Foggerty's Fairy

Foggerty's Fairy, subtitled "An Entirely Original Fairy Farce", is a three-act farce by W.S. Gilbert based loosely on Gilbert's short story, "The Story of a Twelfth Cake", which was published in the Christmas Number of The Graphic in 1874, and elements of other Gilbert plays. The story concerns a man who, with the help of a fairy, changes a small event in his past to try to save his engagement to the girl he loves. This leads to profound changes in his present, and he finds that matters are even worse than before.

Foggerty's Fairy opened at the Criterion Theatre in London on 15 December 1881. Charles Wyndham, the manager of the Criterion, starred as the lead character, Frederick Foggerty. Despite Wyndham's star power, interest in the play's bold and original premise and reviews that were at least partly positive, the play was not a success. It closed on 6 January 1882 after about 25 performances. Disappointed, Gilbert turned back to writing comic operas with Arthur Sullivan.

By the time Foggerty's Fairy premiered, Gilbert and Sullivan had already written half a dozen comic opera hits. Since 1877, however, Gilbert had not written a successful play apart from Sullivan. Gilbert wrote Foggerty's Fairy for British actor Edward Sothern, who had commissioned two earlier plays from Gilbert, Dan'l Druce, Blacksmith and The Ne'er-do-weel. Sothern had not been satisfied with The Ne'er-do-weel, despite various rewrites, and he refused the piece. He had already paid Gilbert for the play, and Gilbert was unable immediately to pay him back. After various discussions between Gilbert and Sothern, Gilbert agreed to let Sothern play his recent comedy success, Engaged, in America and promised to write a new play for him.

In the autumn of 1879, Sothern was on one of his lengthy American tours. He intended to open the new Gilbert play at the Park Theatre in New York in the spring of 1880. The Era wrote in October 1979 that "It is proposed, during Mr Sothern's [American] engagement, to bring out revivals of The Crushed Tragedian, Dundreary, and David Garrick, the new comedy by Mr Gilbert being reserved for the spring engagement." At the same time, Gilbert was also busy rehearsing his American productions of H.M.S. Pinafore, the world premiere of The Pirates of Penzance and touring companies to play these and The Sorcerer, as well as British revivals of two of his plays.

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