''Wapping Old Stairs'' is an 1894

comic opera Comic opera, sometimes known as light opera, is a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending and often including spoken dialogue. Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a ne ...

in three acts, with music by

Howard Talbot Howard Munkittrick, better known as Howard Talbot (9 March 1865 – 12 September 1928), was an American-born, English-raised composer and conductor of Irish descent. He was best known for writing the music to several hit Edwardian musical comedi ...

, which played at the

Vaudeville Theatre 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 buildin ...

in London. It included

D'Oyly Carte Opera Company The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company is a professional British light opera company that, from the 1870s until 1982, staged Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas nearly year-round in the UK and sometimes toured in Europe, North America and elsewhere. The ...

regulars Courtice Pounds, Richard Temple and Jessie Bond in the cast. J. P. Wearing
''The London Stage 1890-1899: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel''
Rowman & Littlefield (2014) – Google Books, p. 200

Production

''Wapping Old Stairs'' had a lot of competition in London in 1894, which saw the openings of ''

The Chieftain ''The Chieftain'' is a two-act comic opera by Arthur Sullivan and Francis Cowley Burnand, F. C. Burnand based on their 1867 opera, ''The Contrabandista''. It consists of substantially the same first act as the 1867 work with a completely new se ...

'' by

Arthur Sullivan Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan (13 May 1842 – 22 November 1900) was an English composer. He is best known for 14 comic opera, operatic Gilbert and Sullivan, collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including ''H.M.S. Pinaf ...

and F. C. Burnand, ''

His Excellency Excellency is an honorific style (manner of address), style given to certain high-level officers of a sovereign state, officials of an international organization, or members of an aristocracy. Once entitled to the title "Excellency", the holder ...

'' by F. Osmond Carr and

W. S. Gilbert Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (18 November 1836 – 29 May 1911) was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his collaboration with composer Arthur Sullivan, which produced fourteen comic operas. The most fam ...

, ''

Go-Bang ''Go-Bang'' is an English musical comedy with words by Adrian Ross and music by F. Osmond Carr. The piece was produced by Fred Harris and opened at the Trafalgar Square Theatre on 10 March 1894. It ran for 159 performances. The show starred ...

'' by

Adrian Ross Arthur Reed Ropes (23 December 1859 – 11 September 1933), better known under the pseudonym Adrian Ross, was a prolific English writer of lyrics, contributing songs to more than sixty British musical comedies in the late 19th and early 20th ...

and Carr, '' The Lady Slavey'' by John Crook and George Dance, a revival of '' Little Jack Sheppard'' by

Meyer Lutz Wilhelm Meyer Lutz (19 May 1829 – 31 January 1903) was a German-born British composer and conductor who is best known for light music, musical theatre and Victorian burlesque, burlesques of well-known works. Emigrating to the UK at the age o ...

and H. P. Stephens at the Gaiety Theatre, '' Mirette'' by

André Messager André Charles Prosper Messager (; 30 December 1853 – 24 February 1929) was a French composer, organist, pianist and conductor. His compositions include eight ballets and thirty , opérettes and other stage works, among which his ballet (1 ...

and Ross, and ''

The Shop Girl ''The Shop Girl'' was an Edwardian musical comedy in two acts (described by the author as a musical farce) written by Henry J. W. Dam, with lyrics by Dam and Adrian Ross and music by Ivan Caryll, and additional numbers by Lionel Monckton and Ro ...

'', an extremely successful musical comedy by H. J. W. Dam,

Ivan Caryll Félix Marie Henri Tilkin (12 May 1861 – 29 November 1921), better known by his pen name Ivan Caryll, was a Belgian-born composer of operettas and Edwardian musical comedies in the English language, who made his career in London and later N ...

Lionel Monckton Lionel John Alexander Monckton (18 December 1861 – 15 February 1924) was an English composer of musical theatre. He became Britain's most popular composer of Edwardian musical comedy in the early years of the 20th century. Life and career E ...

and Ross. Written around the title of an old song, ''Wapping Old Stairs'' was first mounted at the Theatre Royal in

King's Lynn King's Lynn, known until 1537 as Bishop's Lynn and colloquially as Lynn, is a port and market town in the borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk in the county of Norfolk, England. It is north-east of Peterborough, north-north-east of Cambridg ...

from 4 to 6 January 1894 before transferring to the

in London.Musical and Dramatic Notes
''Public Opinion'', Volumes 65–66, 9 February 1894, p. 180 It has a libretto by Stuart Robertson and a score by

and was Talbot's first full professionally produced

; it was directed and produced by Richard Temple. The success of this production in King's Lynn, where the musical magazine ''The Lute'' commented, "there is a freshness and vivacity in Mr. Talbot's music – particularly in the opening numbers – that as a modern comic opera entitle the work to more than ordinary consideration" led to a transfer of the show to the

in London; there it ran for 43 performances, from 17 February to 6 April 1894. Despite a strong London cast including Jessie Bond, Courtice Pounds and Richard Temple from the

, the show was not well received in the West End, with the critic for ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' writing that the piece was an example "of the modified variety entertainment which is now in vogue" and which had "the complete absence of plot". In March 1894 various alterations were made to the piece to improve it, including introducing the ballad ''Wapping Old Stairs'' on which the work was based.

Synopsis

A review in ''

St James's Gazette The ''St James's Gazette'' was a London evening newspaper published from 1880 to 1905. It was founded by the Conservative Henry Hucks Gibbs, later Baron Aldenham, a director of the Bank of England 1853–1901 and its governor 1875–1877; the ...

'' said of the production:

“The author and composer of ‘Wapping Old Stairs’, the new opera or operetta produced at the Vaudeville on Saturday night, may be congratulated on having achieved a genuine musical and dramatic success. There is but little of the spectacular element in the piece; the same set scene does duty throughout, and almost the only dresses are those of sailors and of their constant associates, ‘the merry maids of Wapping’. The eminent musician in using for his score the old melody of ‘Wapping old Stairs’ , which might have been treated with dramatic effect. Mr Stuart Robertson’s book, with but little dramatic basis is ingeniously constructed, and his lyrics are written with grace and point. It appears that in the last century, or even earlier, two sailors of Wapping fell in love with the same girl; on which the most unscrupulous of the young woman’s admirers committed a murder, and so arranged matters that his rival was looked upon as the assassin and, to save his life, fled to foreign parts. But after the lapse of many years the truth came out; when the good man returned to the land of his birth and the girl of his heart, while the bad man was executed, and after ‘ suspension by the neck’ hung ignominiously in chains. This story is, no doubt a little tragic for a comic opera, and the librettist, whilst softening its harsher features, has introduced in abundance the element of mirth.”"Wapping Old Stairs"
London Inheritance website

Cast

*Sir Wormwood Scrubs - Herbert Sparling *Mark Mainstay - Courtice Pounds *Captain Crook - Henry Bourchier/ Charles Collette *Ben Brace - Avon Saxon *Dick Fid - Richard Temple/T. P. Haynes *Quartermaster - William Vokes *Nancy Joy - Mary Turner *Molly Joy - Hannah Jones *Daisy Pennant - Mary Hutton *Kate Capstan - M. Warren *Betsy Binnacle - L. Stewart *Susan Sinnett - Jessie Bond/Fanny Marriott *Nellie Caper - Lennox *Annie Alport - Amy Bell *Bessie Bouncer - Fane *Dolly Hawser - Annie Laurie

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wapping Old Stairs 1894 musicals 1894 operas West End musicals Original musicals English comic operas English-language operas Operas