Emily Fowler

Emily Fowler

Emily Fowler (1850–1896) was an English actress, singer and theatre manager. Beginning in musical burlesques, she later played in contemporary drama and English classics.

Career

Early in her career, Fowler appeared in musical burlesques, making her London debut in 1868 at the Royalty Theatre in Black-Eyed Susan by F. C. Burnand.[1] She created the roles of Florestein in W. S. Gilbert's The Merry Zingara (1868) and Alice in his Robert the Devil (1869) at the Gaiety Theatre, London. She also originated the roles of Paraquita in Columbus (1869) and Mephistopheles in Very Little Faust (1869).[1][2] She was the hero, Hassan, in a burlesque of Arabian Knights by Arthur O'Neil at the Charing Cross Theatre.[3] She also originated the part of Hans in The Gentleman in Black, a comic opera written in 1870, with a libretto by W. S. Gilbert and music by Frederic Clay.[4]

She then built a reputation in drama.[5] In 1870, she played in Free Labour by Charles Reade at the Adelphi Theatre, and In 1872, she was Alfonzo in Zampa.[6] In 1873, she joined Henry Neville's company at the Olympic Theatre. There, she played Kate in Sour Grapes and Suzanne in The School for Intrigue, an adaptation of The Marriage of Figaro.[6] The next season at the Olympic, she was Lady Betty Noel in Lady Clancarty and Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing. Rutland Barrington, who appeared with Fowler in Lady Clancarty, called her "one of the most delightful soubrettes that ever graced the stage".[7] In 1875 she played Deborah in The Spendthrift and May Edwards, the heroine in The Ticket-of-Leave Man.[6] She also portrayed Helen Barry in The Two Orphans for that theatre.[5] At the Queen's Theatre in 1876, she was Princess Katherine in Henry V. In 1878, she played Perdita in A Winter's Tale at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, the title role in W. G. Willis's Nell Gwynn, and the Viscountess Lidesdale in Scandal. At the Haymarket Theatre in 1879 she played in Ellen; or Love's Cunning. That year she also appeared in The Gay Deceivers at the Royalty. In 1880, she was Emily de Lesparre opposite Henry Irving in The Corsican Brothers at the Lyceum Theatre, London. She briefly engaged in management at the Charing Cross Theatre (1869) and the Royalty Theatre (1878).[1]

Personal life

Fowler was married to John C. Pemberton.

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 Adams, William Davenport. A Dictionary of the Drama, London: Chatto & Windus (1904) pp. 339, 453, 545 and 567
  2. ↑ Hollingshead, John. My Lifetime, (1895) S. Low, Marston
  3. ↑ Adams, William Davenport. A Book of Burlesque, Sketches of English Stage Travestie and Parody, p. 95, Read Books (2008) ISBN 1-4437-4063-2
  4. ↑ Stedman, Jane W. (1996). W. S. Gilbert, A Classic Victorian & His Theatre. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-816174-3., p. 79
  5. 1 2 Sherson, Erroll. London's lost theatres of the nineteenth century, London: John Lane (1925), pp. 106–08
  6. 1 2 3 Blanchard, Edward L., et al. The life and reminiscences of E. L. Blanchard, pp. 384, 417, 431, 435–36, 448–49, 460, 479 and 509, London: Hutchinson & Co. (1891)
  7. ↑ Barrington, Rutland (1908). Rutland Barrington: A Record of 35 Years' Experience on the English Stage. London: G. Richards., pp. 16 and 18

References

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