The New Boy

There appear to have been three plays by this name, two from the mid 1890s, and one short play for schools:

The New Boy: a comic farce by Arthur Law

Arthur Law (1844-1913)[1] was apparently inspired to write the play by F. Anstey’s popular book Vice Versa. The New Boy opened at Terry's Vaudeville Theatre, London, on February 28, 1894, with Weedon Grossmith (1854-1919) in the leading role, and finally closed in April 1895. The first American performance of was in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, on September 14, 1894.

The posters for Law's play are speculated to have been the source of the famous Mad Magazine cover image of "Alfred E. Neumann". (See the entry on this in Yesterday's Papers, an inspiring blog by cartoonist, illustrator and storyteller John Adcock at http://john-adcock.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-face-of-new-boy.html.)

The New Boy: a comedy by R.R. Lumley

Only two sources have been found to date for this attribution. The first is a website on the Lakewood Theater in Maine, USA[2], which lists a 1910 production of The New Boy by R.R. Lumley - but gives no further detail. The second is a discussion by F.C.L. Bosman (1980, p. 403, citing D.C. Boonzaier), who ascribes the play performed in South Africa by the Ernest Searelle Comedy Company to "R.R. Lumley". Given the fact that Bosman almost certainly has the name of the company wrong (it is probably the Luscombe Searelle Comedy Company), it is possible that this could also have been either Law's text or Lumley's.

The New Boy: a short play by Andrew Beattie

This is a short play of 20 minutes duration with an all-male cast; it’s a ghost story set in an English boys’ boarding school.

See Andrew Beattie's website at https://www.andrewbeattie.me.uk/the-new-boy/

Recorded South African performances of plays called The New Boy

1895: The New Boy (ascribed to R.R. Lumley) performed in Cape Town by the Ernest Searelle Comedy Company, with a cast that consisted of Hope Dudley, Mr Flemming, Leslie Kenyon and William Devereux.

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Boy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Law_(playwright)

http://john-adcock.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-face-of-new-boy.html.

https://www.andrewbeattie.me.uk/the-new-boy/

D.C. Boonzaier, 1923. "My playgoing days – 30 years in the history of the Cape Town stage", in SA Review, 9 March and 24 August 1932. (Reprinted in Bosman 1980: pp. 374-439.)

F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1912. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: p. 403

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