Humpty Dumpty

Brief preview in item titled “Maggie Mitchell.” 

Last minute postponement of opening until Tuesday, 10 March.

“OLYMPIC THEATRE.—‘Humpty Dumpty,’ the new spectacular ballet pantomime, after four months of busy preparation and one night’s postponement, was successfully brought out at this theatre last night. The house was jammed from parquet to gallery, and everything connected with the performance passed off in the best possible manner. Long before the curtain rose the busy notes of preparation, the clatter of tongues and pounding of hammers could be heard issuing from behind the scenes, and this but served to raise the expectation of the unwashed, unterrified gods in the gallery, who gave vent to the high-wrought state of their feelings in shrill whistles, cat-calls and cries of ‘Ha! ha! hi! hi!’ which served to beguile the time, and evidently amused the more refined and aristocratic of the audience in the boxes and parquet. After some little delay the curtain was rung up, and from that time until the close of the entertainment the entire audience were held entranced with delight. The piece was a decided success, and is destined to hold the stage for some time. It abounds with wit and humor and contains many capital hits at the follies and questions of the day. It contains the elements for at least a half dozen pantomimes, and is produced in a liberal and magnificent manner. It was after eleven o’cleck before the performance terminated; but this was owing to a few unavoidable hitches, such as are incident to all new spectacular pieces. After it gets in perfect running order it is thought that the time will be shorter by one full hour. It needs toning down and pruning in several parts, and as the skating scene, for instance, has nothing whatever to do with the piece, it would be judicious to cut that flimsy part out entirely. We have had about enough skatying this winter. A sprightly operatic burlesque opening, or rather prologue, written by Mr. A. Oakley Hall, introduces and explains the pantomime, which latter is the production of Mr. George L. Fox, and which is founded upon the familiar old nursery rhyme wherein it is related that one

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall;

Not all the King’s horses, nor all the King’s men,

Could get Humpty Dumpty up again—

Which is the entire text of the argument but the minute development of the tale is due to the actor-author, who also devised the mechanical tricks incident to the piece. [list of cast], although including the twenty-seven ladies of the ballet, the auxiliary force is swelled to over sixty. Mlle. Rita Sangali and Mlle. Betty Rigi are the première danseuses and are ably assisted in their ‘light fantastic’ efforts by numerous other young and beautiful ladies of the fleet-footed corps de ballet. The acting was superb throughout; but our space precludes us from criticizing more fully. The piece is in one act and severnteen scenes, all of the most magnificent description. Pantomime is destined hereafter to become an institution with our Broadway theatre-goers.”

