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The Royalty Theatre was a small London theatre situated at 73 Dean Street, Soho, which opened in 1840 as Miss Kelly's Theatre and Dramatic School and finally closed to the public in 1938.〔(Royalty Theatre ) at the Arthur Lloyd site accessed 23 March 2007〕 The architect was Samuel Beazley. The theatre's opening was ill-fated, and it was little used for a decade. It changed its name twice and was used by an opera company, amateur drama companies and for French pieces. In 1861, it was renamed the New Royalty Theatre, and the next year it was leased by Mrs Charles Selby, who enlarged it from 200 seats to about 650. The theatre continued to change hands frequently. In the 1860s, it featured F. C. Burnand's burlesque of ''Black-Eyed Susan'', which ran for nearly 500 nights, and a burlesque by W. S. Gilbert, ''The Merry Zingara''. The theatre was managed by Henrietta Hodson during the early 1870s, who also produced mostly burlesques and comedies, including Gilbert's ''The Realm of Joy'' and ''Ought We to Visit Her?'' On 25 March 1875 the Royalty, under the direction of Selina Dolaro, enjoyed an historic success with ''Trial by Jury''. In 1877, Kate Santley took control of the theatre, running it for nearly 30 years. She had the theatre rebuilt and it reopened in 1883. In this period, it featured opera-bouffes adapted from the French. M. L. Mayer and plays in French. It was increasingly hard for the theatre to compete with larger new London theatres. In 1891, the theatre started a policy of modern drama, presenting plays by Ibsen and George Bernard Shaw. When the theatre finally had a great success, with ''Charley's Aunt'' in 1892, its popularity led to its transference after only a month to a larger theatre. In 1895–96 the theatre underwent another renovation. Arthur Bourchier's ''The Chili Widow'' ran for over 300 nights. In the new century, Mrs. Patrick Campbell played at the theatre. After another renovation in 1906, Sarah Bernhardt led her own company in a season. In 1912, ''Milestones'', by Arnold Bennett and Edward Knoblauch had over 600 performances. ''The Man who Stayed at Home'' played for 584 performances. The Co-Optimists played at the theatre after the war as did Noël Coward's ''The Vortex''. In 1932, ''While Parents Sleep'' was a hit. The theatre closed in 1938 and was demolished in 1953. ==Origins== The actress Frances Maria "Fanny" Kelly (1790–1882), used the fortune saved from her highly popular career to establish a dramatic academy with a 200-seat theatre attached.〔An earlier theatre, also named the Royalty, existed in Wells Street, Wellclose Square, London from 1787 until the early part of the nineteenth century. See Wilmot-Buxton, Harry John. ("William Clarkson Stanfield" ), Chapter IX, ''English Painters'', Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington (1883), accessed 22 November 2013〕 The architect of the theatre was Samuel Beazley. The theatre and school were completed in 1837.〔(''The Pitt Estate in Dean Street: The Royalty Theatre'' ), Survey of London: volumes 33 and 34: St Anne Soho (1966), pp. 215-21 accessed: 23 March 2007〕 Kelley's engineer friend, Rowland Macdonald Stephenson, persuaded her to build into the theatre new machinery that he had invented to move the stage and scenery; theoretically a significant step forward in theatre technology.〔Ellacott, Vivyan. ("An A-Z Encyclopaedia of London Theatres and Music Halls" ), Over the Footlights, accessed 16 October 2014〕 It took more than two years to install the machinery in the theatre. The theatre was "obscurely sited () perilously combustible", but it had "a relatively spacious stage, and Beazley's work in the auditorium was thought pretty."〔 ''The Times'' described the fashionable little theatre as "most elegantly fitted up and appointed, and painted in a light tasteful manner."〔''The Times'', 27 May 1840〕 It turned out that the machinery was too heavy to be worked by people, and Stephenson had to use a horse. On the opening night, 25 May 1840, three pieces were presented: ''Summer and Winter'', by Morris Barnett; a melodrama, ''The Sergeant's Wife''; and a farce, ''The Midnight Hour''. The opening was unsuccessful, and within a week the theatre was closed. Kelly's high admission charges of five or seven shillings did not help, but the main problem was that the tramping of the horse and the roar of the machinery drowned out the voices of the actors and caused the building to vibrate. The theatre had to be demolished to remove the machinery. After it was rebuilt, Kelly reopened the theatre in February 1841, at reduced prices, for a season of her own monologues, but then became ill.〔 She sought to lease the theatre, but it was empty for long periods and was used mostly for amateur productions, including one of Charles Dickens's productions. Within a decade, Kelly had lost her entire fortune and was evicted from the property.〔 In January 1850 the theatre was reopened as the Royal Soho Theatre, after redecoration by W. W. Deane and S. J. Nicholl, changing its name to the New English Opera House from November 1850,〔 and in the following year an entrance portico was built. Various types of productions played at the theatre, including English Grand Opera. Performances were mostly by amateurs, hiring the theatre at standard rates. At other times, as the Theatre Français, it attracted patrons chiefly among the foreigners in Soho.〔 In 1861, the direction of the theatre was assumed by Albina di Rhona, a Serbian ballerina and comic actress. She renamed it the New Royalty Theatre, and had it altered and redecorated by "M. Bulot, of Paris, Decorator in Ordinary to his Imperial Majesty, Louis Napoleon", with "cut-glass lustres, painted panels, blue satin draperies and gold mouldings".〔 In the opening programme, di Rhona danced, the leader of the Boston Brass Band from America played a bugle solo, and a melodrama, ''Atar Gull'', was performed, with a 14-year-old Ellen Terry in the cast. Still, the re-opening was not a success.〔 In 1862, the theatre was leased by, Mrs Charles Selby, who also ran an acting school. She enlarged the original theatre to accommodate about 650 people. She used it to showcase her pupils and occasionally rented it to others.〔 The theatre continued to change hands frequently. It was managed, from 1866 to 1870, by Martha Cranmer Oliver, who featured mostly burlesques, including F. C. Burnand's burlesque of ''Black-Eyed Susan'', which ran for nearly 500 nights, and a burlesque by W. S. Gilbert, ''The Merry Zingara''. The theatre was managed by Henrietta Hodson during the early 1870s. She also produced mostly burlesques and comedies, including Gilbert's ''The Realm of Joy'' and ''Ought We to Visit her?'' In 1872, it became known as the Royalty Theatre and retained this name (although it was occasionally known as the New Royalty Theatre).〔 On 25 March 1875 the theatre, under the direction of Madame Selina Dolaro, enjoyed an historic success with ''Trial by Jury'', the first Gilbert and Sullivan opera produced by Richard D'Oyly Carte. It premiered together with Jacques Offenbach's ''La Périchole'' and another one-act farce, ''Cryptoconchoidsyphonostomata''. Carte soon moved his Gilbert and Sullivan company to another theatre.〔 In January 1876 at the Royalty, Pauline Rita appeared under Carte's management as Gustave Muller in ''The Duke's Daughter''.〔Stone, David. (Pauline Rita ) at ''Who was Who in the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company'', 27 August 2001, accessed 7 June 2009.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Royalty Theatre」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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