Joseph Coyne

[3] Having shown talent for drawing "and the like," Coyne's parents apprenticed him to a sculptor where his job was to keep the clay moist for modeling, particularly over the weekends.

But Coyne so loved the theater that he'd sneak off to watch shows instead of keeping the clay wet, and fled the job after breaking a statue that was supposed to be under his care.

[5] The years that followed were referred to by Coyne as a period of "arduous stock work in drama,"[1] playing in several variety farce-comedies beginning with The District Attorney (1985), and The Good Mr. Best (1897).

Somewhere in this timeframe Charles Frohman, who liked to go out in search of talent himself, saw Coyne playing "a very cheap theatre in New York" and knew he had found something special.

Following that were a string of roles in which he played the "silly-ass" drunken English gentleman to great effect: The Rogers Brothers in London (1903–04), In Newport (1904–05), Abigail (1905), The Rollicking Girl (1905–06), The Social Whirl (1906), and My Lady's Maid (1906).

According to the Biographical Dictionary of Dance (1982), Coyne became known for his drunk act and physical comedy: falling down staircases, over tables, and on top of comic leads.

In 1906, Coyne returned to England with Edna May for his second London West End show, as the comic-aristocrat Billy Rickets in Frohman's Nelly Neil (1907).

It was here, on opening night, 10 January 1907, that George Edwardes first saw Joseph Coyne, previously unknown to him, perform, and recognized "the possibilities in this young man who could not sing at all, but who could certainly dance, and who could most certainly act.

His pioneering spirit was awake; here was a complete change from the rather stiff, if handsome and stagily dashing, young man whose voice, as a rule, made his success.

[6] The casting of Joseph Coyne as romantic lead Prince Danilo in his enormously successful adaptation of Franz Lehár's German operetta The Merry Widow surprised the musical theater world.

To quote eminent theatre historian W. J. MacQueen-Pope, who worked on the show with Edwardes and Coyne, Joe was "horrified" and "begged to be let off.

Even when he discovered that he was to play it in the way which suited his personality, that he was not expected to sing some of the more difficult numbers, that he was to let his own ability and charm carry him along, he was still afraid.

"[4] Of his performance in the part Coyne said, more than a decade later during an interview in Australia, "Prince Danilo was originally played at Carlsbad by an eminent German actor, [Louis] Treumann, as a purely romantic singing-role.

At Daly's I presented it as a light, irresponsible young prince, whose love scenes, always sincere, yet possessed a touch of quaint humor.

"[1] Coyne's solution to overcoming his limited vocal skills was to recite lines in rhythm, originating the 'speak-style singing' technique popularized by—and often incorrectly credited to--Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady.

Coyne did, remarkably well, and Edwardes used the opportunity to posit that the recitation was so beautiful, feeling, and dramatic, shouldn't they keep it that way instead of singing it?

He made his entrance "without dash, with absolute reluctance, with an odd walk, not handsome, not even good-looking, but round, a bit blank and, above all, worried.

"[4] For all his initial horror around Coyne's recitation of one particular song in the original German version, Lehár came to realize "that this was the way in which Danilo should really be played.

At all subsequent productions in other parts of the world he insisted that Coyne's method of reciting instead of singing the legend of the Prince's children should be followed.

Other work in the World War I timeframe included playing Ronald Clibran in The Clock Goes Round (1916), Lawyer Gooch in Step In The Office (1916), and a local revue called The Bing Girls Are There (1917).

At the age of 58 he received fresh acclaim as the youthful attorney "Jimmy Smith" in No, No, Nanette (1925), and followed this success playing T. Boggs John in Queen High (1926).

Reports regarding the engagement surfaced as early as March 1908,[21] which is about the time Charles Frohman announced that Coyne and Carlisle would star together in The Mollusc in New York that fall.

[23] A year later, in September 1909, Coyne announced that he and English actress Alexandra Carlisle had secretly wed on 3 December 1908, issuing a statement that said, "We wished to get along quietly until the event was so far back that nobody would want to throw rice and old shoes at us.

"[24] Ironically, just two months earlier on 25 July 1909, the Washington Herald reported that Anna Boyd had finalized her divorce from Coyne, who would soon wed Alexandra Carlisle.

[26][27][28] Theatre historian and author W. J. MacQueen-Pope, who worked with Coyne on The Merry Widow, described him as "a curious-looking fellow, with a round face and a pair of rather sad eyes, loose-limbed and with a habit of kicking out on each side with his feet as he walked.

[4] One critic, in reviewing The Quaker Girl wrote of him that, like other stars of musical comedy including Gertie Millar, "It is no good their pretending to be any one else.

That figure was never reached because he was persuaded to make some investments--or speculations--also against his will, and he suffered for this departure from his custom by losing a lot of money in one of the Wall Street crashes.

On opening night, instead of using the electric prop he snuck a real, lighted candle past the stage manager and set it on the piano.

One report says the audience never realized what was happening, another says a great puff of smoke wafted into the auditorium and caused the fire alarm to sound.

[4][30] MacQueen-Pope mentions that "later in life [Coyne] reached a stage when he would have long conversations on street corners with people quite invisible to anyone else, but most interesting and chatty to him.