Webster Booth

Webster Booth (1902-1984) was a British tenor and actor.

Biography

Born Leslie Webster Booth (21 January 1902 – 21 June 1984), he was better known by his stage name, Webster Booth. He is largely remembered today as the duettist partner (and husband) of Anne Ziegler, but he was also one of the finest British tenors of his generation and was a distinguished oratorio soloist.

Career

His first appearance was in Yeoman of the Guard for the D'Oyly-Carte Opera Company in Brighton in 1924. His first appearance in London was in The Three Musketeers in 1930. He married Anne Ziegler on 5 November 1938 and they embarked on their famous duettist variety act in 1940. They made over 800 recordings over the years; starred in three musical plays, The Vagabond King (1943), Sweet Yesterday (1945) and toured in And so to Bed" (1953–1954); and appeared in several musical films in the 1940s. They made frequent broadcasts together. In 1948 they went on a successful concert tour of New Zealand and Australia; and managed to do several broadcasts in South Africa while their ship was sailing around South African ports. During these years, they also toured in their own production of A Night in Venice. When musical tastes changed in the 1950s they therefore decided to emigrate to South Africa in 1956 where they continued their stage work as well as teaching singing in their Johannesburg studio.

They returned to the United Kingdom in 1978 where they broadcast on BBC radio, appeared on television in the Russell Harty Show and made personal appearances throughout the United Kingdom in An Evening with Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth.

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

In 1955 Booth and Ziegler did a concert tour of the Cape Province, South Africa. They were invited back for a more extensive tour of southern Africa the following year and, after some heart searching, decided to leave the UK and settle in South Africa in July 1956. They did many shows, concerts and broadcasts and ventured into producing musicals for amateur operatic societies.

Ziegler and Booth began their stay in South Africa with a ‘B’ tour to rural areas and smaller towns in 1956. They later established a school of singing and stagecraft in Johannesburg, made an LP recording of their popular duets translated into Afrikaans and trained many promising singers.

They established a school of singing and stagecraft in Johannesburg, made an LP recording of their popular duets translated into Afrikaans and trained many promising singers.

He and Anne moved from Johannesburg to the coastal town of Knysna in 1967.

As singer

Booth was tenor soloist at the Port Elizabeth Oratorio Festival under the direction of Robert Selley from 1958 to 1962, and under the direction of organist, Keith Jewell he sang in the first performance in South Africa of Elgar's Dream of Gerontius in Cape Town, a work in which he had often sung in the United Kingdom. He had always wanted to sing the bass solos in oratorio and when they moved to the coastal town of Knysna, he became conductor of the Knysna and District Choral Society and sang the bass arias in excerpts from Mendelssohn's Elijah.

Ziegler and Booth gave their farewell concert in Somerset West in 1975, believing that their singing days were at an end.

As actor

Anne and Webster began with Spring Quartet for Leonard Schach in Cape Town in September 1956. In 1956, they both also appeared in A Night in Venice at the Reps Theatre for the Johannesburg Operatic and Dramatic Society.

In 1958, Webster and Anne appeared in Waltz Time for the Springs Operatic Society , in Merrie England at the East London City Hall for the Dramatic Society of East London and at the Reps Theatre in Johannesburg for JODS, and in a production of The Vagabond King in Durban. They both appeared again in Waltz Time in 1959, this time in the East London City Hall for the Dramatic Society of East London.

Booth was the Prawn in The Amorous Prawn in 1961, and in The Andersonville Trial at the Alexander Theatre in 1962. He and Ziegler played Mr and Mrs Fordyce in Good Night Mrs. Puffin in 1963. Booth turned the clock back in 1963 when he played Colonel Fairfax in The Yeomen of the Guard for the Johannesburg Operatic and Dramatic Society at very short notice. Booth and Ziegler played together in Family Album in Tonight at 8.30 for CAPAB in Cape Town and Port Elizabeth (1964). He also played the non-singing part of the circus barker in Smetana's The Bartered Bride for the Performing Arts Council of the Transvaal in November/December 1966. They both appeared in a concert version of Merrie England for the Knysna and District Choral Society (1968).

As director/conductor

Together Booth and Ziegler produced A Country Girl (1960) and The Vagabond King (1962) for the Springs Operatic Society. He directed a production of The Pirates of Penzance in Bloemfontein in October 1962.

He produced and conducted the pantomime Dick Whittington at the Port Elizabeth Opera House for PEMADS (1972). In 1973, he directed The Mikado at the Guild Theatre for the East London Light Operatic Society.

See also Anne Ziegler

Sources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webster_Booth

Tucker, 1997

https://websterboothanneziegler.wordpress.com/2019/12/16/webster-booth-and-anne-ziegler-theatre-in-south-africa-1956-1973/

Go to South African Theatre/Bibliography

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