Theatre in London has celebrated a rich and influential history, and in 1976 the first volume of J. P. Wearing’s reference series provided researchers with an indispensable resource of these productions. In the decades since the original calendars were produced, several research aids have become available, notably various reference works and the digitization of important newspapers and relevant periodicals. The second edition of The London Stage 1890–1899: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel provides a chronological calendar of London shows from the first of January, 1890, through the 31st of December, 1899. The volume chronicles more than 3,000 productions at 31 major central London theatres during this period. For each entry the following information is provided: Title Author Theatre Performers Personnel Opening and Closing Dates Number of Performances Other details include genre of the production, number of acts, and a list of reviews. A comment section includes other interesting information, such as plot description, first-night reception by the audience, noteworthy performances, staging elements, and details of performances in New York either prior to or after the London production. Among the plays staged in London during this decade were Alice in Wonderland, Arms and the Man, Cyrano de Bergerac, An Ideal Husband, The Prisoner of Zenda, and The Second Mrs. Tanqueray, as well as numerous musical comedies (British and American), foreign works, operas, and revivals of English classics. A definitive resource, this edition revises, corrects, and expands the original calendar. In addition, approximately 20 percent of the material—in particular, information of adaptations and translations, plot sources, and comment information—is new. Arranged chronologically, the shows are fully indexed by title, genre, and theatre. A general index includes numerous subject entries on such topics as acting, audiences, censorship, costumes, managers, performers, prompters, staging, and ticket prices. The London Stage 1890–1899 will be of value to scholars, theatrical personnel, librarians, writers, journalists, and historians.

These highly praised day-by-day calendars of plays produced at the major London theatres cover all the big productions and names, revivals of the classics, and opera and ballet productions. J. P. Wearing lists each production in chronological arrangement of playbills, with full production and contemporary review information for each play, and including comprehensive indexes. Every scholar and critic concerned with English theatre for the period...will want and need to consult these volumes.CHOICE

This book offers the first full historical treatment of a music theatre that was once at the centre of London's West End. From the late Victorian period to the early 1920s, musical comedy was the single most popular form of 'legitimate' theatre entertainment. This lively account establishes musical comedy as one of the first industrial cultures and offers fascinating insights into how it functioned ideologically as a celebrated embracing of the modern condition.

These highly praised day-by-day calendars of plays produced at the major London theatres cover all the big productions and names, revivals of the classics, and opera and ballet productions. J. P. Wearing lists each production in chronological arrangement of playbills, with full production and contemporary review information for each play and including comprehensive indexes

Modernists and the Theatre is the first study to examine how theories of modernism intersect with those of the theatre within the works, philosophies and literary lives of six key modernist writers. Drawing on a wealth of unfamiliar archive material and fresh readings of neglected documents, James Moran reveals how these literary figures interacted with the theatre through playwriting, by engaging in philosophical debates and participating in theatrical performances. Chapters assess W.B. Yeats's very earliest playwriting, Ezra Pound's onstage acting, the interconnections between James Joyce's and D.H. Lawrence's sense of drama, Eliot's thinking about theatre in Dublin, and the feminist politics of Virginia Woolf's small-scale theatrical experiments. While these writers valued coterie production and often made hostile comments about drama, this volume highlights the paradoxical fact that, despite their harsh words, the theatrically 'large-scale' also attracted each of these writers. The theatre event of 'restricted production' offered modernists a satisfying mode of sharing their work amongst the like-minded, and the book discloses a set of unfamiliar events of this sort that allowed these writers to act as agents of legitimation in granting cultural value. The book explores their engagements with popular drama, as well as the long-forgotten acting performances in which each of these writers personally participated. Moran uncovers how the playhouse became a key geographical space where the high-modernists could explore a tension that fascinated them, and which motivated much of their wider thinking and literary work.