Marie Jansen
| Marie Jansen | |
|---|---|
Folio Magazine, 1885
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| Born |
Harriet Mary Johnson November 18, 1857 Boston, Massachusetts |
| Died | March 20, 1914 (aged 56) Winthrop, Massachusetts |
| Occupation | Musical theatre actress |
Marie Jansen (November 18, 1857 – March 20, 1914) was an American musical theatre actress best known for her roles at the end of the 19th century. She starred in a number of successful comic operas, Edwardian musical comedies, and comic plays in New York, Boston, Philadelphia and London during the 1880s and 1890s.
After gaining notice for her role in the American production of Olivette (1880), she became known for her performances in the title role of the original American production of Iolanthe (1882), in the long-running comic opera Erminie (1886), the title roles in Featherbrain (1884) and Nadjy (1888), and her role in The Oolah (1889). Later in her career, she performed in vaudeville and formed her own touring theatre company. Jansen ran into financial difficulties, by the late 1890s, partly due to losses as a producer, that left her in reduced circumstances for the remainder of her life.
Jansen was born in Boston, Massachusetts, where she was adopted as an infant by Benjamin and Harriet Johnson and named Harriet "Hattie" Mary Johnson. Her father was a merchant with the means to send his daughter to the New England Conservatory of Music. While there, she appeared in music hall concerts and caught the eye of the British-American orchestra conductor and composer John Braham, who felt that she had stage presence and later helped her secure a position with the Comley-Barton Opera Company.
Jansen made her professional stage debut at the Park Theatre in Boston on September 13, 1880 in B. E. Woolf's musical comedy, Lawn Tennis. The play made its New York debut a few weeks later at the Bijou Theatre and ran until Christmas Eve. Olivette, the English adaption of Les noces d'Olivette, a comic opera with music by Edmond Audran, debuted at the Bijou on Christmas Day with Jansen as the Waiting Maid to the Countess. In May 1881 Olivette opened at the Boston Globe, with Jansen assuming the role of the Countess, with great success. She next played in The Vicar of Bray and Billee Taylor. Jansen was married in 1881, while starring in Olivette, to James Barton (1854–1910), an actor, theater manager and singer who was a co-founder of the Comley–Barton Opera Company. He was a son of Philip Barton Key II and grandson of Francis Scott Key. They divorced, she said, by the time she introduced the song "Ohé, Mamma" in 1883.
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