Frankenstein, or The Vampire's Victim

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Frankenstein
or The Vampire's Victim
Book
 Richard Butler
Henry Chance Newton
Productions1887 West End

Frankenstein, or The Vampire's Victim (sometimes called Frankenstein, or The Model Man) is a musical burlesque in three acts written by Richard Henry (a pseudonym of Richard Butler and Henry Chance Newton). The music was composed by Meyer Lutz. The piece is a burlesque loosely based on the 1818 Mary Shelley novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus and the Adelphi Theatre drama based on the novel.

Opening at the Gaiety Theatre, London on 24 December 1887, the production was a flop, closing after a week. It starred Nellie Farren as Dr. Frankenstein and Fred Leslie as a monster who is in touch with his feminine side. The Victorian audiences found the piece too feminist in tone. In addition, the public was annoyed at George Edwardes, who had reduced the size of the inexpensive "pit" in favour of more "stalls".[1] The piece also featured Marion Hood as the doctor's love interest Tartina; E. J. Lonnen as the vampire Visconti; Emily Cross as Mary Ann; Sylvia Grey as Tamburina, goddess of the sun; Sybil Grey as Vanilla; the dancer John D'Auban as Demonico; and Frank Thornton as Schwank.[2][3]

Plot

Frankenstein, or The Vampire's Victim features a convoluted plot with Act I featuring a golem like creature who kidnaps Frankenstein in Germany; Act II featuring Frankenstein as a prisoner of Spanish bandits who eventually becomes their leader; and Act III beginning in the Vampire's Club and then after several misadventures ultimately concluding in the Arctic with a scene of dancing sailors and bears; one of whom is Frankenstein in disguise.[4]

Background

This type of work, the Victorian burlesque, was popular in Britain at the time. Other examples include The Bohemian G-yurl and the Unapproachable Pole (1877), Blue Beard (1882), Ariel (1883, by F. C. Burnand), Galatea, or Pygmalion Reversed (1883), Little Jack Sheppard (1885), Monte Cristo Jr. (1886), Miss Esmeralda (1887), Mazeppa, Faust up to Date (1888), Ruy Blas and the Blasé Roué (1888), Carmen up to Data (1890), and Don Juan (1892, with lyrics by Adrian Ross).[5]

Fred Leslie starred at the Gaiety for over 20 years. Leslie wrote many of its pieces under his pseudonym, "A. C. Torr".[8] In the early 1890s, as Burlesque went out of fashion, Edwardes changed the focus of the theatre from musical burlesque to the new genre of Edwardian musical comedy.[9]

Notes

  1. ^ Hollingshead (1903), pp. 14 and 55
  2. ^ Hollingshead (1903), p. 53
  3. ISBN 0-87972-660-1
  4. ISBN 9781316760468
    .
  5. ^ Programme for Carmen up to Data Archived December 10, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  6. ^ Arthur Lloyd Music Hall site (on Gaiety) Cuttings Archived January 4, 2008, at the Wayback Machine accessed 01 Mar 2007
  7. ^ "Theatrical Humour in the Seventies", The Times, 20 February 1914, p. 9, col. D
  8. ^ Stewart, Maurice. 'The spark that lit the bonfire', in Gilbert and Sullivan News (London) Spring 2003.
  9. ISBN 0-304-29372-5

References

External links

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