Field of the Cloth of Gold

“This cozy little theatre was last evening filled with an unusually select and brilliant audience. Those charming popular favorites, the Worrell Sisters, whose wonderful versatility, combined with the rarest and most attractive piquancy of manner, have so firmly established them in general estimation, appeared in the burlesque the ‘Field of the Cloth of Gold,’ which has met with such famous success in the English capital. Of course, through a brilliant stroke of genius, the burlesque was localized to give special pertinency to the pungent local witticisms with which it abounds. The original music and all the rich features of the extravaganza were, however, faithfully preserved—enough of itself to make it, as it has proved itself, one of the most successful burlesques by this class now on the stage. An added element of sure success was the appearance in the leading parts of the sisters, the Misses Sophie and Jennie Worrell, and it was a most complete success accordingly. The piece is a perfect carnival of fun and frolic, the music a series of the most mirth-provoking extravaganzas possible to imagine the situations from first to last the most grotesquely laughable and and [sic] the jokes, endowed with those rare features of stage wit, original and spicy. The sisters Sophie and Jennie, par nobile sororum, never appeared to more advantage. They were both in excellent voice and sang the special gems of music, the solos and duets in which they separately and jointly appeared with all their accustomed vivacity. Everybody knows the plot of the original piece and the characters in the grand tournament of knights, the chief incident on which hangs the leading interest in the piece. Imagine Coney Island the place of meeting instead of la belle France and Earl Darnley as Miss Sophie Worrell, Mr. Morton as King Henry VIII,. Mr. Lingard as Francis I. of France, Mr. Rendle as Sir Guy, the Cripple, Mrs. Wright the right woman in the right place as Queen Katherine, Miss Stewart as Lady Constance de Guy, Gilmore as Rose de la Tour, shift to the Elysian Fields and other places of local note, introduce a forest, a grand audience chamber and the grand arena for the royal tournament, and the shifting scenes of the drama pass in pleasingly bewildering succession. Fill up those scenes with the most entrancing of music, the most telling local hits, ‘shooting folly as it flies,’ the dancing and the acting, and the whole keeping the audience in a continuous roar of laughter, and the skeleton is filled up. Of course, the meshes of love, woven with subtle delicacy to give interest to the plot, show themselves in each successive scene. And then there are the court scenes, and royal retinues marching to and fro, and villains plotting, and serenades, and drinking toasts, and beating of drums and bugles blasting an exhibition of the fistic art as practiced within the roped arena, and finally the grand tournament, the concluding and most animated scene of the play. Infuse into all tins unceasing mirth of burlesque utterances and songs and acting and the play is ouitlined. The burlesque, altogether, was a splendid success The piece is handsomely mounted and promises a brilliant run.”

Brief; no mention of music.

“The WORRELL SISTERS produced at this house, last night, a new extravaganza entitled, ‘The Field of the Cloth of Gold,’ in which the usual lively concomitants of the model English burlesque have place. Various imitations from OFFENBACH are introduced to assist the piece, and these seemed to be thoroughly appreciated last evening at their proper value. The dresses of the Misses WORRELL were quite brilliant.”

Includes listing of cast.

“THE WORRELL SISTERS produced at their theatre on the 4 th inst., Brougham’s burlesque of ‘Field of the Cloth of Gold,’ rewritten by Charles Webb expressly for the ladies. Abounding with comic and well executed dances, songs, duets, and choruses of every conceivable shade of absurdity, and most ingeniously divined stage business, carefully acted throughout, it achieved at its first production a success unequalled by any burlesque yet presented at this establishment. It is burlesque in every sense of the word, being full of humorous business, many dances, and choruses set to popular tunes. It went off the first night remarkably well, bursts of laughter attending it throughout; every song was cheered and every dance encored from two to three times. In the third scene the entire company indulge in a walk around and Jennie Worrell has an opportunity to do her clog dance, which was encored five times. In this same scene C. Minton and George Lingard did the gen d’armes from ‘Genevieve De Brabant’ and were compelled to repeat it four times. Minton made up and acted for Gabel very well. Sophie was a spritely Earl Darnley, agile and full of dash. She was habited in a splendid costume. Jennie also looked captivating as the Duke of Suffolk. The Burlesque was capitally rendered in every particular and has made a most palpasble hit. The attendance on the opening night, which was only fair, increased with each successive performance, and by the the close of the week the house was full.”