Mdlle. Sylvia as Serpolette in Les Cloches de Corneville upon its reopening, Globe Theatre, London, 4 September 1880

Mdlle. Sylvia (active late 1870s/early 1880s), Swedish soprano, as she appeared as Serpolette in Les Cloches de Corneville upon its reopening, Globe Theatre, Newcastle Street, London on Saturday, 4 September 1880. The part of Serpolette had been first played in London by he American soprano, Kate Munroe.
(cabinet photo: The London Stereoscopic & Photographic Co Ltd, London, 1880)

‘Mdlle. Sylvia, a young vocalist of Swedish extraction, made her first appearance in England on Wednesday last as the heroine of Offenbach’s Madame Favart, which still retains its popularity after nearly 500 continuous repetitions. Mdlle. Sylvia is young, graceful, and prepossessing. Her voice is a soprano of good quality and ample compass, and she sang with taste and expression, although at times so nervous that her intonation became unsatisfactory. She was heartily applauded, and will probably prove a valuable addition to the excellent company at the Strand Theatre.’
(The Observer, London, Sunday, 1 August 1880, p. 7d)

Globe Theatre, London, Saturday, 4 September 1880
‘On Saturday, September 4, the Globe Theatre, which has been newly decorated, will reopen for the regular season with Les Cloches de Corneville, the reproduction of which will derive additional interest from the engagement of Mr. [Frank H. ] Celli, who will personate the Marquis; and Mesdames Sylvia and D’Algua, who will respectively sustain the parts of Serpolette and Germaine. Mdlle. Sylvia is already known to the London public as having successfully impersonated Madame Favart at the Strand Theatre, during the absence of Miss [Florence] St. John. Mdlle. D’Algua will make her first appearance on the London stage, and Messrs. [Harry] Paulton, [Charles] Ashford, and Shiel Barry will reappear as the Bailie, Gobo, and the Miser. Les Coches will only be played for a limited number of nights, pending the production of a new comic opera from the pen of Offenbach.’
(The Observer, London, Sunday, 29 August 1880, p. 3f)

‘After a short recess, during which the auditorium has undergone a complete renovation, the Globe Theatre reopened on Saturday evening with the familiar but by no means unwelcome Cloches de Corneville as the staple entertainment. M. Planquette’s charming opera has not yet outlived its popularity, and no doubt it will attract the music-loving public while Mr. Alexander Henderson is getting ready the promised Offenbach novelty. The present cast is in many respects an excellent one. Mr. Shiel Barry, of course, retains his part of the miser, Gaspard, and plays it with the same intensity as heretofore; while Mr. Harry Paulton and Mr. Charles Ashford continue to impersonate the Bailie and his factotum, Gobo, in a manner which is well known. With these three exceptions the characters have changed hands. Mdlle. D’Algua is now the Germaine, Mdlle. Sylvia the Serpolette, Mr. [Henry] Bracy the Grenicheux, and Mr. F.H. Celli the Marquis. Unfortunately both Mdlle. D’Algua and Mdlle. Sylvia have but an imperfect acquaintance with the English tongue, and their speeches are therefore not readily comprehensible. Perhaps practice, in each case, may make perfect, but at present a little judicious ”coaching” would make an improvement. Mdlle. D’Algua sings her music efficiently, and with some degree of artistic feeling; while Mdlle. Sylvia acts with plenty of vivacity throughout, and proves herself an accomplished vocalist. Mr. Bracy has a pleasant tenor voice, which he used fairly well, and Mr. F.H. Celli brings his ripe experience in opera to bear upon the part of the Marquis – a character usually assigned to a tenor, if our memory serve us right. The work is placed on the stage with all due regard for picturesqueness of effect, there is a capital chorus, and Mr. Edward Solomon has his orchestra thoroughly well in hand. So wholesome and refreshing is M. Planquette’s work that playgoers may perhaps disregard the oppressive head, which renders indoor amusements all but intolerable, and take the opportunity of renewing their acquaintance with the chiming of the Corneville bells. The opera is preceded by a farce.’
(The Standard, London, Monday, 6 September 1880, p. 3d)

Mdlle. Sylvia, Swedish soprano, as she appeared as Serpolette in Les Cloches de Corneville, Globe Theatre, London, 1880.