“The Olympic games have commenced. All the rosy gods of mirth presided at the theatre last night. ‘Humpty Dumpty’ was acted for the first time. The house was full in every part. On the stage almost everything was delightful, and in the audience everybody apparently was delighted. Under ordinary circumstances this would be the language of enthusiasm. Under the jovial circumstances that prevailed, it is the calm language of rational praise. To all lovers of fun ‘Humpty Dumpty’ furnishes a delicious treat. It is a new work—the author being Mr. George L. Fox, the Comedian—and, so far as a Pantomime can be original, that deals with the old familiar passages of that art, it is an original work. In a description necessarily rapid we can get but a faint idea of the extent, the character, the novelty, the mirth, the incidental physical beauty, and the scenic luster of the piece. ‘Humpty Dumpty’ introduces nearly 60 personages, beside a corps de ballet, and present 17 entirely new scenes. Caricatures by Mr. Thomas Nast, are included in some of the scenes and contribute to their comic effect. Other features of the Pantomime are, an original burlesque—opening; numerous entirely new tricks; a skating act (by Miss Carrie Moore and Mr. John Engler, jr.); new harlequin acts (by Mr. F. KLacy of London), and three ballet divertissements. The latter, of course, were greeted with loud applause. ‘’Tis just the fashion,’ Mlle. Sangalli and Mlle. Betty Rigi appeared in them, and fairly divided the applause of the house. Several new faces emerged among the miscellaneous dancers—Mlle. Laurent, Mlle. Leah, Mlle. Emilie Rigi, Miss Blake and Miss Whiting being the most conspicuous. Of this portion of the entertainment—which, of course, is designed to be entirely subservient to the pantomime—it may suffice to say that it has been efficiently and skillfully organized. M. Jambon, a new name here, is mentioned as the maitre de ballet. The dances, which were somewhat too numerous, were executed to new music—by A. Reiff, jr., who, all the season, has led the orchestra at this theater in a judicious and tasteful spirit. Among the novelties in the pantmime should also be mentioned a new and clever male dancer, M. Baptiisian. It were long to tell---and we will not essay to tell it now—what mazes of merriment were traversed by Mr. G. L. Fox as Clown (in which character he is facile princeps and altogether admirable), and Emilie Rigi as Columbine, Mr. C. K. Fox as Pantaloon, and Mr. Lacy as Harlequin. The pathway tio their adventures was, of course, the familiar one, whereon no grass ever grows, which leads from a tangled complication of young lovers’ fortunes, through a flowery and thorny vale of romance and mischief, to bliss and splendor, in a realm of fairy-like magnificence. But, while the well worn track was followed, many a gem of novel sport was found by the wayside. Local hits abounded. The true atmosphere of mirth brooded softly over all. And the pantmime was received with that best of all tributes of recognition, hearty and happy laughter. At the outset, indeed, the gallery portion of the audience was somewhat boisterous in its demonstrtions; but this turbulence soon died away, and after that the applause was indicative of genuine, ever varying, and continually increasing interest. A parody on the cancan dance, in the burlesque-opening, particularly, inspired it, and it became almost deafening when Mr. Fox made his comic entrance, driving a white donkey. Of this actor’s extraordinary play of comic expression, and of the delightful apparent unconsciousness with which he perpetrates all sorts of mischief, we have often, in time past, has occasion to speak. He was all himself, last night, and, accordingly, he saw before him a sea of laughter-lighted faces that must at once have inspired and rewarded him. It would be idle to attempt to recount his tricks. These will tell still more strongly, after a little, when the machuinery comes to work with unerring smoothness, and the ballet has been curtailed of its undue proportions. One of the best scenes, for pantmime trickery, was that of the billiard-room, terminating with a caged view of the ‘perfoming foxes.’ The candy-eating boy, who grew from little to more, like the poet in Hood’s ballad, created a great deal of merriment, and the skating carnival was cordially greeted. It will be seen that ‘Humpty Dumpty’ comprises a little of everything. Some slight confusion marred the regularity of the performance, toward its close; but due allowance can readily be made for a few mishaps on a first flight.The curtain fell about quarter past eleven, the immense audience remaining, amused and interested, to the last. Many a spectator, remembering the vanished mirth and splendor, must have responded most heartily to the aspiration of the playbill’s epilogue:

‘Virtue now hath won her crown;

 Ugly Vice been trampled down;

 Clown hath pranced, and jester played;

 Hero succored helpless maid;

 And we’ve seen the Fairies twine

 With Harlequin and Columbine,

 And all the violet sprites of May,

 In a round of revels gay.

 So our gladsome work is done;

 You have had your fill of fun;

 Mirth withdraws her magic spell,

 And all is well that endeth well!

 But though curtained out of sight,

 ‘Humpty Dumpty,’ fair and bright,

 Will be ahiled with quick delight,

 We trust, for many another night.’”

“The jolly reign of Prince Pantomime was suspiciously begun last night at the Olympic, when ‘Humpty Dumpty’ was performed for the first time to an audience as large as could find entrance, and representing all classes and ages. Even the Bowery where pantomime has long been naturalized, and where Fox is considered the greatest of men—was numerously represented in the gallery. Whether from the east or west side, from up or down town, however, all seemed to be in the mood to enjoy the peculiar humor of pantomime, and to drop for the time all consideration of the ‘degradation-of-the-drama’ question.

