ACT in Action Issue 17

(at Drury Lane). Still a very young girl, she and her successor Elizabeth Poole played juvenile heroes (unlike the principal boys of later times). 1823 Grimaldi retired through ill-health (making his last regular appearance on tour in Birmingham). Clarkson Stanfield is engaged as a scene painter at Drury Lane and subsequently became famous for his dioramas. 1827 Pantomimes staged at Covent Garden and Drury Lane cost up to £1000 apiece. 1830 Madame Vestris took over the Olympic Theatre (becoming the first woman to manage a London theatre) and enjoyed immediate success with Olympic Revels , the first of an acclaimed series of burlesque extravaganzas by J. R. Planché. The genre subsequently had a profound influence upon the pantomime proper and hastened the adoption of spoken dialogue, the use of more lavish scenery, and the decline of the harlequinade. The popularity of Vestris in male roles promoted the concept of the thigh-slapping female principal boy. 1831 A production of Mother Goose toured to New York. The audience, however, failed to understand the play and it was not a success. 1836 Planché presented his first extravaganza based on a fairytale, Riquet with the Tuft . 1837 Grimaldi died. With managements having proved unable to find anyone capable of matching him as Clown the emphasis switched from comedy to spectacle; speciality acts were seen with increasing frequency and the harlequinade continued to contract. 1843 The Theatre Regulation Act allowed all theatres to present a range of theatrical entertainments, subject only to approval by the Lord Chamberlain, thus ending the Patent Theatres' monopoly of spoken drama. 1844 First performance of a pantomime by E. L. Blanchard, later known as the 'Prince of Openings', whose charming and elegantly written works raised the Victorian pantomime to new heights. 1846 First pantomime performance of Ali Baba and the FortyThieves (at Astley's Amphitheatre). putting further pressure on the harlequinade. As venues stage shorter and shorter harlequinades, performers in them were paid less than actors in the opening. The first mature female principal boys appeared in the pantomime (the honour of the very first possibly going to a 'Miss Saunders' in 1847 or a 'Miss Ellington' in 1852). 1861 First performance of H. J. Byron's classic burlesque Aladdin , which introduced the character Widow Twankey. The production's success confirmed the popularity of the female principal boy and promoted the casting of men in the role of dame on a regular basis. 1868 George L. Fox's production of Humpty-Dumpty ran for over 1,200 performances at the Olympic Theatre, New York, making it the most successful pantomime in U.S. history. 1870s Performances of pantomime, which was at a height of popularity and prestige, could last up to three hours or more. Pantomimists increasingly aimed to please juvenile audiences, though striving at the same time to offer something for all ages. Besides the Patent Theatres, other leading homes of the pantomime included the Britannia, Grecian, and Surrey Theatres. Pantomime would regularly last for many weeks at venues throughout the UK. 1879 Augustus Harris becomes manager of Drury Lane and went on to stage a series of themost sumptuous pantomimes yet seen, complete with speciality acts, flying ballets, spectacular scenery, celebrated principal boys, and casts of several hundred. He also made the pantomime 1849 William Beverley designs the first of many dazzling transformation scenes, for Planché's The Island of Jewels . 1850s Virtually all pantomimes — now uniquely associated with the Christmas season — incorporated dialogue,

the sole item of the evening's entertainments and strengthened it by recruiting leading music hall performers, which led to complaints that the pantomime was being vulgarised. 1883 The ever-shrinking harlequinade was finally dropped from the Drury Lane pantomime for the first time. 1886 Dan Leno appeared in pantomime for the first time, playing the Dame in Jack and the Beanstalk at the Surrey Theatre. 1888 Dan Leno won acclaim in the first of the 16 consecutive annual pantomimes at Drury Lane in which he starred. Other stars of this golden age of Drury Lane pantomime included Marie Lloyd, Little Tich, and Herbert Campbell.

1896 Augustus Harris, considered the father of the modern pantomime, died, but the tradition of spectacular Drury Lane productions continued under Arthur Collins. 1900 Collins presents The Sleeping Beauty and the Beast , the first of J. Hickory Wood's celebrated pantomimes, which effectively set the pattern for pantomime scripts for future years. 1904 Both Dan Leno (creator of the modern pantomime dame) and fellow-comedian Herbert Campbell died. Under Collins a new generation of

Augustus Harris

comedians, including Harry Randall, Wilkie Bard, and George Graves enjoyed enormous success at Drury Lane. First performance of J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan . 1909 The Melville brothers became managers of the Lyceum Theatre and begin an almost unbroken run of highly successful old-fashioned pantomimes that did not finally come to an end until 1939. They were the last London management to stage brief harlequinades as an integral part of their pantomimes. 1912-15 Collins cast male performers in the role of principal boy in four successive pantomimes at Drury Lane, but the experiment didnot catch on. 1920 In the face of competition from the musical comedy, Drury Lane did not stage its annual pantomime for the first time in nearly 70 years and subsequently only revived the tradition on an occasional basis (in 1929 and 1934). 1930s Through the work of such producers as Julian Wylie a new balance was struck between the comedy element in the pantomime and the fairytale narrative, which was given greater emphasis. 1939 The surviving Melville brother, Frederick, died and the Lyceum's long pantomime tradition ended. 1948 The London Palladium started to emerge as the most prestigious home of the pantomime in the capital. 1950s Norman Wisdom and other male stars were cast in the role of principal boy, threatening the tradition of the female principal boy. The use of traps and flying ballets virtually ended due to safety considerations. 1960s The cost of staging a major West End pantomime rose to anything up to £100,000; subsequently fewer and fewer West End venues were used. Stars from television and the world of pop music were increasingly presented in leading roles (with mixed results); as a side-effect of this the part of the villain was expanded to accommodate accomplished

pantomime performers. Notable dames included Danny La Rue, who broke the tradition of the unsophisticated comical dame by playing the role as a drag queen with great success. 1971 Cilla Black's success as principal boy signaled a return to the female principal boy at most venues. 1970s The increasing use of 'blue' material by pantomime comedians threatened the future of the pantomime as a family entertainment, but the trend was eventually reversed and the pantomime quickly recovered its

Cilla Black as prinsipal boy

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