The Old Vic Theatre
A History

This is the first book to chronicle fully the history of London's Old Vic Theatre.

George Rowell (Author)

9780521021593, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 3 November 2005

252 pages, 33 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15.7 x 1.4 cm, 0.365 kg

"...a valuable contribution to nineteenth century theatre history...[T]his record...lays the ground work for further development by future scholars." Jane Baldwin, Theatre History Studies

This is the first book to chronicle fully the history of London's Old Vic Theatre. After Drury Lane, Covent Garden, and the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, the Old Vic is London's oldest theatre, with a continuous history since 1818. Drawing on important archives, both here (notably the Royal Victoria Hall's) and in the United States, George Rowell sheds new light on the management, audience, productions, and players. In particular he offers fresh information on its early years, when such famous figures as Edmund Kean and William Charles Macready appeared there, and Paganini gave his farewell concert. Throughout its history the Old Vic has served a number of purposes and provided many brands of entertainment, including spectacle, pantomime, 'blood-and-thunder melodrama', and variety. Subsequently it was used as a 'temperance hall' and working-men's college. The Theatre was the first permanent home of opera in English as well as British ballet, and, above all, the birthplace of the world-famous Old Vic Company.

List of illustrations
Acknowledgements
1. The search
2. Seeking a public 1816–1834
3. Seeking survival 1834–1880
4. Seeking improvement 1880–1914
5. Seeking Shakespeare 1914–1933
6. Seeking the stars 1933–1940
7. Seeking shelter 1940–1944
8. Seeking supremacy 1944–1976
9. Seeking an identity 1976–1983
10. The search continues
Appendices
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Theatre studies [AN]