The Cutthroat

Gophers — West Side gangsters.

Adolph Klauber — New York Times drama critic.

Mrs. Shine — Proprietress of Mrs. Shine’s Boarding House for Actors, Anna Waterbury’s landlady.

Heather and Lou — Dancers residing at Mrs. Shine’s.

DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE COMPANY

Jackson Barrett — Actor-impresario, matinee idol, and writer who trades the title roles of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in his modernized version of the melodrama based on the Robert Louis Stevenson novella.

John Buchanan — Actor-impresario, matinee idol, and the business brains of the Barrett & Buchanan Theater Company, trades Jekyll and Hyde title roles with Jackson Barrett, his near twin.

Isabella Cook — “Great and Beloved” leading-lady Broadway actress, plays beautiful heiress Gabriella Utterson.

Henry Booker Young — Barrett & Buchanan’s long-serving, long-suffering stage manager.

The publicist

Jeff and Joe Deaver — Wealthy brothers, “angels” who invest in Broadway shows.

Miss Gold — General businesswoman-actress, ticket shill.

Rick L. Cox — Playwright, embittered ghostwriter.

ALIAS JIMMY VALENTINE COMPANY

Mr. Vietor — Star.

Douglas Lockwood — Plays Detective Doyle.

Lucy Balant — General businesswoman-actress, Anna Waterbury’s roommate in Mrs. Shine’s Boarding House for Actors.

Ned Stewart — Head carpenter.

Stage Manager

ENGLAND

Joel Wallace — Chief of Van Dorn London field office.

Scotland Yard inspector

Scotland Yard detectives and constables — Active and retired.

Nigel Roberts — Retired Scotland Yard detective, curator of the British Lock Museum.

Davy Collins — Tonsorial practitioner with barbershop in Whitechapel.

Wayne Barlowe — London newspaper illustrator and artist.

London Emily — Manchester laudanum addict, crucial witness.

Lord Strone — British Military Intelligence, Secret Service Bureau.

Abbington-Westlake — British Admiralty, Naval Intelligence, Foreign Division.

Reginald — Espionage shadow.

James Mapes — Actor, Garrick Club member.

Granger — Cruel critic.

Dolly — West End chorus girl, Detective Joel Wallace’s new friend.

Dolly’s mother — Former dancer in Tra-la-la Tosca.

MOVIE MAKERS

Marion Morgan Bell — Isaac Bell’s bride of one year, his beloved confidante, well-known filmmaker.

Mrs. Rennegal — Rough-and-ready Cooper Hewitt lighting designer and operator.

Mr. Davidson — Camera operator.

Kellan — Davidson’s assistant.

Mr. Blitzer — Camera operator.

WALK-ONS

Medick — Actor-impresario, owned previous tour of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Rufus S. Oppenheim — Theatrical Syndicate boss, Isabella Cook’s husband.

Preston Whiteway — San Francisco newspaper publisher and Marion Morgan Bell’s boss for Picture World News Reels.

Kux — Isaac Bell’s taciturn private car conductor.

Uncle Andy Rubenoff — Wall Street banker gone to Hollywood.

Hazel Bradford — “Billboard in the sky” airplane pilot.

Jimmy Richards, Marvyn Gordon, and Molly — Staten Island wharf rats.

Coroners, assistant coroners, stage door tenders, theater callboys, stagehands, newspapermen and — women, company cops, locomotive engineer and fireman, apprentice Van Dorn detectives

THE INNOCENTS

Anna Genevieve Pape — Stagestruck eighteen-year-old who ran away from home to be an actress. Stage name: Anna Waterbury.

William Lathrop Pape — Anna’s father, a Waterbury industrialist.

Lillian Lent — Boston prostitute.

Mary Beth Winthrop — Springfield, Massachusetts, Christ Church choir soprano.

Beatrice Edmond — Cincinnati continuous vaudeville dancer.

Countless women — Actresses, girls of the street, factory workers, Western dance hall girls, a doctor’s wife, a banker’s wife, a librarian, and others.

PROLOGUE

NEW YORK, AUTUMN 1910

“Medick is dead!”

Jackson Barrett crashed through John Buchanan’s dressing room door, waving the Cognac bottle they kept for opening nights and bankable reviews.

Buchanan was blacking his face for tonight’s Othello—his Moor, opposite Barrett’s Iago. He tossed his greasepaint stick with a jubilant, “Best news we’ve had in a year!”