Adonis is an 1884 burlesque

Burlesque

Burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects...

 musical

Musical theatre

Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...

 produced by Edward E. Rice

Edward E. Rice

Edward Everett Rice was an American musical composer and theater producer active during the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, known primarily for being a pioneer of American musical theater and introducing to Broadway a musical by African-American writers and performers.-Biography:Edward Everett...

 who also composed the music along with John Eller. The book was written by William Gill

William B. Gill

William Bain Gill was an American actor and playwright, most famous for authoring Broadway's first hit musical, AdonisBorn in Newfoundland in 1842, Gill spent the early part of his career as an actor in Australia and India. Gill ultimately moved to the United States with his wife and children...

. The musical had a run of 603 shows during its original Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 run, making it the longest-running show on Broadway during that period. It was co-written and directed by Henry E. Dixey

Henry E. Dixey

Henry E. Dixey was an American actor and theatre producer. He was born January 6, 1859 in Boston, Massachusetts. He made his stage debut in Boston in 1868, joining the variety stock actors at the Howard Athenaeum, where in 1869 he played the character Peanuts in the Augustin Daly play Under the...

who also starred as the titular Adonis.

Adonis tells the story of a gorgeous male statue that comes to life and finds human ways so unpleasant that he chooses to turn back into stone – after spoofing several famous personalities.

Character list and descriptions

• Adonis, an accomplished young gentleman of undeniably good family, insomuch as he can trace his ancestry back through the Genozoic, Mesozoic, and Paleozoic period, until he finds it resting on the Archaean time. His family name, by the way, is Marble.
• Marquis de Baccarat, a highly polished villain. It is well enough to describe his character, as no one would think it to look at him.
• Bunion Turke, father of Rosetta, an unblushing appropriator of the stock in trade of a well-known and worthy old histrionic miller.
• Talamea, a sculptress who, like most of her sex, is in love with her own creation.
• Artea, a Goddess, Patroness of the fine arts.
• Duchess of Area, aesthetic to the verge of eccentricity, rich to the verge of Millionairism, sentimental to the verge of gush.
• Lady Nattie, daughter of the Duchess. She and her sisters Hattie, Mattie, and Pattie are professional beauties.
• Lady Hattie, daughter of the Duchess. She and her sisters Nattie, Mattie, and Pattie are professional beauties.
• Lady Mattie, daughter of the Duchess. She and her sisters Nattie, Hattie, and Pattie are professional beauties.
• Lady Pattie, daughter of the Duchess. She and her sisters Nattie, Hattie, and Mattie are professional beauties.
• Rosetta, a simple village maiden, the happy possessor of a clear conscience and a strong will.
• Gyles, Nyles, Myles, & Byles, ordinary everyday rustics.
• Gills, Bills, Sills, & Tills, homely rustics (who will perform a circus).
• The Plumed Knights.