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''Ruy Blas and the Blasé Roué'' is a burlesque written by A. C. Torr and Herbert F. Clark with music by Meyer Lutz. It is based on the Victor Hugo drama ''Ruy Blas''. The piece was produced by George Edwardes. As with many of the Gaiety burlesques, the title is a pun. The worse the pun, the more Victorian audiences were amused.〔(Information about ''Ruy Blas'' and the Gaiety Burlesques )〕 After a tryout in Birmingham beginning on 3 September 1889, ''Ruy Blas and the Blasé Roué'' opened in London on 21 September 1889 at the Gaiety Theatre and ran for 289 performances. The cast included Nellie Farren, Fred Leslie, Marion Hood, Letty Lind, Sylvia Grey, Linda Verner,〔Verner is probably best remembered today as the original First Bridesmaid in ''Trial by Jury'' (1875) by Gilbert and Sullivan.〕 Blanche Massie, Alice Young, Charles Danby, Fred Storey and Ben Nathan.〔Hollingshead, p. 57〕 The piece toured in the British provinces and internationally, and was revised at least once during its run. It originally included a caricature of Henry Irving, in a scene in which some of the actors wore ballet girl costumes. Irving, never having seen the show, objected, and the Lord Chamberlain (Britain's theatrical censor, who also had not seen the show) prohibited the caricature.〔Hollingshead, pp. 57–58〕 ==Background== This type of burlesque, or "travesty", was popular in Britain during the Victorian era. Other examples include ''The Bohemian G-yurl and the Unapproachable Pole'' (1877), ''Blue Beard'' (1882), ''Ariel'' (1883, by F. C. Burnand), ''Galatea, or Pygmalion Reversed'' (1883), ''Little Jack Sheppard'' (1885), ''Monte Cristo Jr'' (1886), ''Miss Esmeralda'' (1887), ''Frankenstein, or The Vampire's Victim'' (1887), ''Mazeppa'', ''Faust up to Date'' (1888), ''Carmen up to Data'' (1890), ''Cinder Ellen up too Late'' (1891) and ''Don Juan'' (1892, with lyrics by Adrian Ross).〔(Programme for ''Carmen up to Data'' )〕 John Hollingshead had managed the Gaiety Theatre from 1868 to 1886 as a venue for variety, continental operetta, light comedy, and numerous musical burlesques composed or arranged by the theatre's music director, Wilhelm Meyer Lutz. Hollingshead called himself a "licensed dealer in legs, short skirts, French adaptations, Shakespeare, taste and musical glasses."〔(Arthur Lloyd Music Hall site (on Gaiety) ''Cuttings'' ) accessed 1 March 2007〕 In 1886, Hollingshead ceded the management of the theatre to George Edwardes, whom he had hired in 1885. Edwardes expanded the burlesque format from one act to full-length pieces with original music by Lutz, instead of scores compiled from popular tunes, as was the usual course before that. The theatre's choreographer and dance-master, under both Hollingshead and Edwardes, was John D'Auban.〔"Theatrical Humour in the Seventies", ''The Times'', 20 February 1914, p. 9〕 Nellie Farren, as the theatre's "principal boy," starred at the Gaiety for over 20 years, from 1868. Between 1885 and 1891, she co-starred with Fred Leslie, who wrote many of the Gaiety's most popular burlesques under his pseudonym, "A. C. Torr".〔Stewart, Maurice. "The spark that lit the bonfire", ''Gilbert and Sullivan News'' (London) Spring 2003, London: The Gilbert and Sullivan Society.〕 In the early 1890s, as burlesque went out of fashion, Edwardes changed the focus of the theatre from musical burlesque to the new genre of Edwardian musical comedy. ''Ruy Blas'' was written to mark the reopening of the Gaiety theatre and the return to the West End of the hugely popular Gaiety company, led by Farren and Leslie, who had been on tour in the U.S. and Australia. The early scenes of the libretto make many allusions to this return.〔"Ruy Blas and the Blasé Roué", ''The Era,'' 7 September 1889, p. 8〕 In his review, the critic Clement Scott remarked not only on the new piece but on the redecoration of the theatre, which he found "deserving of the highest praise".〔"Ruy Blas and the Blasé Roué", ''The Theatre'', 1 October 1889, p. 212〕 The scenery and the costumes, as usual, were among the prominent attractions of a Gaiety show. Percy Anderson's costumes were particularly admired.〔 The scene to which Henry Irving took exception was a comic dance, performed to Lutz's ''pas de quatre'' from ''Faust up to Date'', in which Fred Leslie, Ben Nathan, Charles Danby and Fred Storey were made up to resemble Irving, Wilson Barrett, J. L. Toole and Edward Terry.〔 In addition to impersonating the four actors, Leslie and his colleagues were wearing petticoats, imitating the female stars who danced to the same tune in the earlier work. Reviewing the Birmingham premiere, ''The Era'' hinted broadly that this scene was vulgar and should be dropped, and the paper regretted in its review of the London first night that its hint had not been taken.〔〔''The Era'', 14 September 1889, p. 10〕 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「Ruy Blas and the Blasé Roué」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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