J. C. Williamson
The company continued to produce seasons of Gilbert and Sullivan operas, operetta, musical comedy, straight plays, pantomimes and occasional musical revues, and later grand opera, ballet seasons, and concert tours by visiting celebrity singers and musicians, at the many theatres that it owned or leased throughout Australia and New Zealand.
In 1861, Williamson worked for the local theatre company of Messrs. Hurd and Perkins as call-boy, general assistant and scenery and props maker.
[6] What was meant to be a 12-week tour of Australia ended up lasting for fifteen months (including Struck Oil and other pieces) and netting Williamson £15,000.
Williamson used this money to launch his career as a theatre manager, and Maggie Moore became one of the most popular performers on the Australian stage.
[7] Williamson and Moore played seasons in Australia and toured extensively with several pieces, including Struck Oil, to India, the US, Europe, Britain and elsewhere.
"[8] Williamson and Moore later had a bitter divorce, and he tried unsuccessfully to stop her from appearing in the play, which she continued to revive throughout her career; she starred in the 1919 film version in her late 60s.
Williamson then acquired the Australian performing rights from the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company for The Pirates of Penzance for £1,000 and opened that work at the Theatre Royal, Sydney in 1881.
Between their appearances in Gilbert and Sullivan operas, James and Maggie Williamson continued to play engagements of Struck Oil along with similar popular favourites, The Danites, Arrah-na-Pogue, The Colleen Bawn and Rip Van Winkle.
[citation needed] In July 1882, Williamson began the leasing the Melbourne Theatre Royal, which was newly renovated, introducing modern technical facilities and lavish sets.
At the end of the year Williamson bought Garner out, but Maggie Moore left him for the actor Harry R. Roberts,[14] making extensive financial claims upon him.
Musgrove rejoined Williamson in 1892, when they produced the pantomime Little Red Riding Hood, which opened a new "Lyceum" theatre on Pitt Street, Sydney.
With a running time of nearly four hours, the production contained huge choral numbers, marches and a spectacular chariot race, with horses galloping on a treadmill in front of a moving backdrop.
[citation needed] Returning to his family in France via the United States, his heart condition worsened, and he died in Paris on 6 July 1913 at the age of 67.
[citation needed] After Williamson died in 1913, his company – at one time the largest theatrical firm in the world – continued to operate under various managing directors.
[19] The firm began to make films and continued to present musical comedy and operetta, including the extremely successful The Maid of the Mountains (1917).
[18][23] The company's activities even extended to London's West End, where it produced, among others, seasons of the musicals High Jinks (in 1916), and Mr. Cinders (1928).
J. C. Williamson Ltd. secured exclusive rights to stage professional productions of the Gilbert and Sullivan (G&S) operas in Australia and New Zealand.
During the years of the Great Depression in the early 1930s, the popularity of the G&S company, in fact, helped to keep the firm financially viable when a number of their musical comedy productions lost money.
Savoyards who toured Australia and New Zealand over the years included Frederick Federici, Frank Thornton, Alice Barnett, Leonora Braham, Courtice Pounds, Charles Kenningham, Wallace Brownlow, C. H. Workman, Frederick Hobbs, Ivan Menzies and wife Elsie Griffin, Winifred Lawson, Richard Watson, Viola Hogg Wilson (who married Frank Tait, the youngest of the five Tait brothers who were then running the company), Evelyn Gardiner, John Dean, Marjorie Eyre and husband Leslie Rands, Richard Walker and wife Helen Roberts, and Grahame Clifford, among others.
In 1949, J. C. Williamson Ltd. brought Granville's wife, Anna Bethell, to Australia to direct its season of G&S operas, which then toured throughout Australasia for the next three years.
The former Savoyards who participated in the Australia tour included Menzies, Gardiner, Dean, Rands and Eyre, and Walker and Roberts.
[27] The JC Williamson Award is a lifetime achievement award presented by Live Performance Australia (LPA) since 1998 in recognition of "individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to the Australian live entertainment and performing arts industry and shaped the future of our industry for the better", and is the highest honour of the LPA.
