Arthur Reed Ropes (23 December 1859 – 11 September 1933), better known under the pseudonymAdrian Ross, was a prolific English writer of lyrics, contributing songs to more than sixty Britishmusical comedies in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was the most important lyricist of the British stage during a career that spanned five decades. At a time when few shows had long runs, nineteen of hisWest End shows ran for over 400 performances.
Starting out in the late 1880s, Ross wrote the lyrics for the earliest British musical theatre hits, includingIn Town (1892),The Shop Girl (1894) andThe Circus Girl (1896). Ross next wrote the lyrics for a string of hit musicals, beginning withA Greek Slave (1898),San Toy (1899),The Messenger Boy (1900) andThe Toreador (1901) and continuing without a break throughWorld War I. He also wrote the English lyrics for a series of hit adaptations of European operettas beginning withThe Merry Widow in 1907.
During World War I, Ross was one of the founders of thePerforming Rights Society. He continued writing until 1930, producing several more successes after the war. He also wrote the popular novelThe Hole of the Pit and a number of short stories.
Ross was born inLewisham, London. He was the youngest son and fourth child of Ellen Harriet Ropes née Hall, ofScarborough, and William Hooper Ropes, a Russian merchant. Ross's parents lived inNormandy, France, but sent him to school in London at Priory House School inClapton,Mill Hill School, and theCity of London School. He later attendedKing's College, Cambridge, where, in 1881, he won the Chancellor's Medal for English verse for his poem "Temple Bar", and also won the Members' Prize for the English essay. In 1883 he graduated with a first-class degree, winning the Lightfoot scholarship for history and a Whewell scholarship for international law. He was elected a fellow of the College.[1][2]
He was aCambridge University graduate anddon, teaching history and poetry from 1884 to 1890 and writing serious and comic verse of his own, the first volume of which was published in 1884. In 1889, he published "A Sketch of the History of Europe". He was also a translator of French and German literature under his own name.[2] He created the fictitious name "Adrian Ross" due to a concern that writing musicals would compromise his academic career.[3]
During a brief illness in 1883 after catching cold at the University Boat Race, Ross used the lonely time in bed to write the libretto of an entertainment entitledA Double Event. This was produced atSt. George's Hall, London in 1884 with music byArthur Law, and Ross used the name "Arthur Reed". His next work for the stage, also as Arthur Reed, was the book and lyrics for amusical burlesque,Faddimir (1889 at theOpera Comique), with music by fellow Cambridge graduate,F. Osmond Carr.[2]
The piece earned enough praise so that the impresarioGeorge Edwardes commissioned the two to write another burlesque, together with the comic actor John Lloyd Shine, calledJoan of Arc. Songs from the piece included "I Went to Find Emin", "Round the Town", and "Jack the Dandy-O".Joan of Arc opened in 1891 at the Opera Comique starringArthur Roberts andMarion Hood; he wrote under the pseudonym Adrian Ross, which he used for the rest of his career. The piece was a hit, lasting for almost eight hundred performances, and Ross resigned from Cambridge. To supplement his income from theatre writing, Ross became a contributor to such journals asPunch,Sketch,Sphere andThe World, and he joined the staff ofAriel in 1891–1892. He wrote inThe Tatler under the pseudonym Bran Pie and in 1893 published an edition ofLady Mary Wortley Montague's Letters. He also published numerous French texts for the Pitt Press series.[2]
Ross and Carr's next work, in collaboration withJames T. Tanner, wasIn Town (1892), a smart, contemporary tale of backstage and society goings-on. This left behind the earlier Gaiety burlesques and helped set the new fashion for the series of modern-dressGaiety Theatre shows that quickly spread to other theatres and dominated British musical theatre. For his next piece,Morocco Bound (1893, with the song "Marguerite from Monte Carlo"), Ross concentrated on writing lyrics, leaving the "book" mostly to Arthur Branscombe. This proved to be his most successful model through most of his career.[4] The position of "lyricist" was relatively new, as previously the writers of libretti would invariably write the lyrics themselves. As the new Edwardes-produced"musical comedies" took the place of burlesque,comic opera andoperetta on the stage, Ross andHarry Greenbank established the usefulness of a separate lyricist.
