1858: Mr Buckstone goes talent-seeking for the Theatre Royal, Haymarket

 

Today I was tidying some old thetrical papers (it's a never ending job!) and I glanced in my 'autograph letters' folder. Things from the early nineteenth century, from England, from France, up to the 1970s. Stuff picked up in junl shops, flea markets, and pilfered from our old office files or the Albery office files ..

Most of them, I haven't look at again since I acquired them. But today I took this one from its slipcase ... goodness, I paid £25 for it in the 70s ... that was a good chunk of a week's wages. But it is a rather good one.

It is written by John Baldwin Buckstone, manager of the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, to Harry Webb sometime manager of the Queen's Theatre Dublin on 17 August 1858. Yes, from internal evidence, it's 1858, not, as I first thought, 1856. And Mr Buckstone is brain-picking ...

He was at the Theatre Royal, Manchester, off-season, with his Haymarket company: Compton, Mrs Buckingham White, Amy Sedgwick, Mrs Wilkins et al. In spite of Miss Sedgwick going 'off' for much of the season he avows (or pretends) that their success is 'immense'.

And then he asks two rather curious questions. 'Casting' questions.

Is the young William Glover, scenic artist, who has begun his career by sharing the decoration with Charles Parker on the scenery of the pantomimes at the Theatre Royal for the Theatre Royal, Dublin, good enough for the Haymarket? Well, you can read what happened to the splendid William Glover after these Dublin debuts .. in many a theatre history book (not Wikipedia, which ignores his Irish beginnings!). But, unless I'm mistaken, Buckstone didn't hire him.

William Glover

And who is Maria Simpson? And does she SING WELL. I mean, whaaaat? Where had he been these last years? Looking at his navel, I suspect, as he was inclined to do. Miss Simpson had been visible at the Exeter Hall Wednesdays since 1854, singing alongside such stars as Sims Reeves. She had played at Edinburgh, Glasgow and Liverpool, made a fine leading lassie in Dublin and Cork, teamed with Toole as guest star at Wolverhampton ('a charming vocalist and an excellent actress'), and was by the time Harry received this billet doux, off to Southampton and then to Drury Lane for pantomime (Queen of the Forest in Robin Hood). But Maria didn't go to the Haymarket, either. She went to the Strand Theatre, where one of her favourite successes was the role of Milly in a comic piece entitled The Maid with the Milking Pail. Author: J B Buckstone.

Maria Simpson (Mrs W H Liston)

Maybe he was checking her out for that? I'm amazed that he had to!  Anyway, Maria had a very fine career, first as an actress and burlesque player (she was first boy in W S Gilbert's The Princess) and afterwards, as a producer under her married name of Mrs W H Liston. 

Harry and Charles Webb in Comedy of Errors

But look what someone ... Webb, I presume ... has scribbled across the top! He's doing his own casting! MISS THIRLWALL ... £8 per week  ...

The young Annie Thirlwall had already won a good place in the Pyne and Harrison Opera Company, so I guess this is sister Ellen. Or is it? They both played in Dublin during 1858, but Ellen seems to be at Brighton for Christmas ... take your pick!

Well, that was fun.  I wonder about Buckstone. Yes, he was clearly a fine comic actor. And a very effective playwright. As a theatre director, he employed some of best artists around. But ... this letter shows a distinct 'ivory-towerness'.  You have to ask someone way over in Dublin about two rising stars ...

I am not convinced wholly about J B Buckstone ....

Better have a look at some of the other letters in that folder!