X-Nico

12 unusual facts about Adrian Ross


A Country Girl

A Country Girl, or, Town and Country is a musical play in two acts by James T. Tanner, with lyrics by Adrian Ross, additional lyrics by Percy Greenbank, music by Lionel Monckton and additional songs by Paul Rubens.

Adrian Ross

He wrote in The Tatler under the pseudonym Bran Pie and in 1893 published an edition of Lady Mary Wortley Montague's Letters.

The book is notable for its depth of characterisation - the narrator, a young Puritan scholar who has refused to join Oliver Cromwell's army because of his objections to religious violence, is a compassionate man who sees the good in everyone, including the villains - and for its subtle depiction of the creature in the hole, which is never completely seen even as it overwhelms the castle.

He also wrote lyrics for the one-act comic opera, Weather or No (1896), which played as a companion piece to The Mikado at the Savoy Theatre, as well as several other Savoy operas, such as Mirette (1894), His Majesty, or The Court of Vignolia (1897), The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein (1897) and The Lucky Star (1899).

He also worked on the revues Three Cheers (1917) with Herman Darewski, Airs and Graces with Lionel Monckton, and, years later, Sky High for the Palladium Theatre, but these were only diversions from his chief focus of writing lyrics for musicals and operetta adaptations.

Die geschiedene Frau

The 1910 English adaptation, The Girl in the Train, was produced in two acts by George Edwardes at the Vaudeville Theatre in London, with lyrics by Adrian Ross, and ran for 340 performances.

King of Cadonia

King of Cadonia is an English musical in two acts with a book by Frederick Lonsdale, lyrics by Adrian Ross and Arthur Wimperis and music by Sidney Jones and Frederick Rosse.

Morocco Bound

Morocco Bound is a farcical English Edwardian musical comedy in two acts by Arthur Branscombe, with music by F. Osmond Carr and lyrics by Adrian Ross.

The Dollar Princess

Willner and Fritz Grünbaum (after a comedy by Gatti-Trotha), adapted into English by Basil Hood (from the 1907 Die Dollarprinzessin), with music by Leo Fall and lyrics by Adrian Ross.

The Shop Girl

The Shop Girl was a musical comedy in two acts (described by the author as a musical farce) written by H. J. W. Dam, with Lyrics by Dam and Adrian Ross and music by Ivan Caryll, and additional numbers by Lionel Monckton and Ross.

Weather or No

Weather or No is a one-act comic opera, styled a "musical duologue", by Bertram Luard-Selby with a libretto by Adrian Ross and William Beach.

One of the writers of Weather or No, Adrian Ross, would go on to become one of the most prolific and successful lyricists of Edwardian musical comedies.


Frank Osmond Carr

Carr's first produced work (with lyricist Adrian Ross) was the burlesque Faddimir, or the Triumph of Orthodoxy at the Vaudeville Theatre in London in 1889, which gained the attention of producer George Edwardes.

Frankenstein, or The Vampire's Victim

Other examples include The Bohemian G-yurl and the Unapproachable Pole (1877), Blue Beard (1882), Ariel (1883, by F. C. Burnand), Galatea, or Pygmalion Reversed (1883), Little Jack Sheppard (1885), Monte Cristo Jr (1886), Miss Esmeralda (1887), Mazeppa, Faust up to Date (1888), Ruy Blas and the Blasé Roué (1888), Carmen up to Data (1890), and Don Juan (1892, with lyrics by Adrian Ross).

The Spring Chicken

The Spring Chicken is an English musical comedy adapted by George Grossmith, Jr. from Coquin de Printemps (1897) by Jaime and Duval, with music by Ivan Caryll and Lionel Monckton and lyrics by Adrian Ross, Percy Greenbank and Grossmith, produced by George Edwardes at the Gaiety Theatre, opening on 30 May 1905.