Lionel Monckton

Lionel John Alexander Monckton, born in London on 18 December 1861 and died on 15 February 1924, was an English composer of musical theatre whose Broadway credits include A Country Girl, The Cingalee, The Arcadians, The Belle of Bond Street, and The Girls of Gottenberg. The eldest son of Sir John Braddick Monckton, Town Clerk of London, and Lady Monckton, the former Maria Louisa Long, who was known as an enthusiastic amateur actress, Monckton was educated at Charterhouse School and subsequently at Oriel College, Oxford, where he graduated in 1885. At Oxford he performed in college theatrical productions, composed music for the Oxford University Dramatic Society, of which he was a founder, and contributed to the Phil-Thespian Club. His sister, Augusta Moore, published popular novels under the pen name Martin J. Pritchard.

Following his graduation, Monckton entered the legal profession at Lincoln's Inn, though he simultaneously pursued part-time work as a songwriter and as a theatre and music critic, writing first for the Pall Mall Gazette and later for the Daily Telegraph. His earliest theatrical work was Mummies and Marriage, an operetta staged by amateurs in 1888. In 1891, at the age of 29, he placed the song "What will you have to Drink?", with lyrics by Basil Hood, in a professional musical burlesque titled Cinder Ellen up too Late, after which his songs began appearing regularly in London productions.

Monckton became a fixture at London's Gaiety Theatre, where he contributed songs to the series of musical comedies produced by George Edwardes throughout the 1890s and into the early twentieth century. He wrote half the music for Arthur Roberts's burlesque Claude Du-Val in 1894 and added songs to Ivan Caryll's score for The Shop Girl that same year, including "Beautiful Bountiful Bertie," performed by George Grossmith Jr., and "Brown of Colorado," written with Adrian Ross. He continued supplementing Caryll's scores with The Circus Girl in 1896, contributing "A Simple Little String" and "The Way to Treat a Lady," and A Runaway Girl in 1898, for which he supplied "Soldiers in the Park," "Society," "The Sly Cigarette," "The Boy Guessed Right," and "Not the Sort of Girl I Care About." He followed those with songs for The Messenger Boy in 1900, including "Maisie," "In the Wash," and "When the Boys Come Home Once More," and for The Toreador in 1901, which featured "Captivating Cora," "I'm Romantic," "When I Marry Amelia," "Keep Off the Grass," and "Archie." His music for these productions was generally arranged and orchestrated by theatre conductor Carl Kiefert.

Alongside his work at the Gaiety, Monckton contributed songs to productions at Edwardes's Daly's Theatre, where he typically collaborated with Sidney Jones on shows that leaned toward romantic comedy. For Daly's he supplied numbers for The Geisha in 1896, including "Jack's the Boy" and "The Toy Monkey"; A Greek Slave in 1898, with "I Want to Be Popular," "I Should Rather Like to Try," and "What Will Be the End of It?"; and San Toy in 1899, featuring "Rhoda and Her Pagoda" and "Sons of the Motherland."

When Jones departed Daly's in 1902, Edwardes gave Monckton the opportunity to compose his first complete score, A Country Girl, with a small number of additional songs by Paul Rubens. Monckton's principal contributions to that score included "Molly the Marchioness," "Try Again, Johnny," and "Under the Deodar," and the production ran for 729 performances. That same year, Monckton married Gertie Millar, one of the most prominent actresses of the period, whom he had introduced to Edwardes. Millar starred in many of his subsequent productions, and he composed several of his most celebrated songs specifically for her, though the marriage was reported to be unhappy for a considerable period. Millar later sought a divorce, which Monckton refused. The success of A Country Girl led to a second collaboration with Rubens as contributor, The Cingalee in 1904, which ran for 391 performances and included "The Island of Gay Ceylon" and "Pearl of Sweet Ceylon."

Monckton resumed his partnership with Caryll at the Gaiety with The Spring Chicken in 1905, contributing "I Don't Know, But I Guess," "Alice Sat By the Fire," and "Under and Over Forty"; The New Aladdin in 1906; and The Girls of Gottenberg in 1907, which ran for 303 performances and featured "Two Little Sausages," "Rheingold," and "Berlin on the Spree." Their collaboration continued with Our Miss Gibbs in 1909, which ran for 636 performances and included "Moonstruck," "Mary," "In Yorkshire," and "Our Farm," becoming an international success.

Also in 1909, Monckton achieved what many considered his greatest success with The Arcadians, produced by Robert Courtneidge in collaboration with composer Howard Talbot and lyricist Arthur Wimperis. The production ran for 809 performances and featured songs including "The Pipes of Pan," "The Girl with the Brogue," and "All Down Piccadilly." The Arcadians is regarded as a defining work of the Edwardian musical period and, like A Country Girl and Our Miss Gibbs, found audiences in America and elsewhere. Edwardes subsequently acquired the lease of the Adelphi Theatre and opened it with The Quaker Girl in 1910, another Monckton and Millar production, which included "The Quaker Girl," "Come to the Ball," and "Tony from America." For Courtneidge, Monckton wrote The Mousmé in 1911, contributing "I Know Nothing of Life," "The Little Japanese Mamma," "The Temple Bell," and "The Corner of My Eye," and for Edwardes and the Adelphi he wrote The Dancing Mistress in 1912.

Monckton's final major success was The Boy in 1917, produced after Edwardes's death, again in collaboration with Howard Talbot. Based on Arthur Wing Pinero's 1885 play The Magistrate, the production starred comedian W. H. Berry and featured Monckton's songs "I Want to Go to Bye-Bye," "The Game That Ends with a Kiss," and "Powder on Your Nose." In the years following World War I, Monckton contributed to several revues, among them Bric à Brac in 1915, which included "Chalk Farm to Camberwell Green" written for Millar, as well as We're All in it and Airs and Graces. Unwilling to adapt his compositional style to the ragtime and syncopated American dance rhythms then gaining popularity in theatres, he gradually withdrew from composing.

Monckton died at his London home at the age of 62 and is buried at Brompton Cemetery. His estate was valued at £79,518. Later in 1924, his widow married William Humble Ward, 2nd Earl of Dudley.