Venue(s):
Fifth Avenue Theatre (1867-73)
Status:
Published
Last Updated:
5 May 2017
“The taste for light metrical compositions, always to be found in a community like that of New York, fostered as it has been by the recent introduction of the French comic opera, is the real secret of success of the musical burlesque now on the boards of the Fifth Avenue Theatre. The author was keen enough to notice the similarity in many of the incidents of Ristori’s Elizabeth and Offenbach’s Duchess, and skillful enough to combine in ‘Ye Grand Queen Bess’ a droll burlesque of the one and a mirth-provoking travestie of the music and situations of the other. It is the hit of the hour. Leffingwell’s grotesque Elizabeth is all the more grotesque for what we have seen of Ristori’s, and the character has an admirable contrast in the diminutive daintiness of Mrs. Watkins’ Essex. This cosey [sic] little theatre can make one boast. Its handsome company of ladies, for their number, is not excelled on any other stage in town.”