San Toy, or The Emperor's Own is a "Chinese" musical comedy in two acts, first performed at Daly's Theatre, London, on 21 October 1899, and ran for 768 performances (edging out the same composer's The Geisha as the second longest run for any musical up to that time). The book was written by Edward Morton, and the musical score was written by Sidney Jones with lyrics by Harry Greenbank and Adrian Ross. Additional songs were written by Lionel Monckton. The cast included Marie Tempest, Scott Russell, Huntley Wright and Rutland Barrington.
The piece enjoyed international success.[1] In America, San Toy opened at Daly's Theatre on Broadway on 10 October 1900.[2] It was revived at the same theatre in 1901, 1902 and 1905, playing for a total of more than 200 performances in these productions.[3] The piece was regularly performed by amateur theatre groups, particularly in Britain, from 1910 through the 1930s, but it has been produced only rarely since then.[4]
Some of the language and stereotyping in the show reflect the period in which it was written and would not now be considered politically correct.[5] However, a close inspection to the lyrics of such songs as Samee Gamee display a gentle mocking of the pretension of Western superiority.
- ^ Lionel Monckton biography at the British Musical Theatre site of The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive
- ^ Bloom, Ken. American Song: the Complete Musical Theatre Companion, 2nd Edition, Schirmer Books, 1996.
- ^ San Toy at the Internet Broadway Database
- ^ Bond, Ian. "Rarely Produced Shows" Archived 2011-07-16 at the Wayback Machine. St. David's Players, accessed 22 July 2010
- ^ Thesis