Queen's Theatre. Lessee and Manager John Coleman. Production of Henry V... [Program] : John Gosnell & Co’s Graphic Theatrical Programme is produced under the Direction of Mr. E. H. Burgoyne...
1876
Items
Details
Title
Queen's Theatre. Lessee and Manager John Coleman. Production of Henry V... [Program] : John Gosnell & Co’s Graphic Theatrical Programme is produced under the Direction of Mr. E. H. Burgoyne...
Variant title
To the Public... [4 p. printed note from John Coleman, printed by Walter Smith to accompany this program]
Created/published
London : H. E. Burgoyne, 1876.
Description
1 item ; 25.1 x 16 cm
Associated name
Coleman, John, 1831-1904, associated name.
Note
This is a PRELIMINARY RECORD. It may contain incorrect information. Please email catalog@folger.edu for assistance.
Genre/form
Programs (documents)
Place of creation/publication
Great Britain -- England -- London.
Item Details
Call number
FAST ACC 271259 (quarto)
Folger-specific note
From dealer's description: "Tall 8vo (251 × 158 mm), pp. [8], printed in purple and black, ornamental borders, with longer leaf (283 × 145 mm, folded up) with the ‘Inaugural Address’ stitched in after p. [2]; lightly browned with one or two small stains to top edge; disbound, early ink numbering to title-page (‘54’) and dating to left-hand margin of page 6 (‘1stNight –Sept-16-1876’); together with a short printed note ‘To the Public’ from John Coleman, 4 pp., printed by Walter Smith, disbound and loosely inserted. Original programme published for the inaugural performance at The Queen’s Theatre under John Coleman’s management, with Coleman himself in the lead role. John Coleman (1831–1904) was an actor and prolific playwright who, having recentlybeen given management of the theatre, immediately set his sights on staging Henry V. His memoirs note the triumph of booking Samuel Phelps for the role of Henry IV (‘My friend [Samuel] Phelps, who took a paternal interest in me, had left Drury Lane, and graciously promised to make the beginning of my career in town the end of his’, Fifty years of an actors’ life, II, 647), and he goes on to proudly list a who’s who of attendees and their nearly rhapsodic reviews of the production: ‘there was but one opinion as to the splendour of the spectacle, which both Phelps and Greenwood and even Mrs. Charles Kean and Mr. Planché then generously acknowledged had never been equalled, while I am bold enough to assert even now that it has never since been surpassed’ (p. 652).Professional success, however, was not enough to recover his costs, which amounted to upwards of ‘£6,000 and more’, according to Coleman himself, ‘with a net loss of something like £5,000 before the curtain rose on my débût’ (p. 647–8). Punch was quick to mock Coleman, referring to him as ‘old King-Cole-Man’ and describing the present programme as ‘elaborate and excruciatingly sneezingly scented’ (30 Sept. 1876). Ordered from Simon Beattie, D 9328, 2019-07-24, Shakespeare and the Stage July 2019, item 26.