Alfred Thompson

Thompson, Alfred (pseudonym of Thompson E. Jones, 1831–95), British musical theatre librettist and artist. Thompson studied art at Munich and Paris and was soon one of the most innovative costume and scenic designers of the musical stage, in particular for fantasy burlesques and pantomines. He began writing stage pieces in the 1860s and provided some of the most literate early British music‐theatre pieces. Continuing to design, Thompson spent the next 30 years in the London and New York theatre and helped to establish the look and style of the musical entertainment of that era. Many of his scripts and designs celebrated fantasy and famous fairy tales, including The Lion's Mouth (London, 1867), Aladdin II, or An Old Lamp in a New Light (London, 1870), Cinderella the Younger (London, 1871), Belladonna, or The Little Beauty and the Great Beast (London, 1878), Pepita, or The Girl with the Glass Eyes (New York, 1886), The Arabian Nights, or Aladdin's Wonderful Lamp (New York, 1887), and The Crystal Slipper, or Prince Prettywitz and Little Cinderella (New York, 1888).

— Thomas S. Hischak