Brandon Thomas
Encyclopedia
Walter Brandon Thomas was an English actor, playwright and song writer, best known as the author of the farce
Charley's Aunt
.
Born in Liverpool
to a family with no theatrical connections, Thomas worked in commerce, and as an occasional journalist, before achieving his ambition of becoming an actor. After a succession of minor roles, he became increasingly sought after as a character actor. He also wrote plays, the most celebrated of which, Charley's Aunt (1892), broke all historic records for plays of any kind, with an original London run of 1,466 performances and subsequent productions all around the world.
Although Thomas never repeated the prodigious success of Charley's Aunt, he maintained a career as an actor and dramatist until his death, acting mostly in comedy, but with occasional serious roles in the plays of Shakespeare and others.
, the eldest of the three children of Walter Thomas (d. 1878), a bootseller, and his wife, Hannah, née Morris. He was educated at the Liverpool Institute and later at a private school in Prescot
, Lancashire
. At the age of 14, he enlisted in the Royal Marines
but was bought out after six weeks and apprenticed to a shipbuilder. He learned bookkeeping and became a clerk with local Liverpool timber merchants, until 1875, when he took a similar post in Hull
, where his family was by then living.
Thomas augmented his salary with occasional journalism; The Times
noted that at 17 he published "a striking pamphlet" attacking the hymn-writers Moody and Sankey
. His chief love, however, was the theatre. He appeared as an amateur in Hull, singing and reciting at temperance concerts, and performing in music hall
s and drawing room entertainments, playing the piano and singing his own songs. Through the influence of a local businessman, Albert Rollit
, he secured an engagement with William
and Madge Kendal
at the Court Theatre
in London. He made his first professional stage appearance there at age 30, in April 1879, as Sandy in The Queen's Shilling.
. This "new and critical comedy" opened at the Court in 1882, with a cast including Arthur Cecil
, D. G. Boucicault
and Marion Terry
. When the Kendals moved from the Court Theatre in Chelsea
to the St. James's Theatre in the West End
, Thomas went with them and remained in their company playing small roles until 1885, when he joined Rosina Vokes
's company as its leading man on an American tour that lasted into the middle of 1886. On his return to London, he continued to write and to appear in supporting roles. He first attracted significant attention in Sweet Lavender by Arthur Wing Pinero
. In the role of the banker Geoffrey Wedderburn, "he at once leapt into favour as a strong and virile representative of elderly men".
In 1888, two days before his fortieth birthday, Thomas married Marguerite Blanche Leverson (1865–1930), daughter of James Leverson, a diamond merchant, and his wife, Henrietta. The marriage had been long delayed because of objections on religious grounds by the Leverson family. Thomas and his wife had three children, Amy Marguerite Brandon Thomas
(1890–1974), Jevan Roderick Brandon Thomas (1898–1977), who each later had theatrical careers, and Sylvia M. Brandon Thomas (born c. 1905), who did not.
As a character actor, Thomas had the great advantage of a facility for regional accents. Of one performance, the critic W. A. Lewis Bettany wrote: "The dialect was of course perfect; is not our actor the one acknowledged master of dialect on the stage?" He was well received in two Scottish roles in this part of his career, Tammy Tamson in his own play A Highland Legacy (1888), and Macphail of Bullocheevin in Pinero's The Cabinet Minister (1890). As the latter, "with practically nothing to say he made the uncouth young Highlander, tied to his mother's apron strings, stand out as one of the most diverting features of the piece." In 1891, Thomas had a conspicuous artistic and financial success in a triple bill at Terry's Theatre
. At the instigation of George Edwardes
, he invested £1,000 in a production of three one-act plays: his own The Lancashire Sailor, Weedon Grossmith
's A Commission, and Cecil Clay's A Pantomime Rehearsal. He took prominent roles in all three, displaying his versatility as "a romantic young lover, a delightfully cynical model and as the heavy, stupid Captain." The production ran for 152 performances, transferring to the Shaftesbury Theatre
and making a good profit.
