George Emlyn Williams, CBE was a Welsh writer, dramatist and actor.
Florodora is an Edwardian musical comedy. After its long run in London, it became one of the first successful Broadway musicals of the 20th century. The book was written by Jimmy Davis under the pseudonym Owen Hall, the music was by Leslie Stuart with additional songs by Paul Rubens, and the lyrics were by Edward Boyd-Jones, George Arthurs and Rubens.
Leslie Stuart born Thomas Augustine Barrett was an English composer of Edwardian musical comedy, best known for the hit show Florodora (1899) and many popular songs.
The Vaudeville Theatre is a West End theatre on the Strand in the City of Westminster. Opening in 1870, the theatre staged mostly vaudeville shows and musical revues in its early days. The theatre was rebuilt twice, although each new building retained elements of the previous structure. The current building dates from 1926, and the capacity is now 690 seats. Early stage mechanisms, including rare thunder drums and lightning sheets, survive in the theatre.
William Terriss, born as William Charles James Lewin, was an English actor, known for his swashbuckling hero roles, such as Robin Hood, as well as parts in classic dramas and comedies. He was also a notable Shakespearean performer. He was the father of the Edwardian musical comedy star Ellaline Terriss and the film director Tom Terriss.
Allan James Foley, distinguished 19th century Irish bass opera singer, was born at Cahir, County Tipperary. In accordance with the prevailing preference for Italian artists, he changed the spelling of his name and was always known as 'Signor Foli.'
Dorothy Hyson, Lady Quayle was an American-born film and stage actress who worked largely in England. During World War II, she worked as a cryptographer at Bletchley Park.
Sir Edward Seymour Hicks, better known as Seymour Hicks, was a British actor, music hall performer, playwright, actor-manager and producer. He became known, early in his career, for writing, starring in and producing Edwardian musical comedy, often together with his famous wife, Ellaline Terriss. His most famous acting role was that of Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol.
"Lily of Laguna" is a British coon song written in eye dialect. It was written in 1896 by English composer Leslie Stuart. It was a music hall favourite, performed notably by blackface performers such as Eugene Stratton and G. H. Elliott. In the early 1940s Ted Fio Rito wrote the tune of a new verse and Paul Francis Webster wrote fresh lyrics and it was stripped of its overtly racist lyrics to become a pure love song which continued to be popular into the 1950s.
The Circus Girl is a Edwardian musical comedy in two acts with a book by James T. Tanner and Walter Apllant (Palings), lyrics by Harry Greenbank and Adrian Ross, music by Ivan Caryll, and additional music by Lionel Monckton.
Paul Alfred Rubens was an English songwriter and librettist who wrote some of the most popular Edwardian musical comedies of the early twentieth century. He contributed to the success of dozens of musicals.
Mary Ellaline Terriss, Lady Hicks, known professionally as Ellaline Terriss, was a popular British actress and singer, best known for her performances in Edwardian musical comedies. She met and married the actor-producer Seymour Hicks in 1893, and the two collaborated on many projects for the stage and screen.
The Beauty of Bath is a musical comedy with a book by Seymour Hicks and Cosmo Hamilton, lyrics by C. H. Taylor and music by Herbert Haines; additional songs were provided by Jerome Kern, F. Clifford Harris (lyrics) and P. G. Wodehouse (lyrics). Based loosely on the play David Garrick, the story concerns a young woman from a noble family, who falls in love with an actor. She then meets a sailor who appears identical to the actor and mistakes him for the latter. Her father objects to a marriage with the actor, but when it turns out that she really loves the sailor, all objections fall away.
Francis Martin Sewell Stokes was an English novelist, biographer, playwright, screenwriter, broadcaster and prison visitor. He collaborated on a number of occasions with his brother, Leslie Stokes, an actor and later in life a BBC radio producer, with whom he shared a flat for many years overlooking the British Museum.
Edwardian musical comedy is a genre of British musical theatre that thrived from 1892 into the 1920s, extending beyond the reign of King Edward VII in both directions. It began to dominate the English musical stage, and even the American musical theatre, when the Gilbert and Sullivan operas' dominance had ended, until the rise of American musicals by Jerome Kern, Rodgers and Hart, George Gershwin and Cole Porter following the First World War.
Bluebell in Fairyland is a Christmas-season children's entertainment described as "a musical dream play", in two acts, with a book by Seymour Hicks, lyrics by Aubrey Hopwood and Charles H. Taylor, and music by Walter Slaughter. It was produced by Charles Frohman. The creators sought to distinguish the work from a Christmas pantomime. The story concerns a flower girl, Bluebell, who on Christmas Eve goes to fairyland in search of the "Sleeping King", seeking to restore him to his throne, which has been usurped by the "Reigning King".
Thomas Herbert F. Lewin, known professionally as Tom Terriss, was a British actor, screenwriter, and film director. After trying various occupations, he became an actor playing a variety of roles, beginning in 1890, in plays, pantomime and Edwardian musical comedy. After the First World War, he left the stage and pursued a decade-long film career. He was the brother of the musical comedy star Ellaline Terriss and son of leading man actor William Terriss.
The Gay Gordons is a 1907 Edwardian musical comedy with a book by Seymour Hicks, music by Guy Jones and lyrics by Arthur Wimperis, C. H. Bovill, Henry Hamilton and P. G. Wodehouse, who wrote the lyrics to "Now That My Ship's Come Home" and "You, You, You". The title refers to both the Clan Gordon and the famed Scottish regiment the Gordon Highlanders as the plot involves the heir to the clan and a soldier from the regiment.
Thomas Patrick Finglass was an Irish blackface tenor who had a successful career in British music hall. He was sometimes billed as The Ideal Coon. He played the legendary blackface performer Eugene Stratton (1861–1918) in the 1940 film You Will Remember which tells the story of songwriter Leslie Stuart's (1863–1928) life.
May Leslie Stuart was an English actress and singer in operetta and Edwardian musical comedy from 1909 to 1915. She also sang on the music hall circuit, performing with her father, the composer Leslie Stuart.
