Queen's/Royal Victoria theatres actor and manager John Lazar first of the five Jewish mayors of Adelaide city

Actor and Adelaide mayor John Lazar developed the Royal Victoria Theatre in Gilles Arcade, Adelaide city, from the original Queen's Theatre, Adelaide city, opened in 1841.
Theatre image watercolour on paper by John Musgrave. Lazar image courtesy State Library of South Australia

John Lazar, who came to Adelaide as an actor and manager of the Queen’s Theatre in 1841, later became the city’s third mayor (1855-58) and the first of its five Jewish mayors.

Part of the small community that had a major impact on Adelaide, Lazar was followed as a Jewish Adelaide mayor by Judah Moss Solomon (1869-71), Lewis Cohen (1889-90, 1901-04, 1909-11, 1921-23), Isaac Isaacs (1915-17) and Henry Ninio (1993-97).

Lazar came to Adelaide via theatrical work in Sydney. With English stage experience, including Covent Garden and Drury Lane, Lazar and wife and seven children sailed for Sydney in 1836. An outbreak of typhus on the ship killed 100 of the passengers, including three of the Lazars' children. Lazar joined Levey’s Theatre Royal in Sydney, playing Shylock in 1837.

Lazar managed the Theatre Royal before moving to the Royal Victoria Theatre on Pitt Street, Sydney, as actor and stage manager. This is when he was engaged to play Othello in the opening play at the Queen’s Theatre in Gilles Arcade, Adelaide city, in 1841. Lazar took over managing Queen's Theatre but dismissed his actors and didn’t renew the lease after the theatre lost money.

After returning to managing theatres in Sydney, Lazar came back to Adelaide in 1848, enriched by South Australia copper discoveries at Burra and elsewhere. With George Coppin, who'd set up the New Queen's Theatre, Lazar remodelled the old Queen's Theatre next door in Gilles Arcade as the Royal Victoria Theatre. (In 1853, Lazar and Coppin built the 400-seat Port Theatre in Port Adelaide, next to Coppin's White Horse Cellar.)

The Royal Victoria Theatre period was the climax of Lazar’s theatrical career, with high popularity and praise as a comedian. After it closed, the theatre was later used as South Australia’s supreme court.

Lazar's involvement in the theatre lessened. He set up a jeweller and silversmit business in Hindley Street, Adelaide city, and became involved in civic affairs. He was elected Gawler Ward alderman on Adelaide city council in 1853, filling the vacancy left by Judah Moss Solomon. Lazar succeeded Thomas Wilson (1842-23), a solicitor also with an artistic background as a poet and expert on paintings and engravings, as Adelaide mayor in 1852.

Lazar was a founding member of the Adelaide Hebrew congregation. He sang “Kol Nideri” at its first Yom Kippur service in 1848.

In 1863, Lazar emigrated to New Zealand where he was appointed town clerk in Dunedin and Hokitiki and died there in 1879.