. It was written for his friend, the actor W. S. Penley
. Later the two disagreed (and went to court) about how much, if any, of the plot was Penley's invention rather than Thomas's. Penley told a journalist in 1894, "The play was my idea and Brandon Thomas wrote it. Later on, we went down into the country and worked at it. Then we worked it out on the stage." Penley produced the play and took the star role of Lord Fancourt Babberley, an undergraduate whose friends Jack and Charley persuade him to impersonate the latter's aunt. The early performances of the play were given on tour in the English provinces, beginning at Bury St Edmunds on 29 February 1892. The Royalty Theatre
in London became unexpectedly vacant, and Penley took it, opening Charley's Aunt there on 21 December 1892. For the first few weeks in London, Thomas played the role of Sir Francis Chesney, the benevolent father of one of the undergraduates; he regularly played the part in later revivals until shortly before his death. The play was an immediate success and transferred to the larger Globe Theatre
on 30 January 1893. It ran for a record-breaking 1,466 performances across four years, closing on 19 December 1896. It was simultaneously toured by seven companies in the United Kingdom.
The piece was successfully staged throughout the English-speaking world and, in translation, in many other countries. It had a major success on Broadway
in 1893 and was revived there several times. In 1894, it was given both German and French premieres and was produced in Berlin every Christmas for many years. In 1895, The Theatre recorded that Charley's Aunt had been taken up in country after country. "From Germany it made its way to Russia, Holland, Denmark and Norway, and was heartily welcomed everywhere." Thereafter, it was frequently revived for decades and successfully adapted for films and musicals.
Thomas's career as a character actor continued to prosper. In 1892, he played in W. S. Gilbert
's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
, a parody of Hamlet
, and Faithful James, by B. C. Stephenson, with Ellaline Terriss
, both at the Court Theatre. In 1895, he starred in a revival of The Rivals in another dialect role, Sir Lucius O'Trigger. Bernard Shaw
wrote that Thomas succeeded in the part, "mainly by not doing what is expected of him". Other parts in which Thomas attracted praise were the Pope in Hall Caine
's The Eternal City (1902) and John of Gaunt in Richard II
to the King Richard of Herbert Beerbohm Tree
(1903).
Thomas continued to write plays, but he never matched the success of Charley's Aunt. His later titles included Marriage, 1892; The Swordsman’s Daughter (an adaptation of a French play, with Clement Scott
), 1895; 22a Curzon Street, 1898; Women Are So Serious, 1901; Fourchette & Co., 1904; and A Judge’s Memory, 1906. He was also well known as an author and singer of "coon songs".
Thomas died at his home in Bloomsbury
, London, aged 65, after a brief illness. He was buried in Brompton Cemetery
. In its obituary notice, The Times quoted him as saying, "I hoped to go down to fame as a great actor. If I go at all it will be as the author of Charley's Aunt."
Farce
In theatre, a farce is a comedy which aims at entertaining the audience by means of unlikely, extravagant, and improbable situations, disguise and mistaken identity, verbal humour of varying degrees of sophistication, which may include word play, and a fast-paced plot whose speed usually increases,...
Charley's Aunt
Charley's Aunt
Charley's Aunt is a farce in three acts written by Brandon Thomas. It broke all historic records for plays of any kind, with an original London run of 1,466 performances....
.
Born in Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
to a family with no theatrical connections, Thomas worked in commerce, and as an occasional journalist, before achieving his ambition of becoming an actor. After a succession of minor roles, he became increasingly sought after as a character actor. He also wrote plays, the most celebrated of which, Charley's Aunt (1892), broke all historic records for plays of any kind, with an original London run of 1,466 performances and subsequent productions all around the world.
Although Thomas never repeated the prodigious success of Charley's Aunt, he maintained a career as an actor and dramatist until his death, acting mostly in comedy, but with occasional serious roles in the plays of Shakespeare and others.
Early years
Thomas was born in Mount Pleasant, LiverpoolMount Pleasant, Liverpool
Mount Pleasant is a street in Liverpool City Centre. It is towards one end of Hope Street, and is the location of Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral.57 Mount Pleasant Street is referenced in the song Weather With You by Crowded House....
, the eldest of the three children of Walter Thomas (d. 1878), a bootseller, and his wife, Hannah, née Morris. He was educated at the Liverpool Institute and later at a private school in Prescot
Prescot
Prescot is a town and civil parish, within the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley in Merseyside, England. It is 8 miles to the east of Liverpool city centre and lies within the historic boundaries of Lancashire. At the 2001 Census, the population was 11,184 .Prescot marks the beginning of the...
, Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
. At the age of 14, he enlisted in the Royal Marines
Royal Marines
The Corps of Her Majesty's Royal Marines, commonly just referred to as the Royal Marines , are the marine corps and amphibious infantry of the United Kingdom and, along with the Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary, form the Naval Service...
but was bought out after six weeks and apprenticed to a shipbuilder. He learned bookkeeping and became a clerk with local Liverpool timber merchants, until 1875, when he took a similar post in Hull
Kingston upon Hull
Kingston upon Hull , usually referred to as Hull, is a city and unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It stands on the River Hull at its junction with the Humber estuary, 25 miles inland from the North Sea. Hull has a resident population of...
, where his family was by then living.
Thomas augmented his salary with occasional journalism; The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
noted that at 17 he published "a striking pamphlet" attacking the hymn-writers Moody and Sankey
Moody and Sankey
Moody and Sankey was the evangelical duo of Ira David Sankey and Dwight Lyman Moody. Starting after their meeting in June 1871, the team wrote Christian songs and traveled throughout the United States and the United Kingdom calling people to God through their use of song, with Moody preaching and...
. His chief love, however, was the theatre. He appeared as an amateur in Hull, singing and reciting at temperance concerts, and performing in music hall
Music hall
Music Hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment which was popular between 1850 and 1960. The term can refer to:# A particular form of variety entertainment involving a mixture of popular song, comedy and speciality acts...
s and drawing room entertainments, playing the piano and singing his own songs. Through the influence of a local businessman, Albert Rollit
Albert Rollit
Sir Albert Kaye Rollit was a British politician, lawyer, and businessman.Born in Hull, he became a solicitor and went on to become president of the Law Society. He later became a shipowner. In 1886 he was elected as a Conservative Member of Parliament for the South Islington constituency...
, he secured an engagement with William
William Hunter Kendal
William Hunter Kendal was an English actor and theatre manager. He and his wife Madge starred at the Haymarket in Shakespearian revivals and the old English comedies beginning in the 1860s. In the 1870s, they starred in a series of "fairy comedies" by W. S. Gilbert and in many plays on the West...
and Madge Kendal
Madge Kendal
Dame Madge Kendal GBE , born as Margaret Shafto Robertson, was an English actress of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, best known for her roles in Shakespeare and English comedies. Together with her husband, W. H...
at the Court Theatre
Royal Court Theatre
The Royal Court Theatre is a non-commercial theatre on Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is noted for its contributions to modern theatre...
in London. He made his first professional stage appearance there at age 30, in April 1879, as Sandy in The Queen's Shilling.
Early stage career
In addition to playing small parts, Thomas continued to write, and the Kendals accepted his play Comrades for production after it was revised by B. C. StephensonB. C. Stephenson
Benjamin Charles Stephenson or B. C. Stephenson was an English dramatist, lyricist and librettist. After beginning a career in the civil service, he started to write for the theatre, using the pen name "Bolton Rowe". He was author or co-author of several long-running shows of the Victorian theatre...
. This "new and critical comedy" opened at the Court in 1882, with a cast including Arthur Cecil
Arthur Cecil
Arthur Cecil Blunt, better known as Arthur Cecil was an English actor, comedian, playwright and theatre manager. He is probably best remembered for playing the role of Box in the long-running production of Cox and Box, by Arthur Sullivan and F. C...
, D. G. Boucicault
Dion Boucicault Jr.
Dion Boucicault Jr. was an actor and stage director. Son of the well-known playwright, Dion Boucicault, he followed his father into the theatrical profession and made a career as a character actor and a director...
and Marion Terry
Marion Terry
Marion Bessie Terry was an English actress. In a career spanning half a century, she played leading roles in more than 125 plays. Always in the shadow of her more famous sister Ellen, Terry nevertheless achieved considerable success in the plays of W. S...
. When the Kendals moved from the Court Theatre in Chelsea
Chelsea, London
Chelsea is an area of West London, England, bounded to the south by the River Thames, where its frontage runs from Chelsea Bridge along the Chelsea Embankment, Cheyne Walk, Lots Road and Chelsea Harbour. Its eastern boundary was once defined by the River Westbourne, which is now in a pipe above...
to the St. James's Theatre in the West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
, Thomas went with them and remained in their company playing small roles until 1885, when he joined Rosina Vokes
Vokes family
The Vokes family were three sisters, one brother and a second honorary brother popular in the pantomime theatres of 1870s London and in the United States. Their father was a theatrical costumier. Early in their career, at the Lyceum Theatre, London, they danced in W. S...
's company as its leading man on an American tour that lasted into the middle of 1886. On his return to London, he continued to write and to appear in supporting roles. He first attracted significant attention in Sweet Lavender by Arthur Wing Pinero
Arthur Wing Pinero
Sir Arthur Wing Pinero was an English actor and later an important dramatist and stage director.-Biography:...
. In the role of the banker Geoffrey Wedderburn, "he at once leapt into favour as a strong and virile representative of elderly men".
In 1888, two days before his fortieth birthday, Thomas married Marguerite Blanche Leverson (1865–1930), daughter of James Leverson, a diamond merchant, and his wife, Henrietta. The marriage had been long delayed because of objections on religious grounds by the Leverson family. Thomas and his wife had three children, Amy Marguerite Brandon Thomas
Amy Brandon Thomas
Amy Marguerite Brandon Thomas was an English film and stage actor. She was the daughter of the playwright Brandon Thomas. She is also known as Amy Brandon-Thomas.-Life and career:...
(1890–1974), Jevan Roderick Brandon Thomas (1898–1977), who each later had theatrical careers, and Sylvia M. Brandon Thomas (born c. 1905), who did not.
Terry's Theatre
Terry's Theatre was a West End theatre on Strand, in the City of Westminster, London. Built in 1887, it became a cinema in 1910 before being demolished in 1923.-History:...
. At the instigation of George Edwardes
George Edwardes
George Joseph Edwardes was an English theatre manager of Irish ancestry who brought a new era in musical theatre to the British stage and beyond....
, he invested £1,000 in a production of three one-act plays: his own The Lancashire Sailor, Weedon Grossmith
Weedon Grossmith
Walter Weedon Grossmith , better known as Weedon Grossmith, was an English writer, painter, actor and playwright, best known as co-author of The Diary of a Nobody with his famous brother, music hall comedian and Gilbert and Sullivan star, George Grossmith...
's A Commission, and Cecil Clay's A Pantomime Rehearsal. He took prominent roles in all three, displaying his versatility as "a romantic young lover, a delightfully cynical model and as the heavy, stupid Captain." The production ran for 152 performances, transferring to the Shaftesbury Theatre
Shaftesbury Theatre
The Shaftesbury Theatre is a West End Theatre, located on Shaftesbury Avenue, in the London Borough of Camden.-History:The theatre was designed for the brothers Walter and Frederick Melville by Bertie Crewe and opened on 26 December 1911 with a production of The Three Musketeers, as the New...
and making a good profit.
Charley's Aunt and later years
Thomas's outstanding hit was the farce Charley's AuntCharley's Aunt
Charley's Aunt is a farce in three acts written by Brandon Thomas. It broke all historic records for plays of any kind, with an original London run of 1,466 performances....
. It was written for his friend, the actor W. S. Penley
W. S. Penley
William Sydney Penley was an English actor, singer and comedian best remembered as producer and star of the phenomenally successful 1892 Brandon Thomas farce, Charley's Aunt and as the Reverend Robert Spalding in many productions of The Private Secretary.-Life and career:Penley was born at...
. Later the two disagreed (and went to court) about how much, if any, of the plot was Penley's invention rather than Thomas's. Penley told a journalist in 1894, "The play was my idea and Brandon Thomas wrote it. Later on, we went down into the country and worked at it. Then we worked it out on the stage." Penley produced the play and took the star role of Lord Fancourt Babberley, an undergraduate whose friends Jack and Charley persuade him to impersonate the latter's aunt. The early performances of the play were given on tour in the English provinces, beginning at Bury St Edmunds on 29 February 1892. The Royalty Theatre
Royalty Theatre
The Royalty Theatre was a small London theatre situated at 73 Dean Street, Soho and opened on 25 May 1840 as Miss Kelly's Theatre and Dramatic School and finally closed to the public in 1938. The architect was Samuel Beazley, a resident in Soho Square, who also designed St James's Theatre, among...
