Venue(s):
Theatre Comique [1867- : 514 Broadway]
Proprietor / Lessee:
Robert W. [manager] Butler
E. G. [manager] Gilmore
Manager / Director:
Robert W. [manager] Butler
E. G. [manager] Gilmore
Event Type:
Variety / Vaudeville
Status:
Published
Last Updated:
1 January 2023
“At the Theatre Comique, during the past week, Billy Burgess, a pupil of Cool Burgess, appeared in Ethiopian eccentricities of the style that has made his tutor’s name celebrated. He evinces considerable talent for the business of his choice, which only needs experience to render more attractive. Miss Emma Grattan, in her songs from popular burlesques, with rapid changes of costume, is popular, and deservedly so, as she possesses a fine voice, a comely person and dresses with becoming taste and richness. Her sweet, expressive face, surrounded with a mass of flaxen hair, is not among the least of her attractions. Mr. W. B. Harrison, the only English improvisatore in this country, delights his auditors with his impromptu hits at the topics of the day, and is deservedly encored each evening. George H. Coes played an effective banjo solo and sang several songs with a banjo accompaniment. Mlle. Mazzeri has been enthusiastically welcomed each evening in the ballet ‘La Fete de Lilas.’ Parkhurst and Collins have ocularly demonstrated the extent of rapidity to which graceful terpsichorean movements can be carried, while the veteran comedian, Charley White, has lost none of his humor and originality, and his interpolations of witty allusions to the topics of the day are ever spicy, and meet the approval of the audience. J. C. Stewart and J. F. Wambold have contributed largely to the mirth of the evening. On Thursday, 29th, the California comedian, Lew Rattler, made his first appearance in New York in a burlesque entitled ‘Clam-eel,’ and achieved success. He possesses rare comic abilities and kept the audience in continual laughter, so thickly did the puns and witticisms fall from his lips. At times he was a little broad, which may be attributed to the great license allowed in such performances in California, where he has for some time been performing. His own good judgment will suggest a curtailment of those portions of the act. We doubt not he will become a great favorite here. “