Mdlle. Sylvia (active late 1870s/early 1880s), Swedish soprano, as she appeared as Serpolette in Les Cloches de Corneville upon its reopening, Globe Theatre, Newcastle Street, London on Saturday, 4 September 1880. The part of Serpolette had been first played in London by he American soprano, Kate Munroe.
(cabinet photo: The London Stereoscopic & Photographic Co Ltd, London, 1880)

‘Mdlle. Sylvia, a young vocalist of Swedish extraction, made her first appearance in England on Wednesday last as the heroine of Offenbach’s Madame Favart, which still retains its popularity after nearly 500 continuous repetitions. Mdlle. Sylvia is young, graceful, and prepossessing. Her voice is a soprano of good quality and ample compass, and she sang with taste and expression, although at times so nervous that her intonation became unsatisfactory. She was heartily applauded, and will probably prove a valuable addition to the excellent company at the Strand Theatre.’
(The Observer, London, Sunday, 1 August 1880, p. 7d)

Globe Theatre, London, Saturday, 4 September 1880
‘On Saturday, September 4, the Globe Theatre, which has been newly decorated, will reopen for the regular season with Les Cloches de Corneville, the reproduction of which will derive additional interest from the engagement of Mr. [Frank H. ] Celli, who will personate the Marquis; and Mesdames Sylvia and D’Algua, who will respectively sustain the parts of Serpolette and Germaine. Mdlle. Sylvia is already known to the London public as having successfully impersonated Madame Favart at the Strand Theatre, during the absence of Miss [Florence] St. John. Mdlle. D’Algua will make her first appearance on the London stage, and Messrs. [Harry] Paulton, [Charles] Ashford, and Shiel Barry will reappear as the Bailie, Gobo, and the Miser. Les Coches will only be played for a limited number of nights, pending the production of a new comic opera from the pen of Offenbach.’
(The Observer, London, Sunday, 29 August 1880, p. 3f)

‘After a short recess, during which the auditorium has undergone a complete renovation, the Globe Theatre reopened on Saturday evening with the familiar but by no means unwelcome Cloches de Corneville as the staple entertainment. M. Planquette’s charming opera has not yet outlived its popularity, and no doubt it will attract the music-loving public while Mr. Alexander Henderson is getting ready the promised Offenbach novelty. The present cast is in many respects an excellent one. Mr. Shiel Barry, of course, retains his part of the miser, Gaspard, and plays it with the same intensity as heretofore; while Mr. Harry Paulton and Mr. Charles Ashford continue to impersonate the Bailie and his factotum, Gobo, in a manner which is well known. With these three exceptions the characters have changed hands. Mdlle. D’Algua is now the Germaine, Mdlle. Sylvia the Serpolette, Mr. [Henry] Bracy the Grenicheux, and Mr. F.H. Celli the Marquis. Unfortunately both Mdlle. D’Algua and Mdlle. Sylvia have but an imperfect acquaintance with the English tongue, and their speeches are therefore not readily comprehensible. Perhaps practice, in each case, may make perfect, but at present a little judicious “coaching” would make an improvement. Mdlle. D’Algua sings her music efficiently, and with some degree of artistic feeling; while Mdlle. Sylvia acts with plenty of vivacity throughout, and proves herself an accomplished vocalist. Mr. Bracy has a pleasant tenor voice, which he used fairly well, and Mr. F.H. Celli brings his ripe experience in opera to bear upon the part of the Marquis – a character usually assigned to a tenor, if our memory serve us right. The work is placed on the stage with all due regard for picturesqueness of effect, there is a capital chorus, and Mr. Edward Solomon has his orchestra thoroughly well in hand. So wholesome and refreshing is M. Planquette’s work that playgoers may perhaps disregard the oppressive head, which renders indoor amusements all but intolerable, and take the opportunity of renewing their acquaintance with the chiming of the Corneville bells. The opera is preceded by a farce.’
(The Standard, London, Monday, 6 September 1880, p. 3d)

skipping rope dancers

a carte de visite of two unidentified skipping rope dancers
(photo: The London Stereoscopic & Photographic Co Ltd, London, late 1870s)

MR. HUGH J. DIDCOTT
has great pleasure in announcing that, at the termination of the Engagement of Miss ROSE FOX, at the OXFORD MUSIC HALL, she will appear with her Troupe of Beautiful Blondes, in a New Fantastical Farrago, entitled
”SKIPPING IN THE SNOW,”
by FRANK W. GREEN, Esq.’
(The Era, London, Sunday, 25 March 1877, p. 20a)

