George Edwardes

George Joseph Edwardes (born as Edwards) (8 October 1855 – 4 October 1915) was an English theatre manager and producer of Irish ancestry who brought a new era in musical theatre to the British stage and beyond.

Edwardes started out in theatre management, soon working at a number of West End theatres. By the age of 20, he was managing theatres for Richard D'Oyly Carte. In 1885, Edwardes became a manager at the Gaiety Theatre with John Hollingshead, who soon retired.

For the next three decades, Edwardes ruled a theatrical empire including the Gaiety, Daly's Theatre, the Adelphi Theatre and others, and sent touring companies around Britain and abroad. In the early 1890s, Edwardes recognised the changing tastes of musical theatre audiences and led the movement away from burlesque and comic opera to Edwardian musical comedy.

Edwardes was born at Great Grimsby, Lincolnshire, England. He was the eldest of four sons and three daughters of James Edwards, comptroller of customs, and his wife, Eleanor Widdup. Edwardes' parents were Roman Catholics from Wexford, Ireland. He attended St James's College, in Clee, after which he was sent to London to take the examination for the Royal Military Academy. However, his cousins were Irish theatre managers John and Michael Gunn, and they obtained a job for him at Leicester's Royal Opera House.

Michael Gunn met Richard D'Oyly Carte in 1875 and later became a partner in his production company. He and young Edwardes moved to London to work for Carte at the Opera Comique in the late 1870s, with Edwardes being given the trusted position of treasurer. He eventually became Carte's manager at the Opera Comique and then was Carte's first managing director of the Savoy Theatre in 1881, helping to produce several of the famous Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas until 1885. During this time, he added the "e" to his surname. While working at the Opera Comique, Edwardes met his future wife, singer Julia Gwynne, whom he brought to the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, where she became a principal player. The couple married in 1885 and produced three daughters, including one named Dorothy, and a son, D'Arcy.

...
Wikipedia