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FOOTLIGHT NOTES
issue no. 253
updated
Saturday, 20 July 2002
Jennie Lee in the title role of
Jo,
a drama by J.P. Burnett based on Dickens’s Bleak House
Jennie Lee as Jo
(photo: Elliott & Fry, London, 1876)
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‘LEE, JENNIE (Mrs J.P. Burnett), daughter of Edwin George Lee, artist; born in London [about 1845]. After her father’s death she entered the dramatic profession and first appeared on the stage at the Lyceum Theatre [on 22 January 1870] as [Henry] a page in Chilperic. Subsequently, in 1870, at the same theatre, under the Mansell’s management, in Le Petit Faust she played the crossing-sweeper, and secured favourable notice for her skilful rendering of the part. Miss Lee was afterwards engaged by Mrs. Swanborough, of the Strand Theatre, for leading burlesque [parts], and appeared there in July 1870 as Prince Ahmed in The Pilgrim of Love. She remained at the Strand Theatre for two seasons. Subsequently she accepted an engagement from Mr. [E.A.] Sothern, and accompanied him to the United States, opening at Niblo’s Theatre, New York, as Mary Meredith in Our American Cousin. Miss J. Lee was leading soubrette at that theatre until it was destroyed by fire; and then became a member of the company of the Union Square Theatre, in the same city, playing the same line of business. She subsequently went to San Francisco, and appeared at the California Theatre, where Miss Lee remained for a period of two years. While at this theatre she appeared for the first time as Jo in the play of that title, a version of Bleak House, adapted from Charles Dickens’s novel by J.P. Burnett. Miss Lee’s impersonation of the part was a remarkable success. In August 1875 she returned to England, and, in London, played at the Surrey Theatre for the Christmas season [as Jack in the pantomime Jack the Giant Killer]. Having leased the Globe Theatre for a time, on February 22, 1876, Miss Lee opened with Jo [in Bleak House, otherwise Jo], playing the part with "a realism and a pathos difficult to surpass. A more striking revelation of talent has seldom been made. In get-up and in acting the character was thoroughly realized; and the hoarse voice, the slouching, dejected gait, and the movement as of some hunted animal, were admirably exhibited" (Athenaeum, [London,] February 26, 1876). Miss Lee has since acted the same character with unvarying success at all the principal theatres in the provinces.’ Jennie Lee’s career continued thereafter almost unabated until the early years of the 20th century. She appeared on many further occasions in London, but was also popular in pantomime and on tour throughout the United Kingdom and abroad where she was seen in America, Australia, Africa, India and China. During 1897, for instance, we catch sight of her starring in a tour of Jack-in-the-Box, ‘a musical variety drama’ by George R. Sims and Clement Scott, with music by W.C. Levey and James Glover, which was first produced at the Theatre Royal, Brighton, on 24 August 1885 with Fannie Leslie. Miss Lee died on 3 May 1930. |
Jennie Lee as Jo
(photo: Elliott & Fry, London, 1875/76)
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‘A dramatic version of an episode in the Bleak House of Dickens is the latest novelty at the Globe [22 February 1876]. If Jo survives a charge of being too gloomy, to which it must be pronounced open, since there is not an act without a death, natural or violent, and the whole interest seems to spring and end in a burial-ground, it may claim a favourable verdict. It traces to its end the career of Jo, the typical street vagabond, in whose favour Dickens sought to enlist English sympathies. Its sad lesson needs, indeed, to be taken to heart. In a sense this story of Jo’s sufferings is an idyll of our streets. As the sound of Consuelo’s kisses still clings to the walls of Venice Jo’s hoarse and plaintive murmurs, as he is driven forth along his restless path, may yet be supposed to echo through our courts and byways. To this story the whole action of the play is subordinated. There is no pretence of a love interest, for Guppy’s impertinent advances to Esther can no more claim the title than the freely accorded kisses bestowed by "Guster" upon the hero when the end is at hand. The melodramatic portions of the novel, the disappearance and death of Lady Dedlock, the death of Sir Leicester, the murder of Mr. Tulkinghorn, the arrest of Hortense, and the inquest upon Jo’s mysterious benefactor, are only introduced for the apparent purpose of showing how they affect this waif of society. Some ingenuity is displayed in the way in which these not too homogeneous interests are welded and shaped into three acts. The dramatist has, however, been fortunate in the exponent he has obtained for the principal part. Miss Jenny [sic] Lee, a young lady known principally in burlesque, played the part of Jo with a realism and a pathos difficult to surpass. In get up and in acting the character was thoroughly realised; and the hoarse voice, the slouching dejected gait, and the movements as of some hunted animal, were admirably exhibited. Mr. Burnett, the author, played Buckett, the detective; Miss Dolores Drummond showed power as Hortense; Mr. [Charles] Wilmot gave a picture of unctuous sanctimony as Mr. Chadband; and Miss Kate Lee exhibited some promise as Guster. The play was received with favour, in spit of the sepulchral element in it so largely developed that the idea of a dramatisation of "Blair’s Grave" appears now scarcely extravagant. The comic scenes, as a rule, were failures, and Mrs. Snagsby’s jealousies and Mr. Guppy’s impertinencies might with advantage be excised.’ * * * * * * * *
‘Globe. The entertainment of this house consists of a new and original farce by Mr. J.E. Soden, called The Tailor Makes The Man, in which an accidental change of clothing for the worse nearly loses a lover his mistress. This is followed by an adaptation of Dickens’s Bleak House, by Mr. J.B. Burnett, entitled Jo, in which the fortunes of the poor street-sweeper are followed to their fatal conclusion. The scenes are skilfully introduced and the audience are made to take a manifest interest in the several occurrences which lead the police inspector, Mr. bucket - a characters powerfully impersonated by the adapter himself - to insist on the little fellow "moving on," until he can move no further. The character is excellently interpreted by Miss Jennie Lee, whose make-up for the part is capital. The affairs of the Dedlock family are suggestively treated; and Miss Louise Hibbert as the Lady was as stately and sad as befitted her position, and Sir Leicester was well represented by Mr. Edward Price. Mr. Flockton, too, was close and stiff as Mr. Tulkinghorn; and the Frenchwoman, Hortense, was ably illustrated by Miss Dolores Drummond. New scenery, presenting the places named by the novelist, has been painted by Mr. W. Bruce Smith; and the whole performance has an air of realism which will ensure the popularity of the old story as a new drama. * * * * * * * *
‘Jennie Lee… was promoted to the condition of a crossing sweeper, in silken rags, brandishing a golden besom, and crying, "Copper! Yir’onor! Copper!" which became a London catch-phrase.’ |
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