In 1882, Boston's Bijou Theatre, the first American playhouse to be lighted exclusively by electricity, gave its first performance, of Gilbert and Sullivan's "Iolanthe."
And even then, the fairies were wearing battery packs so that they could have lights in their hair. Really and truly.
Via the Washington Post.
2 comments:
See, I kinda knew this already because of VeggieTales' "Star of Christmas", which must have been based somewhat haphazardly on that. Except there the play is called "The Princess and the Plumber" (but again set in 1882), with peas as fairies, and Bob and Larry are Cavis Appythart (Gilbert) and Millward Phelps (Sullivan). However, their play opens in London and the theater burns down because of a short in the wiring for the lights.
The creators of that show must be SUCH G&S geeks. I've seen exactly ONE episode (while sitting in a dealership waiting room as my car was being serviced) and it was a sumo wrestling plot that used several songs from The Mikado rewritten for the occasion. I didn't sing along. Much. :)
John C.
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