Robert Ayres Barnet (September 3, 1853New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-19571900 United States Federal Census – June 26, 1933) was an American musical theatre lyricist from New York City,Massachusetts, Marriage Records, 1840-1915 active in New York and Boston in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He is most remembered for his collaborations with the Boston Men's Army Cadets.
Career Barnet wrote lyrics for 1492 and Excelsior, Jr. Collaborators included Robert Melville Baker, George Whitefield Chadwick, Edward Warren Corliss, Louis F. Gottschalk, Harry Lawson Heartz, David Kilburn Stevens, Lewis Sabin Thompson, and George Lowell Tracy. He belonged to the Boston Cadets, and contributed to the group's amateur theatricals. For example, his Jack and the Beanstock premiered in 1896 at Boston's Tremont Theatre. It was performed by the "Boston Cadets, who always present Barnet's pieces before they are staged professionally. The new piece is ... a fairy Mother Goose burlesque. The music is by A.B. Sloane. ... Augustus Pitou, Klaw & Erlanger, E.E. Rice, and other prominent gentlemen" attended. The female impersonator Julian Eltinge appeared in the early shows. Barnet died in New York in 1933.
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Further reading
Ford, John-Peter Springer, "GEORGE WHITEFIELD CHADWICK AND ROBERT AYRES BARNET’S TABASCO" (2022). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 2216. https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/2216
Zukerman, Robert S. “Robert Ayres Barnet: American Playwright and Lyricist.” PhD dissertation, The City University of New York, 1981.
External links New York Public Library I love you Evaline, words by R.A. Barnet; music by Geo. L. Tracy; from Excelsior Jr. (Boston: Bates & Bendix, 1895) O lovely home, libretto by R.A. Barnet; music by G.W. Chadwick; from Tabasco, 1894