Cecilia Loftus - American Theatre

American Theatre

In 1894, she appeared in vaudeville at the Lyceum Theatre in New York City. Loftus toured with the Ada Rehan Company and the Augustin Daly Company before she first appeared at Koster & Bial's on January 21, 1895. With the Rehan troupe she played Washington, DC, St. Louis, Missouri, and Chicago, Illinois as "Miss Cecile" in a playbill. Her exit from Daly's organization occurred after Loftus was offered larger salaries in New York City. Other roles she played prior to 1895 were "Winnie" in The Last Word and "Audrey" in Love's Labour's Lost. Critics did not speak kindly of her work in these parts, to her dismay. Loftus became an international favorite in vaudeville along with Vesta Tilley and Harry Lauder.

She then began to appear in the legitimate theatre, appearing in The Children of the King at the Royal Court Theatre, in 1898. The following year she returned to the United States to tour in vaudeville and was seen by Sir Henry Irving in 1901 at the Knickerbocker Theatre. He was so impressed that he engaged her to appear with him in the roles that Dame Ellen Terry could no longer play. She later toured with Irving, although the earnings were not as great as those on the music hall circuit. In 1905, she successfully essayed the very serious role of Nora in Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House. The next year she toured with The Diamond Express and appeared at the Royal Variety Performance at the Palace Theatre in 1912. In 1914, Loftus played the part of Desdemona in Othello at the Lyric Theatre (New York).