Madge Lessing
Madge Lessing | |
---|---|
Born | Margaret O'Donnell 27 November 1873 London, U.K. |
Died | 14 August 1966 Bournemouth, England, U.K. | (aged 92)
Occupation | Actress |
Years active | 1894–1921 |
Spouse | George Brinton McLellan Jr. |
Madge Lessing (27 November 1873 – 14 August 1966) was a British stage actress and singer, panto principal boy and postcard beauty of Edwardian musical comedy who had a successful career in the West End in London, Europe and on Broadway from 1890 to 1921 and who made a number of early film appearances in Germany for director Max Mack.
Early career
Lessing was born as Margaret O'Donnell in London in 1873 to Irish parents Catherine (née Buckley) and James Patrick O'Donnell, an assurance agent.
An early and successful role was as the principal boy Jack Hubbard in Klaw and Erlanger's "extravaganza in three acts and six scenes" Jack and the Beanstalk which ran for 64 performances at the Casino Theatre in New York in 1896[1][5] and in 1898 at the Boston Museum in Boston and the Lafayette Square Opera House in Washington, D.C.[6]
Her performance as Jack in 1896 was described as belonging:
...to the class of womanly women. She was as femininely alluring amid the bald disclosures of unblushing fleshings as amid the tantalizing exasperations of swishing draperies. Her beauty was exuberant, voluptuous, pulse-stirring, a laughing, happy face, crowned and encircled with tangled masses of dark brown hair, which made her head almost too large, to be sure, though size counted for little amid the ravishments of sparkling eyes and kissable dimples that danced in and out on either cheek. Miss Lessing walked through this part of Jack - walking through was all that was demanded of her - with a pretty unaffectedness that met all requirements, and she sang with a voice of considerable sweetness, but of no great power. Still, she has in a mild, inoffensive way some small ability as an actress.[7]
In 1899 she played in A Dangerous Maid for 64 performances at the Casino Theatre in New York,[8] while in Boston at Christmas 1899 she appeared as 'Little Boy Blue' in 12 performances of the children's pantomime Little Red Riding Hood which in early January 1900 moved on to the Casino Theatre in New York, the home of the Broadway adult musical, where the production was transformed with additional female actresses added to the cast in scanty costumes and more risqué songs to cater for an adult audience.[9] Next Lessing succeeded Mabelle Gilman as 'Priscilla' in the vaudeville The Rounders (1900) at the Columbia Theatre in Boston.[7]
Of her performance in The Rounders a critic wrote:
It is a thankless task, that of successorship which results inevitably in direct comparisons, but Miss Lessing met the test surprisingly well. Without Miss Gilman's strength of personality and less apparent art, Miss Lessing indicated with unmistakable correctness the sentimental atmosphere of prudish modesty, which represents Priscilla as a dramatic character. With memories of Jack and the Beanstalk - they seem inevitable where Miss Lessing is concerned; one was a little bewildered at Priscilla's embarrassment in her ballet costume during the scene in Thea's dressing-room. This bewilderment was due to Miss Lessing's inability to impersonate. She is always Madge Lessing acting, never Madge Lessing identified with another and wholly different personality; and at the sight of Madge Lessing embarrassed because she wore tights, one had a right to be bewildered.[7]
In 1900 she appeared in the title role in the two act operetta The Lady Slavey by Gustave Kerker and George Dance when that musical farce was revived in Boston[7] and as Anita Tivoli in The Monks of Malabar.[1][3]
Return to Europe
Christmas 1900 saw Lessing make her London début as Princess Beauty in the annual children's
She appeared on the bill at the opening of the
Latter years
In 1920 she returned to the United States, where she played again in
Personal life
She married the London-based American theatrical manager and producer George Brinton McLellan (1867-1932),[20] the brother of playwright C. M. S. McLellan. He was probably best known for the popular play Is Zat So? (1925) which ran for 634 performances at the 39th Street Theatre in New York and opened in the same year at the Adelphi Theatre[21][22] and who had previously been married to the musical comedy actress Pauline Hall from 1894 to 1902.
Madge Lessing McLellan died in Bournemouth in 1966 aged 92.[23]
References
- ^ a b c d e Caroline A. Morton, Miss Madge Lessing-The New "Belle" - The Idler: an illustrated monthly magazine London (Dec 1901): 413-414
- ^ 1881 UK Census Return for Margaret O'Donnell
- ^ a b c d Where Was Madge Lessing? - The New York Times 16 January 1921
- ^ Gerald Bordman, American Musical Theater: A Chronicle, Oxford University Press (2001) - Google Books pg.163
- ^ Anne Alison Barnet, Extravaganza King: Robert Barnet and Boston Musical Theatre, Northeastern University Press, Boston (2004) - Google Books pg. 97
- ^ Programme for The Strange Adventures of Jack and the Beanstalk (1898) - Library of Congress Collection
- ^ a b c d Madge Lessing - Famous Prima Donnas - Lewis C. Strang, L.C. Page and Co., 1906
- ^ Donald J. Stubblebine, Early Broadway Sheet Music: A Comprehensive Listing of Published Music from Broadway and Other Stage Shows, 1843-1918, McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers (2002) - Google Books pg. 50
- ^ By Joseph L. Anderson, Enter a Samurai, Wheatmark (2011) - Google Books pg. 233-234
- ^ J. P. Wearing, The London Stage 1900-1909: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel, Rowman & Littlefield (2014) - Google Books pg. 41
- ^ Wearing, pg. 72
- ^ The London Coliseum on Cinema Treasures website
- ^ Wearing, pg. 152
- The Tatler, No. 86, 18 February 1903 pg. 255
- ^ Mother Goose - The Illustrated London News, 3 January 1903
- ^ Madge Lessing in Wang - Arab Kitsch - Exploring Middle Eastern Stereotypes in American Music
- ^ Wearing, pg. 271
- ^ "Merry Play For Children at the Waldorf Theatre" - Review of Noah's Ark - Daily Mail 2 January 1906
- ^ Madge Lessing - British Film Institute database
- ^ George Brinton McLellan in the England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1995
- ^ Is Zat So? - NitrateVille Vintage Film website
- ISBN 9780199916474
- ^ United Kingdom Death Register for Madge Lessing McLellan - Bournemouth 1966