Producers / Directors

George Edwardes (1855–1915)

George Edwardes was manager of the Gaiety, Daly’s and the Adelphi. He turned Daly’s into London’s premier operetta theatre. His production of Lehár’s The Merry Widow in 1907 was a sensation.

Abraham Erlanger (1859–1930)

Abraham Erlanger was a manager and producer, and the leader of the Theatrical Syndicate in the USA. With the help of lawyer Marc Klaw, he brought many operettas to Broadway. Erlanger’s rivals were the Shubert brothers.

Robert Evett (1874–1949)

Robert Evett was a performer, manager and producer. He performed in Oscar Straus’s A Waltz Dream (Hicks’s Theatre, 1908). He also starred in Lehár’s The Merry Widow (1907), Fall’s The Girl in the Train, and Kálmán’s Autumn Manoeuvres (1912). He took over management of Daly’s Theatre after Edwardes’s death. He co-authored the London adaptation of Straus’s The Last Waltz at the Gaiety in 1922.

George Grossmith, Jun. (1874–1935)

George Grossmith, Jun. was multitalented. He starred as Max Daly in Walter Kollo’s The Girl on the Film (Gaiety Theatre, 1913; the production transferred in December that year to the 44th Street Theatre, New York). He wrote the American version of The Dollar Princess. He was also a producer, and became theatre manager at the Gaiety after Edwardes’s death. He also managed the Winter Garden and Apollo in the 1920s, and Drury Lane in 1931–32.

Seymour Hicks (1871–1949)

Seymour Hicks was a performer, playwright, producer and manager. He owned the Aldwych Theatre and Hicks’s Theatre (now the Gielgud).

Henry W. Savage (1859–1927)

Henry W. Savage was the theatre manager who first produced The Merry Widow in New York, at Erlanger’s flagship theatre, the New Amsterdam in 1907.