in London became unexpectedly vacant, and Penley took it, opening Charley's Aunt there on 21 December 1892. For the first few weeks in London, Thomas played the role of Sir Francis Chesney, the benevolent father of one of the undergraduates; he regularly played the part in later revivals until shortly before his death. The play was an immediate success and transferred to the larger Globe Theatre
Globe Theatre (Newcastle Street)
The Globe was a Victorian theatre built in 1868 and demolished in 1902. It was the third of five London theatres to bear the name. It was also known at various times as the Royal Globe Theatre or Globe Theatre Royal. Its repertoire consisted mainly of comedies and musical shows...
on 30 January 1893. It ran for a record-breaking 1,466 performances across four years, closing on 19 December 1896. It was simultaneously toured by seven companies in the United Kingdom.
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...
in 1893 and was revived there several times. In 1894, it was given both German and French premieres and was produced in Berlin every Christmas for many years. In 1895, The Theatre recorded that Charley's Aunt had been taken up in country after country. "From Germany it made its way to Russia, Holland, Denmark and Norway, and was heartily welcomed everywhere." Thereafter, it was frequently revived for decades and successfully adapted for films and musicals.
Thomas's career as a character actor continued to prosper. In 1892, he played in W. S. Gilbert
W. S. Gilbert
Sir William Schwenck Gilbert was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his fourteen comic operas produced in collaboration with the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan, of which the most famous include H.M.S...
's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (Gilbert)
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, A Tragic Episode, in Three Tabloids is a short comic play by W. S. Gilbert, a parody of Hamlet by William Shakespeare...
, a parody of Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
, and Faithful James, by B. C. Stephenson, with Ellaline Terriss
Ellaline Terriss
Ellaline Terriss, born Ellaline Lewin , was a popular English actress and singer, best known for her performances in Edwardian musical comedies...
, both at the Court Theatre. In 1895, he starred in a revival of The Rivals in another dialect role, Sir Lucius O'Trigger. Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
wrote that Thomas succeeded in the part, "mainly by not doing what is expected of him". Other parts in which Thomas attracted praise were the Pope in Hall Caine
Hall Caine
Sir Thomas Henry Hall Caine CH, KBE , usually known as Hall Caine, was a Manx author. He is best known as a novelist and playwright of the late Victorian and the Edwardian eras. In his time he was exceedingly popular, and at the peak of his success his novels outsold those of his...
's The Eternal City (1902) and John of Gaunt in Richard II
Richard II (play)
King Richard the Second is a history play by William Shakespeare believed to be written in approximately 1595. It is based on the life of King Richard II of England and is the first part of a tetralogy, referred to by some scholars as the Henriad, followed by three plays concerning Richard's...
to the King Richard of Herbert Beerbohm Tree
Herbert Beerbohm Tree
Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree was an English actor and theatre manager.Tree began performing in the 1870s. By 1887, he was managing the Haymarket Theatre, winning praise for adventurous programming and lavish productions, and starring in many of its productions. In 1899, he helped fund the...
(1903).
Thomas continued to write plays, but he never matched the success of Charley's Aunt. His later titles included Marriage, 1892; The Swordsman’s Daughter (an adaptation of a French play, with Clement Scott
Clement Scott
Clement Scott was an influential English theatre critic for the Daily Telegraph, and a playwright and travel writer, in the final decades of the 19th century...
), 1895; 22a Curzon Street, 1898; Women Are So Serious, 1901; Fourchette & Co., 1904; and A Judge’s Memory, 1906. He was also well known as an author and singer of "coon songs".
Thomas died at his home in Bloomsbury
Bloomsbury
-Places:* Bloomsbury is an area in central London.* Bloomsbury , related local government unit* Bloomsbury, New Jersey, New Jersey, USA* Bloomsbury , listed on the NRHP in Maryland...
, London, aged 65, after a brief illness. He was buried in Brompton Cemetery
Brompton Cemetery
Brompton Cemetery is located near Earl's Court in South West London, England . It is managed by The Royal Parks and is one of the Magnificent Seven...
. In its obituary notice, The Times quoted him as saying, "I hoped to go down to fame as a great actor. If I go at all it will be as the author of Charley's Aunt."
External links
- Find-A-Grave biography
- Brandon Thomas at the IBDB database