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Gentleman Joe, The Hansom Cabbie is a farcical musical comedy with music by Walter Slaughter and a...

Gentleman Joe, The Hansom Cabbie is a farcical musical comedy with music by Walter Slaughter and a libretto by Basil Hood. It opened at that Prince of Wales Theatre on 2 March 1895 and ran for a very successful 391 performances. The show was written as a vehicle for the comedian Arthur Roberts. A short burlesque entitled A Trilby Triflet was introduced as part of Gentleman Joe a week after Looking for Trilby opened at the Haymarket Theatre. The Times newspaper praised Roberts for his imitation of Herbert Beerbohm Tree. The cast of Gentleman Joe also included Kitty Loftus as Emma and W. H. Denny as Pilkington Jones. There was soon a Newark, New Jersey production in late 1895 at Miner's Theatre and then at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City in 1896. Gentleman Joe was Hood's first full-scale musical comedy, and its success prompted Hood to leave the military to concentrate on his writing. Hood and Slaughter went on to write several more comedies together, including The French Maid in 1896 and another successful vehicle for Roberts, Dandy Dan, the Lifeguardsman in 1897. The American production of Gentleman Joe opened at the Bijou Theatre in early 1896 featuring James T. Powers,