Born in
Rotterdam in
The Netherlands, he was educated at
Osnabrück and in
Paris. Laurillard moved to London, England as a young man. He was married and divorced twice.
Early career In 1894, Laurillard became manager of
Terry's Theatre, producing
King Kodak, and his first big success was
The Gay Parisienne at the
Duke of York's Theatre, which introduced the hit song "Sister Mary Jane's Top Note." Other early productions included
My Old Dutch and
Oh! Susannah, after which he toured the United States. During the First World War he became manager of the
New Gallery Cinema in Regent Street and built a group of 25 cinemas. He screened
Herbert Beerbohm Tree's film of
Henry VIII, one of the first films of a big stage production. He then moved to the
Gaiety Theatre in London in 1915. At the
Prince of Wales Theatre, Grossmith and Laurillard had successes with
Mr Manhattan (1916) and
Yes, Uncle! (1917). At the Gaiety Theatre, Laurillard's biggest hit was
Theodore & Co (1916). At that theatre, he later produced two shows in 1921:
Faust on Toast, a burlesque starring
Jack Buchanan, and
Maurice Maeterlinck's play
The Betrothal, featuring
Bobbie Andrews and
Gladys Cooper, with incidental music by
Cecil Armstrong Gibbs and costumes by
Charles Ricketts.
Later years Grossmith and Laurillard leased the
Shaftesbury Theatre to produce several shows from 1917 to 1921. These included
Arlette (1917),
Baby Bunting by
Fred Thompson and Worton David (1919),
The Great Lover, by Leo Ditrichstein, Frederic Hatton, and Fanny Hatton (1920), and
Out to Win, by Roland Pertwee and Dion Clayton Calthrop (1921). At the
Alhambra Theatre, they produced
Oscar Asche and
Dornford Yates's conception of
Eastward Ho! in 1919. The partners also purchased the
Winter Garden Theatre in 1919, where they produced
Kissing Time (1919, with a book by
P. G. Wodehouse and
Guy Bolton and music by
Ivan Caryll) and
A Night Out (1920). After this, Grossmith and Laurillard terminated their partnership. Other shows that Laurillard produced in the 1920s included
The Naughty Princess, with a book by
John Hastings Turner, lyrics by
Adrian Ross, and music by
Charles Cuvillier at the
Adelphi Theatre (1920), ''Don 'Q'
, with words by Hesketh Hesketh-Prichard with and music by Charles Essen (1921), The Smith Family
at the Empire Theatre in 1922 and The Butter and Egg Man'' at the
Garrick Theatre in 1927. Laurillard also brought to London
Ralph Benatzky's
My Sister and I (
Meine Schwester und ich aka
Meet My Sister) in 1931. In his last years, he moved to New York and also spent some time in
Hollywood. ==Notes==