White Fawn

“The piece produced with everything new and after a preparation of many months at a cost of one hundred thousand dollars.” 

“Triumphant success, Houses completely crowded.”

"Houses completely crowded."

“[T]he Spectacular Fairy Extravaganza of the White Fawn has been copyrighted, and that the mechanical effects and scenery have been patented. Any persons using the title or any coloragble imitation of the play, or its effects, will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

“In New York it draws like a house on fire. It is the public fancy and the public pour their money into Wheatley’s treasury as they did into that of the Sanitary Commission during the war, because they like it.”

Very brief. “‘The White Fawn’ attracts large audiences to Niblo’s every evening, and the matinee performances are crowded . . . . It has been considerably cut since its first representation, and works now very smoothly.” 

“Things theatrical are a trifle weak . . . Even the naked drama has lost a portion of its charms, for the public look upon the ‘Fawn’ as a continuation of the ‘Crook,’ they see nothing fresh in the new production; the legs are the same that they have gazed on hundreds of times ere the ‘Crook’ began to grow stale—legs whose proportions in their earlier stages carried all before them, but hashed up now lose all their charms. The skirts may be curtailed, the waists cut down to the lowest notch, but, though all may be nude, nothing is new.”

One of multiple entires in the NYC on this day related to Niblo’s and The White Fawn. “The ‘White Fawn’ is attracting large audiences to Niblo’s, but not such crowds as attended the early representations of the ‘Black Crook.’ Nevertheless, Manager Wheatley will not complain if business continues even as good as it has been. When the ‘Crook’ was first produced, it introduced novelties such as had not been seen in this country for many years. Furthermore, the public had been satisfied with heavy tragedies, becides [sic] old [illeg.] out pieces, and the hungry public craved something new. The regular theatre-goers commenced to give the legitimate a cold shoulder, and bestowed their patronage upon the music halls, where they could witness a variety of performances, soliciting that was spicy and highly flavored at that.” Remainder of article about production of Black Crook.

Includes some history about the gensis of The White Fawn to start. “In the first place some of the dances have been omitted, also several of the very badly-sung songs, besides the pantomime and other business. Mrs. Mark Smith played the role of Finetia [sic] (previously enacted by Lizzie Wilmore) the night we were present the past week, and the song of ‘I Love the Military,’ so well rendered by Miss Wilmore was omitted. The music composed for this piece by Mr. Mollenhauer, (which we have heretofore neglected to mention,) is no more suitable for a spectacular piece than it is for a funeral dirge.”