GENTLEMAN JOE

'''Gentleman Joe, The Hansom Cabbie''' is a farcical musical comedy with music by Walter Slaughter and a libretto by Basil Hood.
It opened at that Prince of Wales Theatre on March 2 1895 and ran for a very successful 391 performances. The show was written as a vehicle for the comedian Arthur Roberts. A short burlesque entitled ''A Trilby Triflet'' was introduced as part of ''Gentleman Joe'' a week after ''Looking for Trilby'' opened at the Haymarket Theatre. ''The Times'' newspaper praised Roberts for his imitation of Herbert Beerbohm Tree.^[1] The cast of ''Gentleman Joe'' also included Kitty Loftus as Emma and W. H. Denny as Pilkington Jones. There was soon a Newark, New Jersey production in late 1895 at Miner's Theatre and then at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City in 1896.^[2]
''Gentleman Joe'' was Hood's first full-scale musical comedy, and its success prompted Hood to leave the military to concentrate on his writing. Hood and Slaughter went on to write several more comedies together, including ''The French Maid'' in 1896 and another successful vehicle for Roberts, ''Dandy Dan, the Lifeguardsman'' in 1897.

Contents

Notes

External links

Notes

1. Information from ''The Music Hall'' website
2. Adams, William Davenport, ''A Dictionary of the Drama: A Guide to the Plays, Play-wrights, Players, and Playhouses'', 1904
Chatto & Windus

External links

★ List of shows opening in London in 1895