In 1818 James King and Daniel Dunn founded the Royal Coburg Theatre in Waterloo, London. The theatre would go on to become the Old Vic. The Royal Coburg was named after Princess Charlotte of Wales and her husband Leopold the 1st of Belgium, who was then called Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, as they were the Royal patrons of the venue. It was not a patent theatre so was unable to show serious drama, although in 1824 Edmund Kean played six Shakespeare plays in six nights, but gained further patronage from the Royals with Queen Victoria's mother the Duchess of Kent taking her to see an operetta at the Theatre before she ascended the throne. During the 20th century the theatre went from strength to strength, first under the management of Lilian Bayliss and then during the war with stars Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier. The Old Vic company became the pinnacle of theatrical excellence in the UK and in 1963 was turned into the National Theatre company under Olivier. The National Theatre remained at The Old Vic until the new building was opened on the South Bank in 1974. Currently the artistic director of the Old Vic is Kevin Spacey. The Old Vic continues to go from strength to strength nearly 200 years from its opening. Today the Old Vic legacy goes across two more venues, the recently opened Old Vic tunnels and the Bristol Old Vic (an offshoot of the original).
On the 11th of May 1847 George Grossmith was born. Grossmith lived in Islington as a child with his mother and father, who was a journalist, and his two siblings Emily and Weedon. George's career began around 1864 when he started premiering skits and songs at private parties. Soon he was doing a music hall act touring different parts of the country writing his own sketches and working either on his own or with his father. It was during his time of touring his comedy sketches that Gilbert and Sullivan had been impressed by him. Having seen him perform the two theatrical impresarios invited him to play the lead in their production 'The Sorcerer' despite the apprehensions of their backers. However Grossmith was an enormous success in the role and went on to create nine back to back lead roles for D'Oyly Carte and Gilbert and Sullivan. In 1889 Grossmith parted ways with Gilbert and Sullivan to resume his piano playing tours which were, despite his immense popularity, more financially rewarding than his theatre work. In 1892 with his aforementioned brother Weedon he wrote the satirical novel, first published in editions of Punch magazine, 'The Diary of a Nobody' which still stands today as a great classic of Victorian literature. Grossmith died at the age of 64 in Folkestone. His legacy lives on as his style impacted hugely on the songs he was given to sing by Gilbert and Sullivan and the songs he is famous for singing are the centrepieces of many of the writers operettas. Sadly even though Grossmith was alive during the time of wax cylinders and early recording equipment, there are no known recordings of his voice.