”Th’ adorning thee with so much art.” – COWLEY.
MISS ROSE ROX,
”Queen of the skipping-rope.” – The Era.
ROYAL FORESTERS’, every Evening, Ten o’clock,
in her New Fantastical Farrago,
entitled SKIPPING IN THE SNOW.
Libretto by Frank W. Green; Music by Edward Solomon.
New and Magnificent Dresses Designed and Executed
by H. Compton.
OXFORD, Eleven o’clock, every Evening.
217th Night at the centre of attraction.
Miss ROSE FOX begs publicly to tender her best thanks to the Oxford Management for the ”Souvenir” presented to her on the occasion of her 200th performance of ”Skiptomania.”
Address, Mr Hugh J. Didcott.’
(The Era, London, Sunday, 5 August 1877, p. 16a)

The Foresters’ music hall, London
‘The programme during the past week has been strengthened by the production of what the bills describe as a ”new fantastical farrago,” bearing the title Skipping in the Snow, arranged, we believe, by Mr H.J. Didcott, to whom must be given the credit – or at least some of the credit – of a pretty idea, capitally carried out. Skipping in the Snow cannot be said to have a story, and if we say that it introduces us to a young, handsome, well-dressed foreign prince on the look-out for a wife among the ”beautiful blondes,” who share in his taste for skipping-rope pastime, it must be understood that we speak only of our own imaginings, and that it is just possible we may have placed the wrong interpretation upon the sketch after all. Music Hall sketches are not allowed to have stories, and we are sure that this is about the very last place where any attempt would be made to violate the regulations laid down by the ”powers that be.” Story or no story, however, there is no denying the fact that Skipping in the Snow is a very attractive production. A really charming rustic and wintry scene has been prepared, and this alone appears to be sufficient to call forth the warmest demonstrations of approval from the skipping-rope dancers. Miss Rose Fox comes tripping upon the stage with her beautiful companions; when they sing and skip and dance; when the snow begins to fall and its flakes are made brilliant by the aid of the lime-light, the enthusiasm of the onlookers hardly knows bounds, and cheers of the most hearty description testify to the pleasure afforded. Miss Fox towards the end comes skipping and dancing with a rope of fire, the effect being wonderfully picturesque. Skipping in the Snow will doubtless remain one of the chief attractions at the Foresters’ for a considerable time to come.’
(The Era, London, Sunday, 12 August 1877, p. 4b)

‘Miss Rose Fox, the pretty and accomplished skipping-rope dancer, who some time ago created a sensation at the Gaiety Theatre, has been engaged by Mr E. Villiers to appear with her ”Belles Blondes” in the ”Fantastical Farrago” Skipping in the Snow, at the Canterbury, at Easter. Miss Fox may rely on a very cordial reception.’
(The Era, London, Sunday, 24 March 1878, p. 4b)

‘Miss Rose Fox (Mrs H.J. Didcott), formerly immensely popular as a dancer – her skipping-rope dance secured her a host of admirers – and lately a teacher of dancing, died, we regret to hear, on Friday, the 28th ult., after a long illness. She was the mother of two children. The remains of deceased were buried at Brighton on Tuesday.’
(The Era, London, Saturday, 6 July 1889, p. 15c)

Hugh Jay Didcott (1836-1909), a well-known London music hall agent, and Rose Fox (d. 1889, whose father was Harry Fox (1817-1976), music hall comedian and chairman of The Middlesex music hall, otherwise known as ‘The Old Mo’,’ Drury Lane), were the parents of the actress Maudi Darrell (1882-1910). The latter’s husband was Ian Bullough who following her death married Lily Elsie.

