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Nellie Farren (16 April 1848 – 29 April 1904) was an English actress and singer best known for her roles as the "principal boy" in musical burlesques at the Gaiety Theatre. Born into a theatrical family, Farren began acting as a child. She made her professional adult debut in 1864 and joined the company at London's Olympic Theatre, performing in Shakespeare, contemporary comedies, dramas and musical burlesques. From 1868 to 1892, she performed at the Gaiety Theatre, which specialised in musical burlesque, becoming famous in the male and principal boy roles, which permitted an actress in the Victorian era theatre to show her legs in tights. Farren gained a large following among the theatre's mostly male audience. Farren created the role of Mercury in Gilbert and Sullivan's first collaboration, ''Thespis'' and created or played roles in works by Dion Boucicault, Anthony Trollope, Charles Dickens, William Congreve and Henry James Byron, among many others. In the 1880s, she created roles in the series of famous Gaiety burlesques with musical scores by Meyer Lutz, often written by Fred Leslie. Some of her most famous of these later roles were the title characters in ''Little Jack Sheppard'' and ''Ruy Blas and the Blasé Roué''. She also became a co-producer of the Gaiety Theatre. After Farren suffered an attack of rheumatic fever in 1891, her health forced to retire from the stage in 1892. Her popularity was evidenced by a famous gala benefit for her at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in 1898 attended by nearly the entire theatrical community at which the most famous actors of the day performed, and which raised the astonishing sum of £7,000 (₤ in ) for her retirement. ==Life and career== Ellen "Nellie" Farren was born in Lancashire to a theatrical family. Her grandfather, William Farren, was a well-known actor. Her father, Henry Farren, and her uncle, William, were both actors.〔Hollingshead, John. ''Gaiety Chronicles'' (1898) A. Constable & Co., London〕 Her mother was Ellen ''nee'' Smithson. Farren married actor and stage manager Robert Soutar in 1867,〔〔(Article about the Gaiety tour of Australia )〕 and the couple had two sons, Henry Robert Soutar (1868–1928), an actor who ended his days as a general labourer,〔("Death Certificate for Henry Robert Soutar (1928)" ), ''Ancestry.com'', accessed 16 October 2013〕 and the actor Joseph Farren Soutar (1870–1962).〔(Farren Soutar ), the Internet Movie Database, accessed 8 October 2013〕〔("Miss Nellie Farren" ), ''The Straits Times'', 28 May 1904, p. 2, accessed 8 October 2013〕 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「Nellie Farren」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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