We tried a few days since to give some notion of what the new pantomime with the quaint and taking name would be, but, as we were aware at the time, with little success. After having seen it we experience a similar difficulty in giving an idea of what it was. The faint semblance of a plot merely serves to set those irresistibly funny pantomimists, the Fox brothers, assisted by Mr. F. Lacy and Mlle. Emilie Rigl, at their tricks. Once changed by magic from their original characters of the traditional Pantaloon, Clown, Harlequin and Columbine of English pantomime, there is no cessation of the antics and ridiculous performances of these irrepressible characters, until the ‘grand transformation scene’ completes the programme, and ends the performance in a burst of spectacular glory. The whole sixteen scenes are given without a single entr’acte, and introduce the active quartet in an immense variety of adventures and situations. 

The first scene reveals a rather substantial representative of Romance, and a lively, rattling, good-natures personator of Burlesque, who discuss all manner of matters, and call before them the representatives of all quarters of the world, America being a femaile with two infants, labelled Alaska and St. Thomas, respectively. From the high flown conversation of Romance and Birlesque (Miss Edmonds and Miss Alice Harrison) there is an abrupt change to a gay scene, whre a stage full of finely dressed and rather formal Haymakers are disporting themselves. Soon Tommy Tucker, Mr.Lacy, a gentle and loving youth and Little Goody Two Shoes, Mlle. Emelia Rigl, make their appearance, and begin making love simultaneously, in which they are neither helped nor hindered by the comic awkwardness of Old One Two Buckle My Shoe, and of Humpty Dumpty, the Fox brothers, whose arrival on the stage is the signal for the real beginning of fun of the piece. 

The appearance of the two latter as they come in with their little white donkey and cart; the upsets they get; the alacrity of Humpty Dumpty in devising and executing his practical jokes; the pretty coquetry of Little Goody Two Shoe; the magical beer glasses; the adventure of Humpty Dumpty in the pig pen, and a score of other features of the second scene, ending with the transformation of the four characters, are too much for description.The third scene introduces the ballet, which is in such strength as to almost overshadow the pantomime. Mlle. Rita Sangali, who used to divide the first honors of the ‘Black Crook’ with Bonfanti, is warmly welcomed back to New York, and is supported by a small but very good ballet. They dance finely, but too long, nd the pantomime goes on with new features. A scene at a country inn ends with a funny transformation of the house front into a huge tea-kettle spouting firs, and another introduces a remarkable specimen of one of Mr. Bergh’s pets acting as a sign of turtle soup in front of a Broadway restaurant, who finally walks away.

Then there is more ballet dancing, in which Mlle. Betty Rigl, another of the iold ‘Black Crook’ favorites, takes the lead, as graceful and winning as ever. Next the familiar front of the Olympic is presented, and afterward a most amusing scene in a German billiard saloon, where the magic of the ever-present and mischievous Pantaloon bewitches the balls and finally turns the table into a barred cage from which the imprisoned Foxes look out astonished and wistful. In the ninth scene a small candy boy with a portentous head acquires a marvelous growth every time he is pitched through a window by the Clown, until finally he gets big enough to assert his rights and drive away the whole party.

Then ought to follow, according to the programme, a skating scene, which actually came in some time subsequently, and in which Miss Carrie Moore and John Engler, Jr., do all that any reasonable human being  could be asked to do on skates, under the circumstances, while a score of others fill up the background and make it lively. The other scenes and the Polish national dance need no especial reference. The view of City Hall Park, with the billboard in the foreground and the New Court House in the rear, is one of the best local hits in the piece, particularly the poster which informs us definitely that this imposing structure will be finished in 1960, at a cost of $100,000,000. 

The final and transformation scene did not work well last night, but was both artistic and original, the opening of gigantic fern leaves gradually disclosing the beauties of female forms arranged in striking tableaux, and a rich effect of light on the silvery gauze. The performance went through with remarkable smoothness for a first night, and seemed to give continuous satisfaction. Mr. George L. Fox alone, with his wonderfully simple, stolid, mischievous face, could sustain the interest of an audience, but with the efficientnhelp of his brother, of Mr. Lacy, who is an exceedingly light, active and graceful Pantoloon, and of the always attractive Mlle. Rigl, the pantomime was made full of humor. There was too much ballet, although the dancing was excellent. Mere posturing, which takes so much time, should be omitted, and nothing but active dancing retained. The music, an important feature of a pantomime performance, was not what it should have been, by a good deal. With the present enterprising management of the Olympic, however, we are confident that all faults will soon be remedied, especially as the new piece is certain of a long and remunerative run.”

A very long review, with details similar to those in the Tribune and Post. On the pantomimists relationship to the music: “. . . who do all this to music in the Olympic pantomime, and are not a finger’s turn behind the last note of the violin when they are through.”

On the ballet: “. . . and many gayer scenes, among them a skating pond and an enchanted garden, where the ballets of the piece, which are full of grace, are introduced. In the latter Mlle Sangali [sic, throughout] met with a most cordial reception, and was assisted by Mlles. Laurent, Whiting and Schell. Miss Betty Rigl made her reappearance on the New-York stage in the second ballet. Miss Rigl has much improved upon her performances at Niblo’s, and combines a little cluster of graces in her own person. Mlle. Sangali also has learned to add precision to ease and firmness of movement to the utmost harmony of form. Each of these ladies were honored with recalls and received showers of boquets [sic]. There is, nevertheless, just a trifle too much dancing in the piece, and the pantomimic action, which should be all touch and go, is made to wait. . . .”

"Anyone disposed for a rare fox-hunt, may shout ‘Yoicks!’ and scamper across the streets, to the Olympic Theatre, where they will unearth the game. Here there are a couple of Foxes whom no one has been able to catch up to yet, in their peculiar line—and that is the dumb eloquence of pantomime. ‘Humpty Dumpty’ has apparently taken the lead for a long and prosperous career, and that amusing spectacle will afford the town and country an opportunity of seeing the only good American pantomimists in their merriest production. There is a shining merit in Mr. George Fox's performance of clown, which is scarcely to be praised too much. It is impossible to discover in his imperturbable face any clue to another existence save that of pantomime. You may read distinctly in the face of a country Richard III., the mournfulinformation that his rent is overdue and his beer stopped, but never since the public first learned to grin at the pranks of Mr. Fox's Clown was it possible to find an expression upon his face except the very lively one needed for the scene. The attractiveness of the new Olympic pantomime, nevertheless, is not confined to performances of these Foxes only. The whole entertainment, which is now divided into two acts—beginning with its witty introductory in song and verse—overflows with incentives to laughter and provocations of enthusiasm, that follow without lagging through the seventeen scenes that comprise the piece. An amusing incident is that of the boy who loves candy and who grows as he eats; another, as the new bottle trick, in which from the cork of one bottle come a dozen other bottles. The transformation of a bed and piano into each other, and of a billiard-table into a cage of performing foxes, are to be named among the cleverest and most unexpected changes. The ballets have assumed a livelier tone from frequent rehearsal, and the dances, in which Mlles. Rigl and Sangali [sic] and Mons. Baptistan lead, are greatly relished. Mlle. Leah, a new dancer, will take part in this portion of the entertainment to-night. The skating dances, in a carnival on the ice, which forms one of the episodes of the pantomime, develop a deal of expertness for that sort of thing in Miss Carrie Moore, who rejoices in the starry title of ‘Skatorial Queen,’ and Mr. John Engler, who enters upon the scene loaded with medals, which suggest, as the medals, which suggest, as the medals upon our veteran soldiers do, bruises and contusions on the slippery field. The music tto which the action of the pantomime proceeds and the feet of the dancers move, has been selected with the utmost taste, and even with a witty appreciation of the ludicrous, by Mr. Reiff. In this respect nothing could be more apt than the introduction of ‘Champagne Charlie’ during the disappearances and surprising recovery ofof the champagne bottles in the eighth scene.”

“The musical parodies, dances, etc., are freely interspersed; many airs from the ‘Grand Duchesse’ are given, blended with the popular ditties of comic and serio-comic singers. . . . Some of the melodies, it is true, are better suited to the concert room than the stage, but then they were sung in the pleasantest style.”