Rose Newham

Rose Newham (née Rose May Newman, b. 1862),
acrobatic and skirt dancer in characteristic pose.
She was a younger sister of Amelia Newham (née Amelia Augusta Newman, b. 1845), otherwise known as Mlle. Colonna, who had caused a sensation in the late 1860s/early 1870s with her troupe of can can dancers.
(photo: Sarony, New York, late 1880s)

Rose Newham appearing on tour in the United States in Lydia Thompson’s Penelope Company, 1888
‘A VERY SENSATIONAL DANCE.
‘But High Kicking Which Does Not Offend Good Taste.
‘The startling and sensational dance and high kicking of Miss Rose Newham, of the Lydia Thompson Company, in the burlesque of Penelope, which is the opening performance of the company this evening at the New Park theatre, has been the talk of every city in which the dance has been witnessed.
‘Miss Newham kicks and points her toes to the flies, with quite as much ease apparently and quite as perpendicularly as a flagpole pointing its nob [sic] to the heavens. The dance is executed in the costume which was known in the Elizabethan period as a doublet and hose, but which has been considerably modified for the purposes of burlesque.
‘There is nothing at all suggestive in the highest of the high kicking and nothing to offend the most correct taste. The dance is simply graceful, fanciful, eccentric, sensational and entirely startling.
‘It is during the second act that a chord from the orchestra bring the dancer down to the footlights; here she stands for an instant until a measure in the music is reached that suits her, and her feet start into motion. The rapidity of her movements are well nigh inconceivable, and cannot be followed by the eye. Before one position can be flashed to the retina the nimble limbs have cleaved the circumambient air in a wholly different direction. The result is confusing and bewildering in the extreme, and yet not unpleasing. When Miss Newham kicks there is a perpendicular line that flashes from her hip upward past her shoulder, past her shell-like ear, and terminated by a green slipper waving triumphantly above her golden hair. For a moment she looks like a human being with one leg. The other leg has disappeared entirely from the place where it is usually found, and then as the dancing becomes more fast and furious, and it is impossible to follow her movements with any degree of accuracy, she seems to have two limbs on one side of her body – one over her head and the other with the foot still resting on the floor. The optical delusion is complete. The press throughout the country have been loud in their praise of the very remarkable dancing of this young lady; and one and all confess it to be the most graceful and the highest kick ever seen on the stage.
‘Miss Lydia Thompson and her famous burlesque company open this evening in Stephens’ and Solomon’s satirical burlesque Penelope. The company numbers fifty-five people and is the largest and most complete organization ever seen in Portland. The advance sale of seats have been remarkably large, and prospects point to a successful week’s engagement.’
(The Morning Oregonian, Portland, Oregon, Friday, 22 February 1889, p.5b)

Lydia Thompson’s production of Henry Pottinger Stephens and Edward Solomon’s burlesque, Penelope, opened at the Star Theatre, New York, on 15 October 1888, with herself playing Ulysses and Aida Jenoure in the title role.

Rose Newham
(photo: unknown, late 1880s/early 1890s)

The People’s Theatre, 199 Bowery, New York City, week beginning Monday, 2 February 1891
‘The People’s has reproduced the striking situations and sensational effects of After Dark, a play that appeals very strongly to the tastes of this theatre’s patrons. Edmund Kean Collier, a vigorous and admirable actor when the conditions favor, is now the impersonator of the heroic Old Tom, and the Eaza is that careful and occasionally powerful actress, Stella Rees. Among the vaudevilliers [sic] who appeard in the concert hall scene was Rose Newham, who, though not named on the programme, gave a capital interlude of dancing.’
(The Sun, New York, Thursday, 5 February 1891, p. 3b)

Cinderella, Academy of Music, East 14th Street and Irving Place, New York City, November 1891
‘there was a sort of mortuary jollity about the production of Cinderella at the Academy of Music, a suggestion of the dear, dead ago. As an English pantomime it is a very, very long way off, and as an American entertainment it is lacking in many essential qualities. The costumes, ballets and ballet music all brought back memories of The Babes in the Wood at Niblo’s – to which, by the bye, Cinderella cannot hold a candle – then there was deal of Bertha Ricci, of comic opera memory, and other souvenirs… . Miss Fannie Ward, the Cinderella, has the ghost of a voice… . The best member of the company if Rose Newham, the skirt dancer, who did a conventional pas seul with her best Drury Lane smile.’
(Alan Dale, The Evening World, New York, Wednesday, 25 November 1891, p 2e)

‘Rose Newham, the skirt dancer, will, it is said, star in a new comedy next season, backed by a Chicagoan.’
(Dunkirk Evening Observer, Dunkirk, New York, Tuesday, 10 February 1891, p.2b)

Rose Newham is including in a long list of ‘ACTRESSES – SHOWING BUST’ in ‘New Cabinet Photographs,’ available from ‘RICHARD K. FOX, Publisher, Franklin Square, N.Y.’
(advertisement, <I.>Life and Battles of James J. Corbett The Champion Pugilist of the World, published by Richard K. Fox, New York, 1892)

