Joseph William Herbert (27 November 1863â€"18 February 1923) was a
British-born American director, silent-film actor, singer and
dramatist notable for being the first person to play Ko-Ko in America
in a pirate production of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado (1885)
before joining D'Oyly Carte Opera Company touring companies across
America (1885-1890).Herbert was born in Liverpool in 1863 to Irish
parents and emigrated to America in 1876 aged 13, living in Chicago
where, during his college days, he joined the local Church Choir
Company as an amateur chorister. He deputised for a professional
comedian who failed to show to play the Lord Chancellor in the
company’s production of Iolanthe and when C. D. Hess reformed the
company as the Acme Opera Company and sent it on the road (1884) as a
professional musical stock company, Herbert went with it. He
subsequently played the Lord Chancellor in Iolanthe, Gobo in Les
cloches de Corneville, appeared in Fatinitza, The Pirates of Penzance
and Patience, played Népomuc in La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein and
Sir Joseph Porter in H.M.S. Pinafore, etc, through the tour and,
following the Acme troupe’s collapse, played with a stuck-together
season of a stuck-together company in New Orleans.Herbert was the
first actor to play Ko-Ko in the United States, appearing in Sydney
Rosenfeld's pirate production of The Mikado in Chicago in July 1885
before appearing in one performance (breaking a temporary injunction)
in the same role at the Union Square Theatre in New York in July 1885,
nearly a month before the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company arrived in
America with the official production of The Mikado. Herbert appeared
as Ko-Ko for two weeks at the Union Square Theatre, opening on 17
August 1885 just two days before the D'Oyly Carte opened with their
official production; Herbert and the rest of the cast then transferred
to the Grand Opera House in Manhattan.Such was Herbert's success as
Ko-Ko that he was engaged by Richard D'Oyly Carte and John Stetson to
play the role in New York and New England with the D'Oyly Carte Opera
Company's Third American Mikado Company, touring from November 1885 to
May 1886. Again for Stetson Herbert played King Gama in Princess Ida
from November to December 1886 and he appeared as Reginald Bunthorne
in Patience during January 1887 in a D'Oyly Carte approved production
in New York. He toured across North-East America for Stetson during
the first half of 1887 in other D'Oyly Carte approved productions,
again as King Gama in Princess Ida and later as Robin Oakapple in
Ruddigore - this time in D'Oyly Carte's Second American Company. In
April 1887 he transferred to D'Oyly Carte's Third American Ruddigore
Company, playing Sir Despard Murgatroyd; for a short period in early
May 1887 he again played Robin Oakapple in New York.
British-born American director, silent-film actor, singer and
dramatist notable for being the first person to play Ko-Ko in America
in a pirate production of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado (1885)
before joining D'Oyly Carte Opera Company touring companies across
America (1885-1890).Herbert was born in Liverpool in 1863 to Irish
parents and emigrated to America in 1876 aged 13, living in Chicago
where, during his college days, he joined the local Church Choir
Company as an amateur chorister. He deputised for a professional
comedian who failed to show to play the Lord Chancellor in the
company’s production of Iolanthe and when C. D. Hess reformed the
company as the Acme Opera Company and sent it on the road (1884) as a
professional musical stock company, Herbert went with it. He
subsequently played the Lord Chancellor in Iolanthe, Gobo in Les
cloches de Corneville, appeared in Fatinitza, The Pirates of Penzance
and Patience, played Népomuc in La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein and
Sir Joseph Porter in H.M.S. Pinafore, etc, through the tour and,
following the Acme troupe’s collapse, played with a stuck-together
season of a stuck-together company in New Orleans.Herbert was the
first actor to play Ko-Ko in the United States, appearing in Sydney
Rosenfeld's pirate production of The Mikado in Chicago in July 1885
before appearing in one performance (breaking a temporary injunction)
in the same role at the Union Square Theatre in New York in July 1885,
nearly a month before the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company arrived in
America with the official production of The Mikado. Herbert appeared
as Ko-Ko for two weeks at the Union Square Theatre, opening on 17
August 1885 just two days before the D'Oyly Carte opened with their
official production; Herbert and the rest of the cast then transferred
to the Grand Opera House in Manhattan.Such was Herbert's success as
Ko-Ko that he was engaged by Richard D'Oyly Carte and John Stetson to
play the role in New York and New England with the D'Oyly Carte Opera
Company's Third American Mikado Company, touring from November 1885 to
May 1886. Again for Stetson Herbert played King Gama in Princess Ida
from November to December 1886 and he appeared as Reginald Bunthorne
in Patience during January 1887 in a D'Oyly Carte approved production
in New York. He toured across North-East America for Stetson during
the first half of 1887 in other D'Oyly Carte approved productions,
again as King Gama in Princess Ida and later as Robin Oakapple in
Ruddigore - this time in D'Oyly Carte's Second American Company. In
April 1887 he transferred to D'Oyly Carte's Third American Ruddigore
Company, playing Sir Despard Murgatroyd; for a short period in early
May 1887 he again played Robin Oakapple in New York.
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