Sullivan and Tennyson had worked together before, on a song cycle for
tenor,
The Window, written and composed in 1867–68, but not published until 1871. Sullivan and Tennyson did not find working together on
The Window congenial and did not attempt work together again for over twenty years. Meanwhile, Tennyson had written a play,
The Cup, that was produced with success by
Henry Irving at the
Lyceum Theatre in 1881. Encouraged by this, Tennyson started work on a play based on the
Robin Hood legend, completing it after a visit to
Sherwood Forest in October 1881. But Irving rejected the play on the grounds that it was not dramatic enough for his audiences at the Lyceum, who were accustomed to his sensational productions. Tennyson turned to other projects, setting
The Foresters aside for several years. In 1888, American actress
Mary Anderson decided to produce
The Cup. Tennyson suggested that she also produce
The Foresters, but again the play was set aside. In 1891, however, Anderson's brother, Joseph wrote to the American impresario
Augustin Daly recommending that
The Foresters would be a good project for him and his star actress
Ada Rehan. Daly was enthusiastic about the play and, by September 1891, agreed to arrange a New York production. By then, Tennyson was 82 years old. The text, consisting of a mixture of
blank verse and
prose, contained songs and dances which Daly, at Tennyson's suggestion, approached Sullivan to compose. Daly made numerous changes to Tennyson's text, cutting dialogue, moving events from one act to another, and reassigning songs and dialogue to different characters. Henry Widmer, Daly's musical assistant, may have contributed some music to the score. Sullivan completed the score by December 1891, and the play opened in New York on 17 March 1892. The piece starred Rehan as Marian and
John Drew Jr. as Robin. It was a hit and was then played in seven other major American cities, becoming Tennyson's greatest theatrical success. A single performance of the play was given at the
Lyceum Theatre in London on the same day as the first New York performance to secure the British copyright. The
Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, for example, wrote that the songs were "set with rare taste, discrimination and melody by Sir Arthur Sullivan, whose delightful music gives charm and interest".
Arthur Jacobs called the piece "perhaps the oddest of all the stage works which [Sullivan] was invited to undertake." Percy Young scoffed, "Devoid of any kind of merit whatsoever." But some of them did not warmly review Sullivan's score either: "One of Sullivan's lamest... resourceless in magic" (Young); ==Roles and original cast==