‘PROFESSIONAL CARDS.
‘Rose Newham
‘At Liberty. 325 West 34th Street.’
(The New York Dramatic Mirror, New York, Saturday, 8 February 1896, p. 27d)

Rose Newham, acrobatic and skirt dancer, New York City, late 1880s

Rose Newham (née Rose May Newman, b. 1862),
acrobatic and skirt dancer in characteristic pose.
She was a younger sister of Amelia Newham (née Amelia Augusta Newman, b. 1845), otherwise known as Mlle. Colonna, who had caused a sensation in the late 1860s/early 1870s with her troupe of can can dancers.
(photo: Sarony, New York, late 1880s)

Rose Newham appearing on tour in the United States in Lydia Thompson’s Penelope Company, 1888
‘A VERY SENSATIONAL DANCE.
‘But High Kicking Which Does Not Offend Good Taste.
‘The startling and sensational dance and high kicking of Miss Rose Newham, of the Lydia Thompson Company, in the burlesque of Penelope, which is the opening performance of the company this evening at the New Park theatre, has been the talk of every city in which the dance has been witnessed.
‘Miss Newham kicks and points her toes to the flies, with quite as much ease apparently and quite as perpendicularly as a flagpole pointing its nob [sic] to the heavens. The dance is executed in the costume which was known in the Elizabethan period as a doublet and hose, but which has been considerably modified for the purposes of burlesque.
‘There is nothing at all suggestive in the highest of the high kicking and nothing to offend the most correct taste. The dance is simply graceful, fanciful, eccentric, sensational and entirely startling.
‘It is during the second act that a chord from the orchestra bring the dancer down to the footlights; here she stands for an instant until a measure in the music is reached that suits her, and her feet start into motion. The rapidity of her movements are well nigh inconceivable, and cannot be followed by the eye. Before one position can be flashed to the retina the nimble limbs have cleaved the circumambient air in a wholly different direction. The result is confusing and bewildering in the extreme, and yet not unpleasing. When Miss Newham kicks there is a perpendicular line that flashes from her hip upward past her shoulder, past her shell-like ear, and terminated by a green slipper waving triumphantly above her golden hair. For a moment she looks like a human being with one leg. The other leg has disappeared entirely from the place where it is usually found, and then as the dancing becomes more fast and furious, and it is impossible to follow her movements with any degree of accuracy, she seems to have two limbs on one side of her body – one over her head and the other with the foot still resting on the floor. The optical delusion is complete. The press throughout the country have been loud in their praise of the very remarkable dancing of this young lady; and one and all confess it to be the most graceful and the highest kick ever seen on the stage.
‘Miss Lydia Thompson and her famous burlesque company open this evening in Stephens’ and Solomon’s satirical burlesque Penelope. The company numbers fifty-five people and is the largest and most complete organization ever seen in Portland. The advance sale of seats have been remarkably large, and prospects point to a successful week’s engagement.’
(The Morning Oregonian, Portland, Oregon, Friday, 22 February 1889, p.5b)

Lydia Thompson’s production of Henry Pottinger Stephens and Edward Solomon’s burlesque, Penelope, opened at the Star Theatre, New York, on 15 October 1888, with herself playing Ulysses and Aida Jenoure in the title role.

Rose Newham
(photo: unknown, late 1880s/early 1890s)

The People’s Theatre, 199 Bowery, New York City, week beginning Monday, 2 February 1891
‘The People’s has reproduced the striking situations and sensational effects of After Dark, a play that appeals very strongly to the tastes of this theatre’s patrons. Edmund Kean Collier, a vigorous and admirable actor when the conditions favor, is now the impersonator of the heroic Old Tom, and the Eaza is that careful and occasionally powerful actress, Stella Rees. Among the vaudevilliers [sic] who appeard in the concert hall scene was Rose Newham, who, though not named on the programme, gave a capital interlude of dancing.’
(The Sun, New York, Thursday, 5 February 1891, p. 3b)

