The "Fritz" plays
The "Fritz" plays is a reference to a 19th century series of skits, songs, plays and musicals featuring a German immigrant character.
Contents
Joseph Kline Emmet and the "Fritz" plays
The "Fritz" plays is a reference to a series of plays and musicals that derived from a German immigrant character, developed by the vaudeville performer and actor Joseph Kline Emmet (1841–1891)[1], who had developed the "Fritz" character in minstrel variety shows, and went on to perform a character called "Fritz van Vonderblinkenstoffen" in The Adventures of Fritz, Our Cousin German by Charles Gayler, which led to a number of subsequent plays using this name and character.
Among them Fritz in Ireland, Fritz Among the Gypsies, Fritz in Bohemia, Fritz in a Madhouse, Fritz in Posterity, Captain Fritz and so on.
These are often referred to as the "Fritz" plays.
The various "Fritz" plays
While the character and early skits and songs were created by Emmet, the later plays and musicals were written by various autherosa, though often having Emmet (or an imitator) as performer.
Fritz, Our Cousin German by Charles Gayler
Fritz, Our Cousin German is a musical play by Charles Gayler (1820–92)[],
Also found as The Adventures of Fritz, Our Cousin German or Fritz, Our Cousin-German
The original text
A play first performed in on July 11, 1870, in Wallack's Theatre, New York, later music was added. It contains the character "Fritz van Vonderblinkenstoffen", based on and often performed by Joseph Kline Emmett, who had developed the "Fritz" character in minstrel variety shows, and a character that would become the source of a range of "Fritz" plays.
Translations and adaptations
Performance history in South Africa
Translations and adaptations
Performance history in South Africa
Captain Fritz, a musical by Henry Hamilton
The original text
Possibly also the British musical performed in Cape Town by Charles Arnold in 1895, referred to as Captain Fritz by Boonzaier (1923) and said by Bosman (1980), to be a musical play by Henry Hamilton.
Joseph Kline Emmet not only developed the "Fritz" character in minstrel variety shows, but created and sang a song "Captain Schmidt", which was included in The Adventures of Fritz, Our Cousin German by Charles Gayler.
Performance history in South Africa
1895: According to Boonzaier (1923) a musical called Captain Fritz was performed in Cape Town by Charles Arnold - and is attributed to Henry Hamilton by theatre historian Bosman (1980). .
Sources
http://american_theatre.enacademic.com/408/Emmet%2C_J._K.
Julian Mates. 1987. America's Musical Stage: Two Hundred Years of Musical Theatre ABC-CLIO.[2]
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 1923. (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: pp. 402, 407
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