Robert the Devil (Gilbert)
The original production starred Nellie Farren in the title role – she became the company's leading "principal boy".
The opening night performance was under-rehearsed, partly because the new Gaiety Theatre was not finished until the last moment, leaving no time for rehearsal on its stage.
However, The Times noted that "Like the other extravaganzas from the same pen, Robert the Devil shows an endeavour to avoid the ordinary vulgarities of grotesque drama, and bring its most elegant contingencies into the foreground....
[5] The title character, a breeches role, was played as an insouciant "swell" by Nellie Farren, who became famous as the theatre's "principal boy".
[6] Gilbert later renounced travesti roles and revealing dresses on his actresses, and made publicly known his disapproval of them.
"[7] Robert the Devil was part of a triple bill that opened John Hollingshead's new Gaiety Theatre in London on 21 December 1868.
Also on the programme, preceding Gilbert's piece, were a one-act adaptation by Gilbert Arthur à Beckett of a French operetta by Émile Jonas, called The Two Harlequins, and a three-act parody of L'Escamoteur by Paulin Meunier, adapted by Alfred Thompson, called On the Cards.
Gilbert set new lyrics to tunes by Meyerbeer, Hérold, Bellini, Hervé, Offenbach and others, arranged by Mr. Kettenus, the theatre's music director;[8] the opening night programme also credits him with some composition.
[9] The burlesque was Gilbert's biggest success to date, running for over 120 performances and playing continuously in the provinces for three years thereafter.
[10] By 29 March 1869, it was preceded by T. W. Robertson's play Dreams and The Two Harlequins and sometimes ran with Letty the Basketmaker, an obscure opera by Michael Balfe.
[14] The principal dancer was Anna Bossi, from the Opera-house, St Petersburg, and the pantomimists (playing mysterious fiddlers who accompany Bertram) were John D'Auban (who was later Gilbert's choreographer) and John Warde (brother of Willie Warde), who had previously worked with Hollingshead at the Alhambra Theatre.
The 1871 revival cast included "the Misses Farren, Dolaro, Loseby, Tremaine and Wilson, Messrs Maclean, Taylor etc.
In 1872 the Gaiety company took the piece on tour in England and Ireland, where it was played in double or triple bills, sometimes in tandem with Sullivan and Burnand's Cox and Box.
The wax works perform a naughty ballet recalling the ballet in a "cloister by moonlight" of faithless, deceased nuns that created a sensation at the time of the Meyerbeer opera including, according to the stage directions, "the usual business between Robert and the Lady Abbess".
However, the wax-works reappear to drag Bertram, not down to Hell as in Meyerbeer's opera, but instead to a worse fate, to become an exhibit at Madame Tussaud's.
