Victorian Theatre 5/5

Jul 4, 202312 min read

Mr. and Mrs. Warner and Unromantic Loose Ends

Originally published Sept. 28, 2020 After more than a month of extending and vamping, I am going to return to what was supposed to have...

Jul 3, 202311 min read

Mr. Watts and the Extortionists

Originally posted Sept. 21, 2020 When I said that Walter Watts had a relatively good reputation for London theatrical manager of the...

Jul 3, 20237 min read

The Fall of Walter Watts

Originally published Sept. 7, 2020 Doubtlessly, I have given you the impression that the Watts Scandal blew up and broke quickly in the...

Jul 3, 202310 min read

Mr. Warner and Mr. Watts

Originally posted on August 31, 2020 Last week, I ended with a bit of a cliffhanger. I informed you that Robert Warner, husband of...

Jul 3, 202310 min read

Mr. and Mrs. Warner

Originally published August 24, 2023 [Just a quick note before I begin — In order to accommodate the amount of new information that I...

Jul 3, 20239 min read

Warner/Macready and “Hamlet” at the Marylebone

Originally published August 17, 2020 As you may intuit from the title of this week’s blog, I am not yet ready to wrap up my series on...

Jul 3, 202310 min read

Mary Warner of the Marylebone

Originally published Aug. 11, 2020 One doesn’t expect to get breaking news on a story that’s one hundred and seventy years old, but late...

Jul 3, 202310 min read

Anna Cora Mowatt and Mary Warner, Grand Dame of the Marylebone

Originally published August 3, 2020 If the Watts Scandal were a musical or a movie, I would want to play Mary Warner. She may not fit our...

Jul 3, 202310 min read

Anna Cora Mowatt and The Rag-Picker of Paris

Originally published July 27, 2020 I want to start today’s entry with a complaint about standard volumes of nineteenth century theater...

Jul 3, 20235 min read

Edward Stirling and the Burning of the Olympic

Originally posted July 20, 2020 The history of drama in the 1800s is punctuated by frequent, disastrous theater fires. I can’t think of a...

Jul 2, 202313 min read

Anna Cora Mowatt and Walter Watts’ Irish Engagement

Originally posted July 6, 2020 This week I’m going to take a little break from a narrow focus on Anna Cora Mowatt and talk about the one...

Jul 2, 20233 min read

Anna Cora Mowatt and the Silver Vase

Originally published May 4, 2020 I haven’t devoted a blog to the Watts scandal for some time now. It has not left my thoughts, though....

Jul 2, 20235 min read

Anna Cora Mowatt and the Ill-Starred Lovers

Part I - Gustavus V. Brooke Originally published March 16, 2020 In keeping with the celebration of St. Patrick’s Day, I want to come back...

Jul 2, 20238 min read

Anna Cora Mowatt and the Luck of the Irish

Originally published March 9, 2020 Although he’s been dead for almost one hundred and seventy years now, Walter Watts does not cease to...

Jul 1, 20237 min read

Anna Cora Mowatt and Princess Zuela – Part III

Originally published Feb. 17, 2020 December 22, 1849 marked the beginning of a truly awful fourteen month period filled with tragedy,...

Jul 1, 20236 min read

Anna Cora Mowatt and Princess Zuela — Part II

Originally posted Feb. 10, 2020 Last week, I know that I said that I thought Anna Cora Mowatt had used “Harlequin Fairy-land,” a...