Cinderella, Academy of Music, East 14th Street and Irving Place, New York City, November 1891
‘there was a sort of mortuary jollity about the production of Cinderella at the Academy of Music, a suggestion of the dear, dead ago. As an English pantomime it is a very, very long way off, and as an American entertainment it is lacking in many essential qualities. The costumes, ballets and ballet music all brought back memories of The Babes in the Wood at Niblo’s – to which, by the bye, Cinderella cannot hold a candle – then there was deal of Bertha Ricci, of comic opera memory, and other souvenirs… . Miss Fannie Ward, the Cinderella, has the ghost of a voice… . The best member of the company if Rose Newham, the skirt dancer, who did a conventional pas seul with her best Drury Lane smile.’
(Alan Dale, The Evening World, New York, Wednesday, 25 November 1891, p 2e)

‘Rose Newham, the skirt dancer, will, it is said, star in a new comedy next season, backed by a Chicagoan.’
(Dunkirk Evening Observer, Dunkirk, New York, Tuesday, 10 February 1891, p.2b)

Rose Newham is including in a long list of ‘ACTRESSES – SHOWING BUST’ in ‘New Cabinet Photographs,’ available from ‘RICHARD K. FOX, Publisher, Franklin Square, N.Y.’
(advertisement, <I.>Life and Battles of James J. Corbett The Champion Pugilist of the World, published by Richard K. Fox, New York, 1892)

‘PROFESSIONAL CARDS.
‘Rose Newham
‘At Liberty. 325 West 34th Street.’
(The New York Dramatic Mirror, New York, Saturday, 8 February 1896, p. 27d)

Rose Newham, acrobatic and skirt dancer, New York, late 1880s

Rose Newham (née Rose May Newman, b. 1862),
acrobatic and skirt dancer in characteristic pose.
She was a younger sister of Amelia Newham (née Amelia Augusta Newman, b. 1845), otherwise known as Mlle. Colonna, who had caused a sensation in the late 1860s/early 1870s with her troupe of can can dancers.
(photo: Sarony, New York, late 1880s)

Rose Newham appearing on tour in the United States in Lydia Thompson’s Penelope Company, 1888
‘A VERY SENSATIONAL DANCE.
‘But High Kicking Which Does Not Offend Good Taste.
‘The startling and sensational dance and high kicking of Miss Rose Newham, of the Lydia Thompson Company, in the burlesque of Penelope, which is the opening performance of the company this evening at the New Park theatre, has been the talk of every city in which the dance has been witnessed.
‘Miss Newham kicks and points her toes to the flies, with quite as much ease apparently and quite as perpendicularly as a flagpole pointing its nob [sic] to the heavens. The dance is executed in the costume which was known in the Elizabethan period as a doublet and hose, but which has been considerably modified for the purposes of burlesque.
‘There is nothing at all suggestive in the highest of the high kicking and nothing to offend the most correct taste. The dance is simply graceful, fanciful, eccentric, sensational and entirely startling.
‘It is during the second act that a chord from the orchestra bring the dancer down to the footlights; here she stands for an instant until a measure in the music is reached that suits her, and her feet start into motion. The rapidity of her movements are well nigh inconceivable, and cannot be followed by the eye. Before one position can be flashed to the retina the nimble limbs have cleaved the circumambient air in a wholly different direction. The result is confusing and bewildering in the extreme, and yet not unpleasing. When Miss Newham kicks there is a perpendicular line that flashes from her hip upward past her shoulder, past her shell-like ear, and terminated by a green slipper waving triumphantly above her golden hair. For a moment she looks like a human being with one leg. The other leg has disappeared entirely from the place where it is usually found, and then as the dancing becomes more fast and furious, and it is impossible to follow her movements with any degree of accuracy, she seems to have two limbs on one side of her body – one over her head and the other with the foot still resting on the floor. The optical delusion is complete. The press throughout the country have been loud in their praise of the very remarkable dancing of this young lady; and one and all confess it to be the most graceful and the highest kick ever seen on the stage.
‘Miss Lydia Thompson and her famous burlesque company open this evening in Stephens’ and Solomon’s satirical burlesque Penelope. The company numbers fifty-five people and is the largest and most complete organization ever seen in Portland. The advance sale of seats have been remarkably large, and prospects point to a successful week’s engagement.’
(The Morning Oregonian, Portland, Oregon, Friday, 22 February 1889, p.5b)

Lydia Thompson’s production of Henry Pottinger Stephens and Edward Solomon’s burlesque, Penelope, opened at the Star Theatre, New York, on 15 October 1888, with herself playing Ulysses and Aida Jenoure in the title role.

