Complete libretto. Hailed as "The Prince of Comedy and Burlesque," Fred Leslie (pseudonym "A. C. Torr") was one of the 19th century's most celebrated writers of Victorian burlesques. Originally produced at London's Gaiety Theatre, "Miss Esmeralda" was the pinnacle of musical burlesques. A re-imagining of Victor Hugo's "Hunchback of Notre Dame," the Gaiety's production was bawdy and sensationalized. The story centers around the gypsy Esmeralda and her love interest Captain Phoebus, but Claude Forllo is smitten with her and when he can't have her, he frames her for murder. It is up to Quasimodo...

With their musical burlesques, operettas, and spectacular extravagances, the musical entertainments of London's Gaiety Theatre contributed significantly to the evolution of musical comedy. Starting in 1880 with Robert Reece's "The Forty Theatre," which introduced a full score by a single writing team, the Gaiety musicals of the 1880s blended dialogue and music into a fully integrated story thus creating what would eventually become the pattern in musical theatre. Along with its many accomplishments, the Gaiety Theatre first produced the musical "Dorothy" in 1886 which would later become one...