Ethel Morrison

Ethel Morrison (c. 1880 – 11 May 1951) was a New Zealand-born contralto singer and stage actress whose career spanned Gilbert and Sullivan opera, Edwardian musical comedy, and dramatic theatre across England, Australia, and Broadway. Born in Wellington, she was known professionally by the nicknames "Morry" and "Molly" and was recognized for her large voice and commanding physical presence, qualities that made her particularly suited to domineering roles. She studied singing at the Royal Academy of Music with ambitions toward a concert career before turning to the stage.

Morrison joined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in 1906, entering the chorus before earning her first named role as Inez in The Gondoliers. Serving as understudy to leading contralto Louie René, she took on Lady Jane in Patience, the Queen of the Fairies in Iolanthe, and Dame Carruthers in The Yeomen of the Guard. By December 1907 she had been promoted to the leading contralto roles on tour, performing Little Buttercup in H.M.S. Pinafore, Ruth in The Pirates of Penzance, Lady Blanche in Princess Ida, Katisha in The Mikado, and the Duchess in The Gondoliers. When the company returned to the Savoy Theatre in April 1908 for the London repertory season, she reverted to understudy duties, though she continued to go on for René as Buttercup and Katisha and played Mrs. Jones in the one-act piece A Welsh Sunset. She resumed the leading contralto position when the company toured again in October 1908 and remained with D'Oyly Carte until September 1909.

Morrison left the company to create the role of Locrine in the world premiere of W. S. Gilbert's Fallen Fairies at the Savoy Theatre on 15 December 1909, a production that closed in January 1910. She subsequently appeared at the Apollo Theatre as Lady Birkenhead in the musical comedy The Islander from April to August 1910, then took the smaller role of Laska in The Chocolate Soldier at the Lyric Theatre in September 1910. After a brief return to D'Oyly Carte as an emergency touring replacement in October 1910, she appeared in the pantomime Our Little Cinderella at the Playhouse Theatre from December 1910 to January 1911. Further London engagements included Nightbirds, a musical adaptation of Strauss's Die Fledermaus at the Lyric from December 1911 to May 1912, The Girl in the Taxi at the same theatre from September 1912, and Within the Law at the Haymarket Theatre from May 1913.

Recruited by J. C. Williamson, Morrison moved to Australia in 1914 and built a substantial career there over the following decades. She played the Duchess of Plaza-Toro in The Gondoliers at Her Majesty's Theatre, Melbourne from 27 June 1914, and received praise for her Katisha in The Mikado, Dame Carruthers in The Yeomen of the Guard, and Lady Jane in Patience at the same venue in August 1914. In May 1915 she was described as making an imposing and effective Duchess of Plaza-Toro in Perth, and in July 1915 was called stately and amusing as the mother in The Chocolate Soldier in Brisbane. She appeared in the Australian premiere of Tonight's the Night at Her Majesty's, Melbourne on 8 July 1916, alongside Dorothy Brunton, Connie Ediss, and Alfred Frith. In 1917 she performed in The Marriage of Kitty, Penelope, Mary Goes First, and A Pair of Silk Stockings with Marie Tempest's company. A brief revival of The Silent Witness at the Theatre Royal, Melbourne in March 1920 and a run of Harbach and Hirsch's Mary from its premiere in Adelaide on 23 September 1922 through to Her Majesty's Theatre, Sydney on 22 August 1923 rounded out this period of Australian work. She was described at the time as easily one of the most popular artists ever to visit Australia.

Morrison departed Sydney in September 1923 for a holiday in London via America and arrived in New York, where she appeared on Broadway in late 1923 and January 1924 in the revue The Topics of 1923 with Frank Greene. Learning of her husband's death in England, she sailed to London on 1 March 1924 to be with her ten-year-old daughter, who was at school there, before returning to Broadway later that year. Her Broadway career, which extended from 1924 to 1943, included appearances in Bitter Sweet, the comedy This Rock, the comedy What Big Ears!, the farce All Men Are Alike, and My Fair Ladies. In 1927 she played a minor role in the musical comedy Maritza in New York, portraying a marquise who undergoes a facelift performed by beauty specialists and subsequently requires a servant to express emotions on her behalf.

Morrison returned to Australia in May 1930 under contract to J. C. Williamson's, arriving with Edith Taliaferro aboard the steamer Sonoma. She played Mrs. Boucicault in Rachel Crothers' Let Us Be Gay at the Criterion Theatre, Sydney, earning praise alongside Reginald Dane. Subsequent productions included The Garden of Eden, in which she played the Baroness, Little Accident, and The Road to Romance at the Comedy Theatre, with performances also given at venues in Melbourne. In January 1931 she took the title role of St. John Ervine's The First Mrs Fraser, a part originally created by Marie Tempest, and appeared as Mrs. Morland in a revival of Barrie's Mary Rose in February. Further productions during this Australian period included Hastings Turner's comedy The Spot on the Sun with Ada Reeve, A Warm Corner, in which she played Adela Corner, Noël Coward's Hay Fever, As Husbands Go, and additional runs of Let Us Be Gay and The First Mrs Fraser across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Wellington before she departed from Sydney in March 1932.

She returned to Australia in October 1934, joining Madge Elliott and Cyril Ritchard for the Otto Harbach and Jerome Kern musical Roberta, which opened at His Majesty's Theatre, Melbourne on 22 December 1934, followed by High Jinks and Our Miss Gibbs, with a Sydney season at Her Majesty's opening in March 1935. In 1936 she appeared in Emlyn Williams' Night Must Fall in Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne, a production remembered fondly in later years. That same year she undertook a four-month tour of New Zealand with J. C. Williamson's before returning to play in Yes Madam, starring Charles Heslop. She left for London in November 1936 aboard the ship Orion and lived in Notting Hill. In 1947 Morrison returned to New Zealand for a six-month holiday with her family before settling in Sydney, where she died on 11 May 1951.