Rose Newham
(photo: unknown, late 1880s/early 1890s)

The People’s Theatre, 199 Bowery, New York City, week beginning Monday, 2 February 1891
‘The People’s has reproduced the striking situations and sensational effects of After Dark, a play that appeals very strongly to the tastes of this theatre’s patrons. Edmund Kean Collier, a vigorous and admirable actor when the conditions favor, is now the impersonator of the heroic Old Tom, and the Eaza is that careful and occasionally powerful actress, Stella Rees. Among the vaudevilliers [sic] who appeard in the concert hall scene was Rose Newham, who, though not named on the programme, gave a capital interlude of dancing.’
(The Sun, New York, Thursday, 5 February 1891, p. 3b)

Cinderella, Academy of Music, East 14th Street and Irving Place, New York City, November 1891
‘there was a sort of mortuary jollity about the production of Cinderella at the Academy of Music, a suggestion of the dear, dead ago. As an English pantomime it is a very, very long way off, and as an American entertainment it is lacking in many essential qualities. The costumes, ballets and ballet music all brought back memories of The Babes in the Wood at Niblo’s – to which, by the bye, Cinderella cannot hold a candle – then there was deal of Bertha Ricci, of comic opera memory, and other souvenirs… . Miss Fannie Ward, the Cinderella, has the ghost of a voice… . The best member of the company if Rose Newham, the skirt dancer, who did a conventional pas seul with her best Drury Lane smile.’
(Alan Dale, The Evening World, New York, Wednesday, 25 November 1891, p 2e)

‘Rose Newham, the skirt dancer, will, it is said, star in a new comedy next season, backed by a Chicagoan.’
(Dunkirk Evening Observer, Dunkirk, New York, Tuesday, 10 February 1891, p.2b)

Rose Newham is including in a long list of ‘ACTRESSES – SHOWING BUST’ in ‘New Cabinet Photographs,’ available from ‘RICHARD K. FOX, Publisher, Franklin Square, N.Y.’
(advertisement, <I.>Life and Battles of James J. Corbett The Champion Pugilist of the World, published by Richard K. Fox, New York, 1892)

‘PROFESSIONAL CARDS.
‘Rose Newham
‘At Liberty. 325 West 34th Street.’
(The New York Dramatic Mirror, New York, Saturday, 8 February 1896, p. 27d)

colour lithograph music sheet cover, ‘Billee Taylor Lancers,’ arranged by Arthur Grenville based on airs by Edward Solomon from the comic opera, Billee Taylor, first produced at the Imperial Theatre, London, on 30 October 1880 (published by Joseph Williams, 24 Berners Street, London, W, probably 1881)

The airs upon which Grenville based these lancers were as follows: ‘The Faithful Crew,’ ‘The Self Made Knight,’ ‘All on Account of Eliza,’ ‘The Poor Wicked Man,’ ‘Still She’ll be True to You,’ ‘To-day, To-day is Holiday,’ ‘Back Again,’ ‘Virtuous Gardener,’ ‘Oh! William, When You’re on the Sea’ and ‘Just Like This.’

IMPERIAL THEATRE, London, 30 October 1880 – ‘A very large audience assembled at this theatre on Saturday night to witness the production of the nautical comic opera of Billee Taylor, and before the conclusion of the first act, had stamped it with their unmistakeable approval – a verdict which they unanimously confirmed at the fall of the curtain. Mr. H.P. Stephens, who is the author of the libretto, has taken the old ballad of Billy Taylor to work upon, and has produced a very clever and amusing story, which, with the exception of a somewhat abrupt and awkward dénouement is skilfully dealt with throughout. The Billee Taylor of the opera is a young gardener who is not quite so virtuous as he appears, and he is betrothed to a simply charity girl, whose apparent innocence is equally open to doubt… .’ (The Daily News, London, Monday, 1 November 1880, p. 2d)

The original cast of Billee Taylor included Arthur Williams as Sir Minicing Lane; J.D. Stoyle (who died suddenly on 31 December 1880) as Ben Barnacle the bo’sun; Fleming Norton as Captain Flapper, R.N.; F.A. Arnold as Christopher Crabb; Kathleen Corri as Phoebe; Emma Chambers as Arabella Lane; and the dancers Luna and Stella D’Auban.