Under the Gaslight

Event Information

Venue(s):
New-York Theatre (1866-69)

Manager / Director:
Benjamin A. Baker

Event Type:
Play With Music

Record Information

Status:
Published

Last Updated:
10 May 2016

Performance Date(s) and Time(s)

12 Aug 1867, Evening
13 Aug 1867, Evening
14 Aug 1867, Evening
15 Aug 1867, Evening
16 Aug 1867, Evening
17 Aug 1867, Evening
17 Aug 1867, 2:00 PM

Program Details

Scenery by J. S. Schell, Farren, and Seavy; mechanical effects by John Denham.

Performers and/or Works Performed

2)
Composer(s): Tissington

Citations

1)
Advertisement: New York Herald, 11 August 1867, 3.

Complete cast given.

2)
Advertisement: New York Sun, 11 August 1867.

“…new songs, dances and music.”

3)
Advertisement: New-York Times, 11 August 1867, 7.

Act 1 “Betrothed and Discarded”

Sc. 1: The house of the Cortlands on the avenue. The story of a New Year’s Night

Sc. 2: The hatroom of the Tuesday Sociable. The tell tale letters.

Sc. 3: Delmonico’s ballroom. The beautiful wolves of society.

            Act 2 “Where the Poor Live”

Sc 1: A basement in Rivington Street. A new phase of paternal love. The sad life of a beautiful daughter.

            Act 3: “The Last Hope of the Outcast”

Sc. 1: The Tombs Police Court. A morning with Judge Bowling. Justice for everybody.

Sc. 2: Exterior of the Tombs. The most agreeable view of it.

Sc. 3: The piers of the city and Hudson river by starlight. How the lost tribes spend their evenings.

            Act 4: “The Iron Pillow”

Sc. 1: A train at Long Branch. The lessons which the sad heart taught the weak one.

Sc. 2: The hedge near [illeg] The latest fashionable arrivals at a popular watering hole.

Sc. 3: The station shed by Shrewsbury Bend. The Down express train.

            Act 5: “Dreaming and Waking”

Sc. 1: Pearl’s boudoir at Long Branch. How a beauty went to sleep and how the dawn came for a fugitive.

4)
Announcement: New-York Times, 12 August 1867, 5.
5)
Review: New-York Times, 13 August 1867, 5.

“…and the machinery by Denham, and music by Tissington, were elaborate and very effective.” 

6)
Review: New-York Daily Tribune, 14 August 1867, 4.

No mention of music.

7)
Review: New York Herald, 15 August 1867.

Long review with plot summary and just one reference to music: “The long lost daughter . . . [is] ferried across in a small boat and placed forever beyond the reach of pursuit. Why the ordinary ferry boats should not have been taken advantage of, and why a descent upon Jersey City (except on the well known theory that Jersey is out of the Union) should be supposed to baffle all inquiry is not explained. We can only suppose that this mode of locomotion is chosen for superior scenic effect, for certainly the appearance on the end of the pier, of a squad of newsboys who sleep under the pier, and who dance a gig in a manner that ought to commend them to Tony Pastor’s notice, and the passing and repassing of the ferryboats (albeit the latter might be objected to as somewhat spasmodic), made the scene an effective one, and it was enthusiastically recalled. . . .”

8)
Announcement: New York Clipper, 17 August 1867, 150, 2d col., middle.
9)
Review: New York Clipper, 17 August 1867, 150, 3d col., middle.

“’Nobody’s Daughter’ had to be withdrawn from the boards of the New York Theatre in the very height of its popularity, as it was attracting crowded houses every night, and we doubt if any other piece will do as well during the warm nights.  Owing to previous arrangements another author had two weeks’ time, commencing Aug. 12th, so ‘Nobody’s Daughter’ has been transferred to the boards of Banvard’s Museum, where it will be given all this week (of Aug. 12) with Kate Reignolds in her original character.”

10)
Review: New York Clipper, 24 August 1867, 154, 2d col., top.

“[T]he curtain fell on very slight applause, and the success gained was not of that kind on which either the author, the actor, or the managers can be congratulated.”  No mention of music.