Contents
- 1 Life
and career
- 1.1 Early
career
- 1.2 Peak
years
- 1.3 Later
Years
- 2 References
- 3 External
links
Life and career
Early career
While working as organist at Salford
Cathedral, he composed music hall songs under the
pseudonyms "Lester Thomas" and, most notably, "Leslie Stuart". He wrote
many popular songs for the performer Eugene
Stratton including perhaps his best remembered song, "Lily
of Laguna", and "Little Dolly Daydream." He also wrote the still well
known song "Soldiers of the King".
Stuart acted as a concert impresario in Manchester for some
time, presenting Paderewski in one of his first British
appearances, and opera's Fanny Moody in concert. His earliest
theatrical composing and writing was also for the Manchester theatre.
Here he provided songs and incidental music for, in particular, the
local pantomime
which boasted famous names in their casts. One such pantomime, Aladdin
was presented in 1896.
Stuart made a name by having individual numbers interpolated
into several West End and touring musicals in
the 1890s. The first was "Lousiana Lou". This had already been
published and performed in music hall before being picked up by Ellaline
Terriss and inserted, along with "The Little Mademoiselle", into the
original production of The Shop Girl
(1894) that was being performed at the Gaiety Theatre.
During the run of George Edwardes's An
Artist's Model (1895), Stuart both wrote the
lyric and composed "Trilby Will Be True" for Maurice Farkoa to perform
at Daly's
Theatre. Subsequently he had songs used in Baron
Golosh, The
Circus Girl (1896), the London production of
the American musical A Day in Paris
(1897), Kiefert's The Ballet Girl
(1897) and The Yashmak
(1897).
Stuart composed some 65 songs including, in addition to those
mention above, "The Bandolero", and "Little Dolly Daydream". His
instrumental pieces included at least one Cakewalk.
Peak years
Stuart's greatest acclaim was to come in 1899 with the
completion of Florodora, his
first full musical-comedy score, with a book by Owen Hall.
This was followed by The Silver Slipper
(1901), The School Girl
(1903), The Belle of Mayfair
(1906), and Havana (1908). All of these shows were
successful and toured internationally.
Stuart was an active campaigner for intellectual
property rights and called for tighter laws on both national and
international copyright.
Publishers and wealthy second-rate songwriters would pay producers, for
the exposure, to insert their songs into a hit musical. With the
strength of the fame of Florodora behind him,
Stuart succeeded in stopping this practice in his next few pieces.
Similarly, he had succeeded from time to time in parts of his fight in
Britain and in America against music piracy and on behalf of firmer
national and international copyright laws.
The success of these led George Edwardes to hope that Stuart
would be able to replace the Caryll and Monckton
writing partnership on their departure from the Gaiety Theatre.
Stuart's next show, Captain Kidd (1909), however,
was not for the Gaiety, and it was a flop. Peggy
was produced at the Gaiety in 1911. Although it achieved reasonable
success and he wrote another show, The Slim Princess
(1911), for Broadway at the same time, he did not produce any major new
hits during this period.
Later Years
By 1911, the lack of any new stage successes, coupled with
gambling debts, resulted in Stuart appearing before the bankruptcy
courts. At the age of 48, changing tastes in musical styles and the
influence of modern dance rhythms on theatre meant his career as a
composer was effectively over, although he did write a number of songs
that were inserted, against his principles, in the shows of other
composers.
Stuart retained an income, provided by continued revivals and
performances of the popular Florodora, and
supplemented this by appearing in variety
theatre, where he performed his most famous songs accompanying himself
on the piano.
A 1940 Biographical film entitled You
Will Remember, directed by Jack Raymond, starred Robert
Morley in the Leslie Stuart role and Emlyn Williams. The screen writers
were Lydia Hayward, Sewell Stokes and Christopher D.
Morley.
References
- Stuart, Leslie: My Bohemian Life.
Edited and annotated by Andrew Lamb. Fullers Wood Press, 2003.
- Lamb, Andrew: Leslie Stuart – Composer of
Florodora. Routledge, 2002
- Staveacre, Terry: The Songwriters. BBC
Books, 1980
- Murray, Roderick: "Establishing a Performing Text for
Leslie Stuart's Havana" in The Gaiety Annual (2003)
pp. 35-45
External links