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♥ 1864 West Sunderland - † 1918 Glasgow ☼ Actor, ☺ Comedian, ♫ Musician www.marksheridan.org |
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Making his Mark in Glasgow Pantomime A comedian from England's north-east, famous nursery for stage comedians, deserves to be remembered for the outstanding fun talent he brought to pantomime in Glasgow. Throughout his career, Mark Sheridan, from Sunderland, had a string of pantomime triumphs in Glasgow . One of his earliest appearances was at the Theatre Royal in 1895 in Howard & Wyndham's eighth Royal pantomime, Sinbad the Sailor. This lavish production, with libretto by Mr. William Morgan and sets by Mr. T.F.Dunn, saw Mark in a small role as Captain Crossbones, cast alongside Miss Marie Loftus ( Sinbad) , Mr.Ernest Shand( Tinbad), The Brothers Darnley ( Kabob and Kibosh ) and others.
Old-Style Villain The Era for December 21, 1895, comments that " Mr. Mark Sheridan as Captain Crossbones puts plenty of mock-melodrama into the part, and is one of the real good old sort of pantomime villains. " The journal added: "He seems to be prolific in his ideas of how to dress, and his dancing is the envy of the gallery boys. " In the Glasgow Pantomime Annual for that year, he wins only one mention :" Mr. Mark Sheridan is a neat dancer...." Small beginnings, commendable comments, but the best was yet to come.Having debuted as a solo music-hall turn at the Royal Standard, Pimlico, in the March of 1895, at the age of 31, he was still a relatively new comedian on the halls, and it was there in London that audiences first witnessed his bell-bottomed trousers, tight coat and " nutty " angled stove pipe hat, accessories that were to remain with him, with slight alterations, for the rest of his performing life. The bell-bottomed trousers certainly featured in his costume for Capt. Crossbones. Three years later, in 1898, he appeared as Baron Blarer in Cinderella, with Miss Lily Landon( Cinderella),Miss Audrie Stafford ( Fairy Godmother), Mr. Theodor Row ( Demon King Atrocious),and Miss Nellie Christie ( Topsy ). Another Howard & Wyndham production, this time the libretto, was furnished by Mr Jay Hickory Wood and the sets, once again, were designed by the Royal's resident scenic artist, Mr. T.F.Dunn. The reviews for Cinderella, in general, and for Mark Sheridan , in particular, were excellent, and the pantomime was deemed an " unequivocal success." Life and Soul According to one Era reviewer for December 17, 1898, Mark was " the life and soul of the humorous element " and his "....mirth-provoking eccentricities in speech, dress, and gesture kept the audience continually in grin. He contrived, in a very short time, to demonstrate his versatility and cleverness as a singer, dancer, actor, concertina-player, and humorist, and everything he did went with a click. " He sang ' Climbing up and down our stairs' with quaint touches, and also Dunville's ' Stormy winds did blow.' " With Messrs. Regan and Ryan and Miss Nellie Christie, he described, in an amusing quartet, the things that ' A penny will buy'. " With Miss Christie, he made a hit in the duel ' Boo, boom,'“ already mentioned. " The clever duel, from the comic opera entitled The Ballet Girl, if we remember right, has been written and localised up to date, as was evident from the sarcastic Glasgow war-whoop of last summer, ' Haw, Will.' " Compare this extract to the one that was written three years earlier,and it is clear that Mark Sheridan was making a great impression with his many talents.Further opportunities to display these talents to Glasgow audiences were not far off. Mark's next triumph was Dick Whittington in 1901. Cast as Jack Idle, other members of the company included Miss Florence Baines ( Dick Whittington), Miss Kate Vesey ( Alfee), Gus W.Blake ( Fitzwarren) and Miss Nancy Renshaw( Queen Inkyblacko). So immense was Mark's appeal that the entire Era extract on him from December 14, 1901 needs to be quoted in full in order to illustrate the attraction he held for his audience.
Victor's Welcome It stated that: " In the first scene Mr. Mark Sheridan was accorded a welcome such as is popularly supposed to be reserved only for victorious generals after a campaign. The applause was deafening for several minutes, and when lulled somewhat, the quaint one sent them off again with the quiet remark, ' There's excitement for you!' " As a humorist of the happy and spontaneous order he is unequalled, and his wealth of resource in the fun-making line recalls those past-masters of the art Arthur Roberts and the late Fred Leslie.
