Everything about Zena Dare totally explained
Zena Dare (
4 February 1887 –
11 March 1975) was an
English singer and actress who was famous for her performances in
Edwardian musical comedy and other
musical theatre and comedic plays in the first half of the
20th century, and for her role as Mrs. Higgins in the long-running original London production of
My Fair Lady.
Life and career
Dare was born
Florence Hariette Zena Dones in Chelsea,
London, England. Her father, Arthur Albert Dones, was a divorce clerk, and his wife was Harriette Amelia Wheeler. Dare was the oldest of three children. Her sister,
Phyllis, three and a half years her junior, also became a well-known musical comedy actress. They had a brother named Jack.
Early career
Dare was educated at Maida Vale high school. She had her first performance on stage in 1899, at the age of 12, in the Christmas
pantomime Babes in the Woods at the Coronet Theatre in London. Her sister Phyllis was also cast in this production, and they both adopted the
stage name of Dare. From 1900, she played in various pantomimes produced by F. Wyndham in
Edinburgh and
Glasgow. In 1902, at the age of 15, Dare was hired by
Seymour Hicks to tour as Daisy Maitland in
An English Daisy, and to play the title role in
Cinderella in 1903-04 at the Shakespeare Theatre in
Liverpool. She spent much of 1904 touring but returned to London to play Aurora Brue in
Sergeant Brue for
Frank Curzon's theatre company. She left the company to create the role of Angela on in September 1904 in
The Catch of the Season at the
Vaudeville Theatre opposite Hicks. The role would have gone to
Ellaline Terriss, Hicks' wife, but she was pregnant. Dare left
Catch of the Season in 1905 to play Beauty in
Sleeping Beauty in
Bristol. Terriss later assumed the role of Angela, and Dare's sister Phyllis took over the role from Terriss.
In 1906, Dare was hired by producer
George Edwardes to play three roles at
The Prince of Wales's Theatre in London: the title role in
Lady Madcap, Lady Elizabeth Congress in
The Little Cherub and the title role in
The Girl on Stage. Dare left Edwardes' company in 1906 to play Betty Silverthorne in Hicks'
The Beauty of Bath at the
Aldwych Theatre. Later that year, she reprised her role in the touring production of
The Catch of the Season and ended the year starring as
Peter Pan in a Christmas
pantomime of Peter Pan in
Manchester. In 1907, she returned to the Aldwych as Victoria Siddons in
The Gay Gordons and spent the rest of the year in a tour of one act plays with Hicks' company. She spent 1908 and the beginning of 1909 touring both in
The Gay Gordons, this time in the lead role of Peggy Quainton, and in
Sweet and Twenty, among other pieces.
Later years
During
World War I, Dare nursed soldiers for three years at Mrs. Vanderbilt's American Hospital in France,
In 1926, after fifteen years away from the stage, Dare played Mrs. Cheyney in
The Last of Mrs. Cheyney at Golder's Green, London and then on tour. In 1928, she played Kendall Frayne in
The Second Man with
Noel Coward at the
Playhouse. Dare began her own theatre company in 1928 and toured
South Africa in
The High Road,
The Trial of Mary Dugan,
The Squeaker and
Other Men's Wives. She returned from her tour at the end of 1929 and took over the management of the
Haymarket Theatre, where she played Mrs. Fraser in
The First Mrs. Fraser. The next year, she toured in
The First Mrs. Fraser, and as Femme de Chambre in
Other Men's Wives and Clemency Warlock in
Cynara. During the Christmas seasons of 1931 and 1932, she played Mrs. Darling in
Peter Pan at the
London Palladium. During 1932, she toured as Leslie in
Counsel's Opinion.
In 1940, for the first time in over four decades, Zena and Phyllis Dare shared the stage in a tour of
Full House, in which Dare played Frynne Rodney. In 1941 at the Globe Theatre, Dare played Lady Caroline in a revival of
Dear Brutus. At Christmas of the same year, she again played the part of Mrs. Darling in
Peter Pan. In 1943 she played Fanny Farrelly in a tour of
The Watch on the Rhine, followed by the Red Queen in Gielgud's revival of
Alice Through the Looking Glass at the
Scala Theatre in London.
Dare's career spanned over six decades. She died in 1975 at the age of 87, and her sister died only six weeks later.
Further Information
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