Tony Hart (theater)

Tony Hart, born Anthony J. Cannon (July 25, 1855 – November 4, 1891), was an American actor, comedian and singer. He is best known for working with Edward Harrigan in the late 19th century comedy team of Harrigan & Hart.

He met Harrigan in 1870. The two became a fixture at the Theatre Comique in New York City by the mid-1870s performing in Harrigan's farcical sketches. The slight and short Hart usually portrayed the female roles in their comic sketches and plays.

Their breakthrough hit was the 1873 song and sketch "The Mulligan Guard", a lampoon of an Irish neighborhood "militia" with music by David Braham. It became their signature piece, and they featured it in many of their slapstick skits and plays. The team's last Broadway performance was in May 1885. Hart's health and financial condition both deteriorated, and he died at the age of 36.

Hart was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, and began his career in Boston. He met Harrigan in Chicago in 1870 and soon changed his name to Tony Hart. Harrigan and Hart went in 1871 to Boston, where they had their first big success at John Stetson's Howard Athenaeum. They then moved on to New York, where they first worked with Tony Pastor before beginning a long run at Josh Hart's Theatre Comique. By the mid-1870s they began moving from the variety show toward musical theatre. Harrigan's sketches on the Comique's crowded bill featured comic Irish, German and black characters drawn from everyday life on the streets of New York. The slight and short Hart usually portrayed the female roles in their comic sketches and plays. They began moving from the variety show toward musical theatre.

Their breakthrough hit was the 1873 song and sketch "The Mulligan Guard", a lampoon of an Irish neighborhood "militia" with music by David Braham, who would become their musical director and Harrigan's father in law. It became their signature piece, and they featured it in many of their slapstick skits and plays. In 1876, Harrigan took over the Comique himself, along with Hart and manager Martin Hanley.

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