"And he can be funny in a crowd or with the stage to himself; fitting in with the business of the other comedians without being unduly prominent or evincing the least desire to monopolise the centre of the stage. "His concertina selections from The Belle of New York were most enjoyable, while the excruciatingly funny business introduced at the Guildhall meeting- when that august assemblage resolved itself into harmony, with Mr. Sheridan as Jack Idle presiding at the harmonium, and giving a specially lugubrious version of that doleful ballad, ' Break the news to mother ' - was enough to make a cat laugh. " Earlier in the night he gave his own ditty, ' Nursery Rhymes; or Oh, be careful,' with much unction; and sang George Lashwood's ' Poor Old Dicky Bird,' with the hearty assistance of the gallery at the choruses. "In the rollicking Irish song,' Mike ', sung with shillelagh effects by all the comedians, Mr. Sheridan's son - Mark Sheridan, jun.- came on in an Irish rig-out, and as the aforesaid Mike contributed a lively jig, which was encored."
Football Song The Glasgow Pantomime Annual was equally effusive with :" Mr. Mark Sheridan, 'Idle Jack ', has become a first favourite in Glasgow, and is fondly remembered for his singing of 'At the Foot-i-ball-i Match ' during his last pantomime visit. " Mr Sheridan's theatrical career has been one of steady progress....... this is his seventh pantomime with Messrs. Howard & Wyndham" ( he appeared in others produced by them in Edinburgh and Newcastle-Upon-Tyne) " and, as an idea of the value that managers put on his services, it may be stated that he is fully booked up till 1905, with Glasgow no doubt figuring prominently among his places of call." Naturally, Glasgow did feature as a prominent place of call for many years to come. Mark Sheridan's last Glasgow pantomime was Babes In The Wood in 1907- just two short years before the success of his classic song ' I Do Like To Be Beside the Seaside.' and five years before his final pantomime, Humpty-Dumpty, at the Theatre Royal, Newcastle-upon-Tyne for the 1911-1912 season. Once again, he succeeded in entertaining the audiences in Glasgow, and the reviews were excellent. His fellow performers included Miss Daisy Dormer ( Marian/Principal Girl), Miss Lily Iris ( Robin Hood), and The Brothers Egbert.
Happiest Vein A lengthy passage from The Era's review for December 14, 1907 reads: " Mr. Mark Sheridan as Baron de Boots is in his happiest vein, and the roaring reception he was accorded on his first entrance showed the strong hold he has on the Glasgow public. He gives his dialogue with most unctuous appreciation of its humorous possibilities, and his songs are also given in a way that takes the fancy of the audience at once. " In two of Whit Cunliffe's songs, ' Women have the best of it ' and ' Oh, the steamer,oh, the sea!' he has secured very catchy numbers, and in the chorus of the latter the audience joined heartily. " In the nursery scene Mr. Sheridan introduces a very smart burlesque sketch as,Napoleon making his appearance and exit through a trap. " Cleverly made up as the ' Little Corporal', he delivers a well-written monologue, in which incidents from A Royal Divorce, Madame Sans Gene, and scraps of history seem inextricably mixed. and the fun is continuous. " Two ingenious ideas in this scene are the saluting of Napoleon by the two wooden soldiers, who form the supports of the old-fashioned mantel-piece, and the displaying on the window-blind of a plan of the Field of Waterloo, and two of Miss Butlet's famous war pictures, dealing with the Napoleonic period. "
Napoleon Perhaps the most intriguing detail from this extract is the reference to the sketch on Napoleon. There can be no doubt that this was an early preparation for Mark Sheridan's unfortunate and ill-fated musical burlesque of A Royal Divorce - entitled " Gay Paree " or " A Royal Discourse" - where he A Royal appeared as Napoleon. He had started a week's engagement at the Coliseum,Glasgow in this revue when he was found shot in Kelvingrove Park,apparently by his own hand, on Tuesday, January 15, 1918. Evidently, Monday's audience had been less than welcoming towards him in this new departure. That is, and always was, show-business. The customers had forgotten the pantomimes and the superb solo turns that Mark was known for. He had finally failed to please. That tragedy aside, " the genial " Mark Sheridan, " a first favourite" with audiences, nevertheless enjoyed a string of pantomime triumphs in Glasgow, a place where he had repeatedly drawn a " roaring reception " and " deafening applause."
© Angelique Antal, 2002 This article first appeared in Stagedoor, Issue 63 |
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[Home] [Biography] [Book references] [Articles] [Making his Mark in Glasgow Pantomime] [Steps to Suicide] [Summer Seaside Song Became Pantomime Hit!] [What's In A Name?] [Reviews / Gossip] [Photo Gallery] [Recordings/Lyrics] |
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Comments, information and suggestions to Angelica Antal e-mail: info@marksheridan.org |
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