British Theatre in the Great War: A Revaluation Gordon Williams continuum British Theatre in the Great War This page intentionally left blank British Theatre in the Great War A Revaluation Gordon Williams continuum LONDON • NEW YORK Continuum The Tower Building, 11 York Road, London, SE1 7NX 15 East 26th Street, New York, NY 10010 First published 2003 © Gordon Williams 2003 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 0-8264-5635-9 (hardback) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Williams, Gordon, 1935- British theatre in the Great War: a revaluation / Gordon Williams. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8264-5635-9 1. Theater—Great Britain—History—20th century. 2. Performing arts—Great Britain—History—20th century. 3. World War, 1914-1918—Theater and the war. I. Title. PN2595.W515 2003 792'.0941'09041—dc21 2003055330 Typeset by BookEns Ltd, Royston, Herts. Printed and bound in Great Britain by Contents Prefatory note vii 1 Introduction 1 2 Musical comedy and musical anarchy 18 3 Pantomime and tradition 72 4 Variety on the halls 92 5 War and the legitimate theatre 147 6 A classic theatre? 215 7 Fashionable audiences and the opera 269 8 Conclusion 337 Select Bibliography 340 Index 343 This page intentionally left blank Prefatory note Names have been rendered throughout as they existed at the start of the war. Thus Hermann, rather than Herman, Klein; Edward Knoblauch, rather than Knoblock (except in the Select Bibliography); and the hyphenating of Martin Harvey, which coincided with his post-war knighthood, is ignored. Journal articles in Era, Stage, and the like, when signed, are cited with just the surnames of the following writers: E. A. Baughan, Henry Belcham, Sydney W. Carroll, Herbert Farjeon, West F. deWend Fenton, James Glover, Arnold Golsworthy ('Jingle'), J. T. Grein, John Francis Hope, Mabel Koopman, Samuel Langford, S. R. Littlewood ('Agravaine'), H. Bernard Marks ('Tristram'), H. W. Massingham, H. Chance Newton ('Carados'), Fred Russell, Walter Terry ('Pilgrim'). London is omitted from details of books published there, and where theatre names have no place appended they are in central London. The abbreviations 'p.p.' and 'n.d.' are used in bibliographical sources that are privately published and have no date, respectively, whilst references with dates in square brackets mean that they were originally undated but the dates have been verified. 'Met' and 'Rep' are used for the Metropolitan Opera and repertory theatres habitually referred to in that shorthand form; BNOC, WNOC (respectively British and Welsh National Opera Company); DORA (Defence of the Realm Act). Some abbreviations are obvious: WW2 (World War Two); MP (Member of Parliament). Others are military commonplaces: Lt (Lieutenant), DCM (Distinguished Conduct Medal), DSO (Distinguished Service Order), MC, VC (Military/Victoria Cross), RAMC (Royal Army Medical Corps), RFC (Royal Flying Corps), VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment personnel), POW (prisoner of war). There are professional organizations and publications: AMU (Amalga- mated Musicians' Union), NOA (National Orchestras' Association), VAF (Variety Artistes' Federation); SYB ('Stage' Year Book). The reference LC, followed by numbers, alludes to playscripts submitted to the Lord Chamberlain, and now housed in the British Library Department of viii Prefatory note Manuscripts. Although an extensive sampling has been taken of these scripts, my interest in them is primarily for what they reveal of theatrical conditions and practice. Quite as revealing of these things are contemporary reviews, which have been drawn upon heavily. The critics' response, of course, is not identical with public response, and an interventionist role is frequently adopted. The critic's position between theatrical product and its public is as much dialectical as mediatory. In memory of 67514 Dm G. W., RFA, who had little enough time for theatre-going in 1914—18