Jump to content
 







Main menu
   


Navigation  



Main page
Contents
Current events
Random article
About Wikipedia
Contact us
Donate
 




Contribute  



Help
Learn to edit
Community portal
Recent changes
Upload file
 








Search  

































Create account

Log in
 









Create account
 Log in
 




Pages for logged out editors learn more  



Contributions
Talk
 



















Contents

   



(Top)
 


1 Background  





2 Synopsis  





3 Roles and original cast  





4 Musical numbers  





5 References  





6 External links  














The Circus Girl







Add links
 









Article
Talk
 

















Read
Edit
View history
 








Tools
   


Actions  



Read
Edit
View history
 




General  



What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Cite this page
Get shortened URL
Download QR code
Wikidata item
 




Print/export  



Download as PDF
Printable version
 




In other projects  



Wikimedia Commons
 
















Appearance
   

 






From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 


The Circus Girl
MusicIvan Caryll
Lionel Monckton
LyricsHarry Greenbank
Adrian Ross
BookJames T. Tanner
Walter Apllant (Palings)
Productions1896 West End
1897 Broadway

The Circus Girl is a Edwardian musical comedy in two acts with a book by James T. Tanner and Walter Apllant (Palings), lyrics by Harry Greenbank and Adrian Ross, music by Ivan Caryll, and additional music by Lionel Monckton.[1]

The musical was produced at George Edwardes's Gaiety Theatre, beginning 5 December 1896, and ran for a very successful 497 performances.[1] It starred Seymour Hicks as Dick Capel and his wife Ellaline Terriss as Dora Wemyss. Edmund Payne and Arthur Williams also appeared. The show also had a successful New York run at two theatres in 1897 for a total of 172 performances. It was produced by Charles Frohman.[1] Mabelle Gilman Corey played Lucille and Nancy McIntosh played La Favorita in New York.[2]

Set in Paris, the plot concerns a group of English tourists who get mixed up with a circus troupe. Two of the famous songs from the show are "A Simple Little String" and "The Way to Treat a Lady".

Background

[edit]
Poster for the New York production

Ellaline Terriss wrote:

One night Sir Arthur Sullivan came to see The Circus Girl and was good enough to come round after the play to my dressing-room. I was a little afraid that he might be contemptuous of our gay, light-hearted trifle, but no, not at all, he said he had been delighted with everything, the comedy, the charm, the setting – it is true that the play was beautifully mounted. Edwardes had caught the atmosphere of the circus ring and the last scene, "The Artists' Ball," was one of the finest The Guv'nor had ever staged. It got rounds of applause when the curtain went up, at every performance. Sullivan was loud in his praises of the music, too – there was no criticism from him. And he expressed great pleasure in my own performance, going so far as to say that he hoped I would be able to create a part in one of his next works.[3]

Later during the London production, Terriss's father, actor William Terriss, was murdered outside the Adelphi Theatre in London, creating a sensation in the press and an outpouring of sympathy for Terriss and Hicks.[4]

Synopsis

[edit]

Dick Capel, an understudy who occasionally performed at a Paris circus as "The Cannon King", impressed pretty Dora Wemyss, a school girl. Dick, however, is engaged to be married. Dora's father, Sir Titus, an English tourist, has been hiding in the cannon and has been flirting with the circus girls; he is avoiding his wife. Dick shoots Sir Titus out of the cannon. Meanwhile, Bugs, a silly American bartender, agrees to fight a celebrated wrestler, The Terrible Turk, in order to win over Lucille, the girl who walks the slackwire. La Favorita is a bareback rider.

Roles and original cast

[edit]
Nancy McIntosh as La Favorita (New York cast)

Musical numbers

[edit]

Act I

Act II

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c "The Circus Girl", The Guide to Musical Theatre, accessed October 23, 2012
  • ^ Brown, Thomas Allston. "A history of the New York stage". Dodd, Mead and company (1903), pp. 580–82
  • ^ Shepherd, Marc. Views of W. S. Gilbert, by Ellaline Terriss and Seymour Hicks Archived 2008-05-13 at the Wayback Machine, Cris.com, accessed October 23, 2012
  • ^ Taylor, C. M. P. "Terriss, Ellaline". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/40483. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  • [edit]
    Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Circus_Girl&oldid=1188964874"

    Categories: 
    1896 musicals
    West End musicals
    Original musicals
    British musicals
    Musicals set in Paris
    Musicals set in circuses
    Musicals by Ivan Caryll
    Hidden categories: 
    Webarchive template wayback links
    Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the ODNB
    Pages using cite ODNB with id parameter
    Articles with short description
    Short description is different from Wikidata
    Use dmy dates from April 2022
    Articles to be expanded from October 2012
    All articles to be expanded
    Articles using small message boxes
    Commons category link is on Wikidata
     



    This page was last edited on 8 December 2023, at 20:46 (UTC).

    Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.



    Privacy policy

    About Wikipedia

    Disclaimers

    Contact Wikipedia

    Code of Conduct

    Developers

    Statistics

    Cookie statement

    Mobile view



    Wikimedia Foundation
    Powered by MediaWiki