The Orpheus Club - History
by Walter Paul.The Orpheus Club was founded on 3rd October 1892 within The Pollokshields Burgh Hall in the south side of the City of Glasgow - the same Hall in which The Club rehearsed up until 2006 - quite a record! The Orpheus Club's first staged production took place in April 1893 within the same Burgh Hall, when Gilbert and Sullivan's TRIAL BY JURY was presented for three performances; the performances were played for charity and Glasgow's Victoria Infirmary received a donation of £25.00 from The Orpheus Club.
The importance of the existence of The Orpheus Club cannot be stressed too greatly. As far as can be confirmed, The Orpheus Club is the longest established amateur operatic society to have performed an annual production CONTINUOUSLY since its formation - certainly in Glasgow, probably in Great Britain, possibly in the world. Many other societies who have long histories, stopped annual productions during the First and Second World Wars - The Orpheus Club never ceased performing during The Boer War The First World War, and The Second World War, and thus boasts a unique record in both amateur and professional theatre.
After The Orpheus Club's first show had been performed within The Pollokshields Burgh Hall, it was recognised that larger venues would have to be utilised, and The Orpheus Club has played most of Glasgow's top theatres during its long history - The Old Athenaeum Theatre in Glasgow's Buchanan Street; The Royalty Theatre, (which became The Lyric Theatre), in Sauchiehall Street; The Theatre Royal; The Coliseum Theatre in Eglinton Street, (now lying empty); The King's Theatre in Bath Street, home of our current annual productions; and the now demolished Alhambra Theatre in Waterloo Street.
There is no doubt whatsoever that The Orpheus Club established itself and made its name in the presentation of the Gilbert and Sullivan operettas; when it played TRIAL BY JURY for the first time in 1893, both Gilbert and Sullivan were still alive, and their last two Savoy Operas, UTOPIA LIMITED and THE GRAND DUKE had yet to receive their premieres at The Savoy Theatre in London. The Orpheus Club has performed all of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas over the years, (with the exception, of course, of the lost THESPIS), with the favourites such as THE MIKADO and THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE being performed and re-performed in new productions several times over. The Orpheus Club nurtured a close working relationship with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, first under Richard D'Oyly Carte, then Rupert D'Oyly Carte, and lastly Dame Bridget D'Oyly Carte, and it is said that The Orpheus Club's 1912 production of RUDDIGORE was partly responsible for the eventual reintroduction of that opera to The D'Oyly Carte repertoire, from which it had been missing since its very first production in 1887. Richard D'Oyly Carte donated part of his royalty fee, paid to him by The Orpheus Club, to the charity for which The Club happened to be playing.
Since a major production of THE YEOMEN OF THE GUARD in 1999, The Orpheus Club's direction in repertoire has changed dramatically as far as the annual production in Glasgow's Theatre Royal is concerned; Offenbach's frothy romp, ORPHEUS IN THE UNDERWORLD, was presented in 2000, and this was followed in 2001 with a major staging of Jerome Kern's SHOW BOAT, with a cast of black and white artists and including the emotive scene, Mis'ry's Coming Around, performed by arrangement with the Rodgers and Hammerstein Library in New York. In 2002 The Club presented the Scottish Amateur Premiere of Rice and Webber's EVITA, with a representative of The Really Useful Theatre Group travelling up from London to see two performances of The Orpheus production; this was followed a year later by one of the most ambitious productions in The Club's long history - Stephen Sondheim's SWEENEY TODD, which proved so popular with audiences who saw it that The Orpheus Club presented another Sondheim piece, A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, uniquely in the round in Glasgow's G12 Theatre in June of 2007; and Frank Loesser's wonderful show GUYS AND DOLLS, was performed in 2004 to packed houses at The Theatre Royal. The first Rodgers and Hammerstein work to be performed by The Orpheus Club, CAROUSEL, was the Club's 113th consecutive annual production, presented in 2005. The following year saw another Glasgow premiere when The Orpheus Club presented TITANIC - THE MUSICAL, by Maury Yeston, with a huge cast of over 70 performers, and including four pekinese dogs! The connection with the Gilbert and Sullivan operas continued with a new stage production of THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE in the unique performing space of G12 - The James Arnott Theatre, where a very funny updated production of THE MIKADO was presented in June 2006 as part of that year's West End Festival; this same production was successfully transferred to The King's Theatre in January 2007, when The Orpheus Club returned to that theatre for the first time since 1996. And after the aforementioned Sondheim chamber opera was performed in the most exquisite production at G12 in the summer of the same year, The Orpheus Club returned to The King's with what surely must rank as one of the most powerful pieces of musical stagings ever mounted by The Orpheus Club - JEKYLL AND HYDE - THE MUSICAL. Nothing but praise has been heaped on the artistic side of this venture, and it is truly a tragedy that so few people managed along to the theatre to enjoy what was obviously one of the finest ever performances mounted by The Orpheus Club.
