Frederick Lonsdale (b St, Helier, Jersey, 5 February 1881; d London, 4 April 1954) was an English dramatist. He was the grandfather of actors Edward Fox, James Fox, and Daniel Chatto, and the film producer Robert Fox. February 5 is the 36th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1881 (MDCCCLXXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar). ... April 4 is the 94th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (95th in leap years). ... Year 1954 (MCMLIV) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Motto (French) God and my right Anthem God Save the Queen England() – on the European continent() – in the United Kingdom() Capital (and largest city) London (de facto) Official languages English (de facto) Unified  -  by Athelstan 967 AD  Area  -  Total 130,395 km²  50,346 sq mi  Population  -  2007 estimate 50... A dramatist is an author of dramatic compositions, usually plays. ... Edward Fox, OBE (born 13 April 1937) is an English stage, film and television actor. ... James Fox (born 19 May 1939) is an English actor. ... Daniel Chatto St. ... Robert Fox (born 23 March 1952) is a successful English theatre and film producer, whose work includes the 2002 film, The Hours. ...

Life and career

Cover of the Vocal Score

Frank Curzon produced the young Lonsdale's first work, the musical King of Cadonia (1908). Lonsdale's more substantial than usual dialogue for the show's Ruritanian comic opera plot won King of Cadonia fine notices and helped the musical to a long career. His next success was also for Curzon, The Balkan Princess (1910), which was little more than King of Cadonia with the sexes reversed, but it enjoyed a good London run and a long and wide provincial tour and foreign productions. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 427 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (770 × 1081 pixel, file size: 182 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) From an old vocal score in my possession. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 427 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (770 × 1081 pixel, file size: 182 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) From an old vocal score in my possession. ... Frank Curzon (1869-1927), was an English actor who became an important theatre manager, the lessee of the Royal Strand Theatre, the Avenue Theatre, Criterion Theatre, Comedy Theatre, Prince of Wales Theatre, Wyndhams Theatre, and The Playhouse Theatre. ... Cover of the Vocal Score King of Cadonia is an English musical in two acts by Frederick Lonsdale, with lyrics by Adrian Ross and Arthur Wimperis and music by Sidney Jones and Frederick Rosse. ... The Balkan Princess is a British musical in three acts by Frederick Lonsdale and Frank Curzon, with lyrics by Paul Rubens and Arthur Wimperis, and music by Paul Rubens. ...

Lonsdale's next success was five years later, for George Edwardes, with Betty (1915). Following Edwardes's death, he submitted to Edwardes' executor, Robert Evett, a text that Curzon had rejected, The Maid of the Mountains (1917; revived in 1920), which became one of the phenomenally successful wartime shows in London, establishing itself as a classic of the British musical stage. George Edwardes (d. ... Betty is an English musical in three acts, with a book by Frederick Lonsdale and Gladys Unger, music by Paul Rubens and Ernest Steffan, and lyrics by Adrian Ross and Rubens. ... Robert Evett was a theatre manager and producer. ... The Maid of the Mountains is a light opera or musical play, which opened at Dalys Theatre in London on February 10, 1917. ...

Lonsdale continued to write some musicals after the war. He adapted Booth Tarkington's Monsieur Beaucaire (1919, with music by André Messager) as a highly successful light opera and Jean Gilbert's Die Frau im Hermelin (1922, The Lady of the Rose) and Katja, die Tänzerin (1925), as well as Leo Fall's Madame Pompadour (1923). He also wrote the successful original book to the Parisian tale of The Street Singer for Phyllis Dare (1924) and Lady Mary (1928). Time magazine, December 21, 1925 Newton Booth Tarkington (July 29, 1869 _ May 19, 1946) was an American novelist and dramatist. ... Monsieur Beaucaire is an operetta in three acts, composed by André Messager, with lyrics by Adrian Ross and a book by Frederick Lonsdale, based on the novel by Booth Tarkington. ... André Charles Prosper Messager (December 30, 1853 - 1929), French musician, was born at Montlucon. ... Jean Gilbert (born Hamburg, 11 February 1879 - died Buenos Aires, 20 December 1942) was an German operetta composer and conductor. ... Leo Fall (born Olomouc, 2 February 1873 - died Vienna, 16 September 1925) was an Austrian composer of operettas. ... Madame Pompadour is an operetta in three acts, composed by Leo Fall with a libretto by Rudolf Schanzer and Ernst Welisch. ... The Street Singer was a 1912 short silent film drama. ...

He also began to write straight comedies, and his plays included Aren't We All? (1923), Spring Cleaning (1925), The Last of Mrs. Cheney (1925, which ran for 514 performances), On Approval (1927) and Canaries Sometimes Sing (1929), among others. His last play, The Way Things Go, was written in 1949, more than 40 years after his first stage work and five years before his death. Rex Harrison and Claudette Colbert in a publicity photo for the 1985 Broadway revival Arent We All? is a play by Frederick Lonsdale. ...

Reference

Biography: Donaldson, F: Freddy Lansdale (Heinemann, London, 1957)

External links

• Biography of Lonsdale
• Internet Broadway Database Entry
• Profile of Lonsdale including information about his comedies