The Maid of Arran - Details

Details

The play opened on Baum's 26th birthday, May 15, 1882, and headlined Agnes Hallock as Shiela O'Mara (Black's Sheila Mackenzie—note spelling difference), the daughter of the King of Arran, Con. O'Mara (John F. Ryan). She sang the songs "The Legend of Castle Arran" and "Ship Ahoy!", the latter being lost. Oona Kearney, the female character lead and equivalent of Black's Mairi, was played by Genevieve Rogers. Her songs included "Oona's Gift: A Tuft of the Old Irish Bog" and "A Pair o' Blue Eyes". Baum's aunt, Katharine Gray, who ran the Syracuse Oratory School, played Harriet Holcomb (Black's Caroline Lavender), and played a smaller role created by Baum, The Prophetess, under the name "Kate Roberts". Her maid, Gray (Black's Mrs. Paterson) was played by Cordie Aiken. John L. Morgan played Captain John Ingram, a moustache-twirling villain inspired by Black's Edward Ingram, who wants Shiela for himself. Edward Ingram merely offers her friendship that arouses Lavender's ire, partly because he's known Lavender long enough to understand how he can hurt people. Not remarked on much at the time were John H. Nicholson as Phadrig o' the Pipes, a very large but non-singing supporting role, based on Black's John the Piper. He is a friend to all the good guys and helps them out of jams, despite being a wiry old man. Mike J. Gallagher played the juvenile lead, Dennie, performing "A Rollicking Irish Boy". His character has no real equivalent in the novel, but has elements of Johnny Eyre and the much older character Duncan Macdonald. Mrs. Cecelia Lorraine comes over wholesale from the novel, but is only talked about, never shown (in the novel, she ultimately married Edward Ingram). Rounding out the original cast were C.F. Edwards as the Boatswain of the Malabar and C.H. Dennison as Fetchum, a valet not mentioned in the script. The other songs were "When O'Mara Is King Once Again", performed by Con. O'Mara, and "Sailing" performed by a chorus of sailors. Although the songs often interrupted the flow of the melodrama, they all grow out of the story and develop its characters, making it a primitive example of organic musical. "Oona's Gift" does the most to advance the story, and is indeed inspired by a scene in Black's novel. The play was very successful, especially with Irish audiences, in spite of its stereotyping, as it was much more sympathetic and, despite all its corny melodrama, did not reduce them to caricatures. The play, however, was panned in Richmond, Indiana, where it ultimately closed on June 7, 1883.

It returned to New York at the Academy of Music on Monday, October 9, for a one-week run. An undated program clipping held by The New York Public Library shows that there were several cast substitutions during the run, including Miron Leffingwell as Ingram, C.W. Charles as Con., Fred Lotto as Dennie, Frank Caisse as the Boatswain, Nellie Griffin as Gray, Mattie Ferguson as Oona, and Genevieve Roberts as the Prophetess. The rest of the cast remained the same. The New York Dramatic Mirror mentioned a Kate Castle in the cast, and referred to Katherine Gray as "then a 'kid'.".