Robert Courtneidge

Robert Courtneidge (29 June 1859 – 6 April 1939) was a British theatrical manager-producer and playwright. He is best remembered as the co-author of the light opera Tom Jones (1907) and the producer of The Arcadians (1909). He was the father of the actress Cicely Courtneidge, who played in many of his early 20th century productions.

Courtneidge began as a comic actor in the late 1870s, working with Kate Santley, George Edwardes and others. In the early 1890s, he toured in Australia with Edwardes and J. C. Williamson companies. In 1896, he became a theatre manager in Manchester and then a West End theatre producer. In the first years of the 20th century, he began to direct musical theatre pieces and to write or co-write the book for some of his productions, including Tom Jones (1907). His most popular productions included The Arcadians (1909), Princess Caprice (1912), Oh! Oh! Delphine (1913) and The Cinema Star (1914). He directed the hit musical The Boy in 1917.

After the war, he presented Paddy the Next Best Thing, which had a long run, and then took a touring company to Australia, presenting a repertory of comedies. In the 1920s, he returned to producing British provincial tours and became the lessee of the Savoy Theatre, presenting a mixture of productions ranging from Shakespeare to farce. A lifelong socialist, he joined with other managers in campaigning for fair pay and treatment of actors. He also returned briefly to acting. Later in the decade, he presented more West End musicals and operettas, producing his last show in 1930. In 1933 he wrote a novel, Judith Clifford.

Courtneidge was born in Glasgow, Scotland. He appeared as an amateur actor in Edinburgh and later in Manchester. At Christmas 1878 he made his professional debut in the pantomime Babes in the Wood at the Prince's Theatre in Manchester. He toured with the Charles Dillon and Barry Sullivan companies, and later with Kate Santley playing Hamet Abensellah in Vetah (1886). In 1885 he played Mr. Drinkwater in H.J. Byron's Open House, a performance praised by The Manchester Guardian as "a well-studied sketch of a vain and irritable old widower." He made his London debut in 1887 at the Adelphi Theatre, in The Bells of Haslemere. His other roles included Pepin in Robert Reece's English version of Auguste Coedes's Girouette (1889) and Major Styx in a Scots musical Pim Pom set in a monkey house at the zoo.

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