Lancashire Lass

Event Information

Venue(s):
Wallack's Theatre

Proprietor / Lessee:
Lester Wallack

Manager / Director:
Lester Wallack

Event Type:
Play With Music

Record Information

Status:
Published

Last Updated:
3 February 2019

Performance Date(s) and Time(s)

26 Oct 1868, 8:00 PM
27 Oct 1868, 8:00 PM
28 Oct 1868, 8:00 PM
29 Oct 1868, 8:00 PM
30 Oct 1868, 8:00 PM
31 Oct 1868, 8:00 PM

Performers and/or Works Performed

Citations

1)
Announcement: New York Sun, 19 October 1868, 2.
2)
Announcement: New York Post, 22 October 1868, 2.
3)
Advertisement: New-York Times, 23 October 1868, 4.
4)
Advertisement: New York Herald, 24 October 1868.
5)
Announcement: New York Post, 26 October 1868, 2.
6)
Announcement: New York Sun, 26 October 1868, 2.
7)
Announcement: New-York Times, 26 October 1868, 5.

“Theatrical: Wallack’s Theatre: Mr. H. J. Byron’s new drama, entitled The Lancashire Lass will be produced here to-night for the first time in America. The piece is still enjoying success in London. It has, of course, been prepared in the most careful manner by Mr. Lester Wallack, and the cast includes most of the leading members of the company.”

8)
Review: New York Post, 27 October 1868, 8.

No mention of music.

9)
Announcement: New-York Times, 27 October 1868, 5.
10)
Review: New-York Daily Tribune, 27 October 1868, 8.

No mention of music.

11)
Announcement: New York Clipper, 31 October 1868, 238.
12)
Announcement: New-York Times, 31 October 1868, 4.
13)
Review: New-York Daily Tribune, 31 October 1868, 2.

No mention of music.

14)
Review: New-York Times, 02 November 1868, 5.

The Lancashire Lass has been played for a week and may now safely be recorded as a success. This result is due in some measure to the skilled pruning bestowed on the work by the management, but more, we fancy, to the good humor provoked by Mr. J. W. Wallack in the character of A party by the name of Johnson, and to a general tidiness of effect in the way of production. Intrinsically, Mr. Byron’s piece is worthless. There is little invention in the plot, and no imagination in the dialogue. There are, however, two surprises which command the attention of the audience and there; are characters enough to insure a large interest in any good company playing them. The first of these surprises is when the Lancashire Lass writes an exceedingly indiscreet letter announcing to an adventurer her intention of running away with him. This impossible missive (for no lass in the world, and least of all a Lancashire lass, would think of compromising herself in such-wise) falls into the hand of her betrothed after passing stormily through the hands of her father. The intended is of course overwhelmed, and the parent is uncontrollable in his indignation on the subject of his chey-ild. Being conveyed in a particular dialect, the paroxysms of the latter are additionally harrowing, and it is due to Mr. Browne to say that there was not a physical writhe or a mental anguish which he did not accurately and liberally display. That the gentleman should die before the opening of the next act was not at all remarkable, or, for that matter, to be deplored. He had no reason whatsoever to ‘go on’ in the way he did, for, after all, he did not hear the contents of the letter. The surprise to which we have referred consists in the fact that Ned Clayton does not read the letter in his hand, but pretending to do so, composes a totally different one on the spot, which magnanimously and completely exonerates Ruth. The other surprise is shorter and quicker. It is when Robert Redburn is shot down by an unseen hand, and a grateful community demands to know who is the valued assassin. Mr. Wallack, who has been carefully and even elaborately drowned in a preceeding act, hereupon turns up again and says, ‘A party by the name of Johnson.’

The piece will not bear analysis. The motives are inadequate, the language is inconsequential, and the situations have evidently been planned before anything else. It is one the latter, therefore, that the Lancashire Lass depends. There is a pier scene which opens with a prospect of suicide and ends with a suspicion of murder. It is effective and contributes naturally to the success of the drama. The Australian sheep farm is also good, but we did not suspect that Australia was a mountainous country.

There was a dry quaintness about Mr. J. W. Wallack’s performance which was in the highest degree amusing. The part could not be entrusted to better hands. The drunken scene in the third act has, we are glad to notice, been curtailed. It was superfluously long, even as a preparation for the pier scene. Mr. Charles Fisher as Robert Redburn, a wild adventurer in the first act and a notorious felon in the last was acceptable in the gentlemanly portions of the text but was conventional in the melo-drama. Mr. J. H. Polk, whose morose voice and sullen bearing are a positive drawback to every piece in which they are heard or seen, spoilt the first surprise, to which we have already referred. With the advantage of a situation so striking, it yet requires an actor to impart to it the full force. To snivel over the letter as though it were a penny valentine with four lines of doggerel at the bottom is not art. By far the best sustained minor character was that of Mr. Danville, played by Mr. C. H. Rockwell—a rising, careful, and studious artist. Miss Rose Eytinge as Ruth, the Lancashire Lass, has positively nothing whatever to do to save to look pretty and have a wrestle with Robert in the last act. Everyone knows that she is more than equal to these emergencies. Mrs. Clara Jennings as Kate Garston was tuned in the wrong key. It is not in the lady’s nature to look spiteful and demented, conditions which are required by the author. Mrs. Jennings is gentle and elegant, and we are not sorry that she cannot throw off these characteristics. There were moments, however, which revealed an earnest and well-intentioned purpose. Mrs. Sedley Brown in the small part of Fanny was good, but acted too much to the audience.

The play has been most excellently put on the stage.”

15)
Review: New York Clipper, 07 November 1868, 246.

Includes plot synopsis; no mention of music.