Dorothy Donnelly


Dorothy Donnelly was an actress, playwright, librettist, producer, and director. After a decade-long acting career that included several notable roles on Broadway, she turned to writing plays, musicals and operettas, including more than a dozen on Broadway including several long-running successes. Her most famous libretto was The Student Prince, in collaboration with composer Sigmund Romberg.

Life and career

Donnelly was born January 28, 1876, in Brooklyn, New York, to Thomas Lester Donnelly, the manager of the Grand Opera House in New York, and his wife Sarah. Donnelly attended the Convent of the Sacred Heart in New York.
She began acting on Broadway in 1901, playing the title role in Candida. She made famous the play Madame X on the Broadway stage in 1910 and in a 1916 silent film. She is the subject of a 1999 book by Lorraine McLean Dorothy Donnelly: A Life in the Theatre. She then made a few silent films and then turned to playwriting.
Her first big hit on Broadway was Blossom Time, a 1921 adaptation of a German operetta fictionalizing the romantic life of composer Franz Schubert, using his music and adapting his music. This ran for 516 performances and was revived five times over the next 22 years. She then wrote and directed the musical Poppy that had a successful run and was adapted for film, boosting the career of W.C. Fields. Her most famous libretto was for The Student Prince, with music by Sigmund Romberg. Her last Broadway hit was My Maryland in 1927.

Death

Donnelly died January 4, 1928 in her apartment at 111 East 34th Street in the Murray Hill neighborhood of Midtown Manhattan – the same day that Emily Stevens died. The cause of death was pneumonia and nephritis. She was buried January 7, 1928 at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York. Donnelly never married.

Selected works

Dorothy Donnelly was a sister of New York senator and judge Thomas F. Donnelly.
She was also a niece of Fred Williams, who had been stage director of Daly's Theatre, stage director of the Lyceum Theatre on Park Avenue, and dean of the faculty of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Fred Williams' son, Fritz Williams, was also an actor.