking world revival of The Rivals and Bernard CHARLEY’S AUNT and it had success on Broadway in 1893.