John Brougham

Brougham, John (1810–80), actor, playwright, and manager. Educated at Trinity College in his native Dublin, he spent much of his college career participating in amateur theatricals. He made his professional debut in London in 1830, worked under the celebrated Madame Vestris, and became manager of the Lyceum before sailing to America. Brougham made his American debut at the Park Theatre in His Last Legs (1842), then joined William Burton and later James Wallack, acting with both men in important comic roles, such as Sir Lucius O'Trigger, Micawber, Captain Cuttle, and Dazzle. Between 1850 and 1857 he also managed Brougham's Broadway Lyceum and the Bowery Theatre, but the business side of theatre was not his forte. While acting and managing he nevertheless found time to write no fewer than 126 plays, including burlesques, such as Pocahontas (1855) and Much Ado About the Merchant of Venice (1869); adaptations, such as Dombey and Son (1848), a major hit; Jane Eyre (1849); and Vanity Fair (1849); Gothic melodramas, such as The Duke's Motto; or, I Am Here (1863); tear‐jerkers, such as The Dark Hour Before Dawn; Irish plays, such as Take Care of Little Charlie (1858); and social satire, such as The Game of Love (1856). After spending the Civil War years in England, he returned in 1865, acting at the Winter Garden and with Augustin Daly's troupe. When his vogue had faded, he then ventured another unsuccessful attempt at management. His last appearance was in Boucicault's Felix O'Reilly (1879). Brougham was one of the first to bring a bit of the action of his plays into the auditorium. In his popular Row at the Lyceum (1851), arriving playgoers found the cast still rehearsing. When the gaslights were lowered, a Quaker in the audience jumped up and began to yell, “My wife! Come off that stage, thou miserable woman!” A fireman wrestled with the upset man, who got away and ran down the aisle. The Quaker was, of course, Brougham. In his heyday he was one of the most popular of American performers, although his fellow actor Joseph Jefferson regretted that he always “acted a part as though it were a joke.” Other commentators, focusing more on his writings, were less critical. In 1890 Laurence Hutton concluded, “If America has ever had an Aristophanes, John Brougham was his name,” while a modern editor, Richard Moody, described him as “a mid‐nineteenth‐century combination of W. C. Fields and George S. Kaufman.”

John Brougham

John Brougham (May 9, 1814 – June 7, 1880) was an Irish-American actor and dramatist.

Born at Dublin, he was educated with the intention of his becoming a surgeon. Owing to family misfortunes he was left to his own devices, and made his first appearance on the London stage in 1830, at the Tottenham Street theatre in Tom and Jerry, in which he played six characters. In 1831 he was a member of Madame Vestris's company, and wrote his, first play, a burlesque. He remained with Madame Vestris as long as she and Charles Mathews retained Covent Garden, and he collaborated with Dion Boucicault in writing London Assurance, the role of Dazzle being one of those with which he became associated. His success at small or "low" comic roles such as Dazzle earned him the nickname "Little Johnny Brougham," a moniker which he embraced and which boosted his popularity with working-class audiences.

In 1840 he managed the Lyceum theatre, for which he wrote several light burlesques, but in 1842 he moved to the United States, where he became a member of WE Burton's company, for which he wrote several comedies. Later he was the manager of Niblo's Garden, and in. 1850 opened Brougham's Lyceum, which, like his next speculation, the lease of the Bowery Theatre, was not a financial success. He was later connected with Wallack's and Daly's theatres, and wrote plays for both.

In 1860 he returned to London, where he adapted or wrote several plays, including The Duke's Motto for Fechter. After the American Civil War he returned to New York City. Brougham's theatre was opened in 1869 with his comedy Better Late than Never, but this managerial experience was also a failure, and he took to playing the stock market. His last appearance was in 1879 as O'Reilly, the detective, in Boucicault's Rescued, and he died in New York City.

Brougham wrote nearly 100 plays, most of them now forgotten.^{[citation needed]} He was the founder of the Lotus Club in New York, and for a time its president. He also edited there in 1852 a comic paper called The Lantern, and published two collections of miscellaneous writings, A Basket of Chips and The Bunsby Papers. Brougham is said to have been the original of Harry Lorrequer in Charles Lever's novel. He was twice married, in 1838 to Emma Williams (d. 1865), and in 1844 to Mrs Annette Hawley (d. 1870), both actresses.

References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

External links

• John Brougham Photograph part of the Nineteenth Century Notables Digital Collection at Gettysburg College

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)