Ross contributed lyrics to almost all of theGaiety Theatre's shows, beginning withThe Shop Girl (1894, with his song "Brown of Colorado") andGo-Bang in 1895. He wrote over two thousand lyrics and produced lyrics for over sixty musicals thereafter, including most of the hit musicals throughWorld War I. In 1896, he contributed to the Gaiety Theatre hit,The Circus Girl. He also wrote lyrics for the one-actcomic opera,Weather or No (1896), which played as a companion piece toThe Mikado at theSavoy Theatre, as well as several otherSavoy operas, such asMirette (1894),His Majesty, or The Court of Vignolia (1897),The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein (1897) andThe Lucky Star (1899).[2]
Ross also wrote lyrics for the shows atDaly's Theatre. His lyrics to additional numbers forAn Artist's Model (1895) andThe Geisha (1896) were successful enough so that Edwardes asked him for major contributions to the rest, beginning withA Greek Slave (1898), especially after the death of the theatre's early chief lyricist, Harry Greenbank. These included a series of enormous successes, includingSan Toy (1899),The Messenger Boy (1900),Kitty Grey (1901),The Toreador (1901),A Country Girl (1902),The Girl from Kays (1903),The Orchid (1903),The Cingalee (1904),The Spring Chicken (1905) andThe Girls of Gottenberg (1907). In 1901, Ross married Ethel Wood, an actress, and the couple produced a son and two daughters. The family resided in Church Street,Kensington.[1] Also in 1901, he collaborated with his sister Mary Emily Ropes on the children's story,On Peter's Island.[2][5]
When Edwardes found success, beginning in 1907, in mounting English-language versions of the new generation of continental Europeanoperettas to the London stage, Ross wrote the English lyrics for the adaptations, often with libretti byBasil Hood. His words to the songs inThe Merry Widow (1907) became the standard English version of that piece, performed throughout the world for many decades. Other Continental musicals that Ross anglicised includedA Waltz Dream (1908),The Dollar Princess (1909),The Girl in the Train (1910),The Count of Luxembourg (1911),The Girl on the Film (1913) andThe Marriage Market (1913), most of which had enduring success throughout the English-speaking world.[3] Other successes from this period were the musicalsKing of Cadonia (1908),Havana (1908),Our Miss Gibbs (1909),The Quaker Girl (1911), andBetty in 1915. In addition, many of Ross's most successful pieces had additional successes on tour in Britain, in America and elsewhere. His biggest hits on Broadway includedThe Girl from Kays (1903),The Merry Widow (1907 and many revivals),Havana (1909),Madame Sherry (1911) andThe Quaker Girl (1911).
In 1914, Ross was one of the founders of the Performing Rights Society.[1] Ross continued, after Edwardes's death, to write lyrics for numerous shows at the Gaiety, Daly's, theAdelphi Theatre, and other London theatres. DuringWorld War I, he continued to produce hits, writing the lyrics for the musical adaptation of a French comedy,Theodore & Co (1916), the operettaArlette (1917), the musicalThe Boy (1917),André Messager's adaptation ofBooth Tarkington'sMonsieur Beaucaire (1919, "Philomel") and contributed toA Southern Maid (1920). He also worked on therevuesThree Cheers (1917) withHerman Darewski,Airs and Graces withLionel Monckton, and, years later,Sky High for thePalladium Theatre, but these were only diversions from his chief focus of writing lyrics for musicals and operetta adaptations.[4] In 1922, he wrote both the book and the lyrics for the popular English version ofDas Dreimäderlhaus, the international hit based onFranz Schubert's music and life, produced in Britain asLilac Time. In 1927, Ross andDudley Glass, an Australian composer, collaborated on a musical based onThe Beloved Vagabond byW. J. Locke. His last works were produced in 1930: the English adaptation of the operettaFriederike for thePalace Theatre,[6] and a musical based onThe Toymaker of Nuremberg by Austin Strong, which was produced as a Kingsway Theatre Christmas entertainment.[4]
Ross collaborated extensively with the foremost British-based composers of musical theatre active during his productive period, including Carr,Ivan Caryll, Monckton,Leslie Stuart andSidney Jones, and laterPaul Rubens,Harold Fraser-Simson,Howard Talbot and Messager. Sixteen of his musicals ran for more than 400 performances.[3] Ross tailored each song to fit the style required by the producer – songs for the Gaiety were different from those for Daly's. Many of his most popular shows, songs (both for the theatre and beyond it) and adaptations are still performed today.[4]
Ross also wrote the popular horror novelThe Hole of the Pit and a number of short stories. Set in 1645 during theEnglish Civil War, the novel tells of a loathsome entity that inhabits a flooded pit amid the marshes surrounding a castle. The book is notable for its depth of characterisation – especially of the compassionate young narrator, aPuritan scholar who has refused to joinOliver Cromwell's army because of his objections to religious violence and who sees the good in everyone – and for its subtle depiction of the creature in the hole, which is never completely seen even as it overwhelms the castle. The novel was published in 1914 byEdward Arnold and never reprinted untilRamsey Campbell collected it in his 1992 anthologyUncanny Banquet.Brian Stableford called it "a minor classic of the genre".[7] Ross also wroteShort History of Europe, editedLady Mary Wortley-Montagu's Letters (Selection and Life), and was a contributor toPunch magazine.[1]
Ross died of heart failure at his home inKensington, London on 11 September 1933 at the age of 73.[2][8]
Ross contributed lyrics to the following musicals and comic operas, often in collaboration with other lyricists:
