Theatre Comique

“Lingard, the comic genius from London, has proved the greatest card of the season at the Theatre Comique, and it is difficult to find seats there after the doors are opened in the evening.”

“His entertainment comprises two parts, the first being called Comic Sketches, and the second a Statue song, and embodies fifteen individual impersonations and vocal illustrations, with an extraordinary variety of dialects and personal peculiarities displayed in instantaneous changes of voice, look, manner and costume. From first to last his performance is a surprise, alike from the number of characters he represents, and rapidity of change, so that it would seem as if a dozen persons were engaged in doing what he alone effected by his skill and ingenuity. It would seem that he possesses in his own person, accomplishments, abilities and availabilities of a whole dramatic company. He disappears for a moment from the stage, and straightway a London swell, with song of ‘Bitter Beer;’ a hen-pecked husband, who is made a teetotaler against his will; an individual who has become full after his dinner, and attempts to make a speech; a London garroter with a lament, a Jew peddler; with the song of old hats, un unlucky tradesman, in which he makes many puns upon different trades, and a young lady at the seaside, with the song of ‘On the Beach at Long Branch,’ step forth to illustrate the point by their actual presence on the scene, appearing in quick succession, each part being represented with an appropriateness of accent, gesture and action which makes the spectator loth to believe that a single gentleman is after all, the sole performer. Nothing is strained or overacted. The delineations are marked by intelligence throughout, and, in some cases there are refined touches which belong to the highest class of comedy acting, while his talent for mimicry and power of adaptation, nay, of identification of character, are wonderful. His representation, both in make-up and acting, of a young lady at the sea side, is one of the best things of the kind we have ever witnessed, and is alone worth seeing, and sufficient to make him an attractive card. This concludes the first part of his entertainment, and has been hailed with great enthusiasm each evening. His second part, called the ‘Statue Song,’ consists of singing one verse of a song relative to some particular person, and he then appears in a most capital make-up for that personage, as follows: Fabian in the duel scene in the ‘Corsican Brothers,’ King Theodore, Sir Robert Napier, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, Andrew Johnson, General Grant, and George Washington—eight in all. The quick changes from one to the other, and the truthful likenesses to each, were really wonderful, the most successful of which was Andy Johnson, which created roars of laughter and three hearty cheers. In fact, after he had made the change and re-appeared, the applause was so great that he was obliged to disrobe himself of the brass button coat of Grant and re-appear as Andy Johnson. Taken altogether, Mr. Lingard has met with one of the heartiest receptions that has greeted any performer from across the water for some time.”