James Albery (4 May 1838 – 15 August 1889) was an English

dramatist A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

Life and career

Albery was born in London. On leaving school he entered an architect's office and started to write plays. His

farce Farce is a comedy that seeks to entertain an audience through situations that are highly exaggerated, extravagant, ridiculous, absurd, and improbable. Farce is also characterized by heavy use of physical humor; the use of deliberate absurdity or ...

''A Pretty Piece of Chiselling'' was given its first production by the Ingoldsby Club in 1864. After some failures, his adaptation, ''Dr Davy'', was produced at the

Lyceum Theatre, London The Lyceum Theatre ( ) is a West End theatre located in the City of Westminster, on Wellington Street, just off the Strand in central London. It has a seating capacity of 2,100. The origins of the theatre date to 1765. Managed by Samuel Arnol ...

(1866). His most successful piece, ''Two Roses'', a comedy, was produced at the Vaudeville Theatre in 1870, in which Sir Henry Irving made one of his earliest London successes as Digby Grant. The production ran 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 Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian er ...

's ''

The Pickwick Papers ''The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club'' (also known as ''The Pickwick Papers'') was Charles Dickens's first novel. Because of his success with '' Sketches by Boz'' published in 1836, Dickens was asked by the publisher Chapman & Hall to ...

'' (1871); ''

The Pink Dominos ''The Pink Dominos'' is a farce in three acts by James Albery based on the French farce '' Les Dominos roses'' by Alfred Hennequin and Alfred Delacour. It concerns a plan by two wives to test their husbands' fidelity at a masked ball and a misch ...

'' (1877), a

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 The Criterion Theatre is a West End theatre at Piccadilly Circus in the City of Westminster, and is a Grade II* listed building. It has a seating capacity of 588. Building the theatre In 1870, the caterers Spiers and Pond began developmen ...

, where his wife, the actress and theatrical manager Mary Moore (who after his death became Lady 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). His one-act operetta, ''

The Spectre Knight ''The Spectre Knight'' is a one-act "fanciful operetta" with a libretto by James Albery and music by Alfred Cellier. It was first performed on 9 February 1878 at the Opera Comique by the Comedy Opera Company as a companion piece to ''The Sorcere ...

'', with music by Alfred Cellier, ran as a companion piece to

Gilbert and Sullivan Gilbert and Sullivan was a Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900), who jointly created fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which '' H.M.S. ...

's '' The Sorcerer'' and then '' H.M.S. Pinafore'' at the Opera Comique in 1878 and on tour. Albery also wrote a book called ''Where's the Cat?'' in 1880. Albery and Moore had three sons:

Irving Irving may refer to: People *Irving (name), including a list of people with the name Fictional characters * Irving, the main character's love interest in Cathy (comic strip) * Lloyd Irving, the main protagonist in the ''Tales of Symphonia'' vide ...

, who became a Conservative Member of Parliament, Bronson, a theatre director after whom the Albery Theatre is named, and Wyndham, a socialist activist. Their granddaughter through Irving was Jessica Albery (1908–1990) an architect and town planner, one of the first professional women architects in the UK. Albery wrote this epitaph for himself:

References

Sources

*Albery's plays are collected in a two-volume edition at the British Library at 2303 f. 14. *''The Dramatic Works of James Albery'', together with a sketch of his career, correspondence bearing thereon, press notices, casts, etc. 2 Volumes. Peter Davies, London, 1939.

External links

Midis and cast list for ''The Spectre Knight''
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Albery, James 1838 births 1889 deaths People associated with Gilbert and Sullivan Writers from London English male dramatists and playwrights Burials at Kensal Green Cemetery 19th-century English dramatists and playwrights 19th-century British male writers