Wallack's Theatre

“There is a tradition, dear to our childish days, about a little boy who never saved his ripest plums til the last, but ate them first, and so always luxuriated in the best he had. The sequence of burlesque at Wallack’s shows the same shrewd but exhaustive logic. The plan has the advantage that the steady play-goer has at least the satisfaction of looking one way with pleasure, and a few more pieces like ‘The Princess of Trebizonde,’ in descending series, would clothe the past glories of ‘Bluebeard’ with a halo of tender and regretful reminiscence.

On the flimsiness in music, dialogue, action and situation of this weakest of Offenbachian dilutions, the exhaustless vitality of Miss Thompson and the broad comic talent of Messsrs. Edwin and Beckett are spent in vain. But the weakness of the piece may perhaps prove its strength. A fair share of the play-going public, renouncing, in a theatrical entertainment, any such problematic good as refreshment to the mind or the heart, are content with more distraction, which for this occasion might allowably be translated absence of mind. “The Princess of Trebizonde’ seems to admirably fulfill this requirement.”

“Monday evening opened the fifth week of Lydia Thompson and her new troupe at Wallack’s Theatre. The event was signalized by the production for the first time in the country of a new burlesque entitled ‘The Princess of Trebizonde.’ The piece is a mere adaptation of Offenbach’s operetta, nearly all the original music being retained. It has this advantage over the burlesques with which we have hitherto been familiar—there is a plot. It is slight and rather loosely strung together; but still there is a definite object toward which the action is continually tending, and that object is accomplished in the dénouement. The three prime requisites of successful burlesque, pretty ladies, piquant lines, and light, frothy music, are all mingled in the ‘Princess of Trebizonde’ with lavish profusion. Among the pieces which received an encore, ‘The Turtle Doves,’ by Carlotta Zerbini; the duet, ‘Yonder, see, where ‘tis she,’ by Camille Dubois and Carlotta Zerbini; and ‘The night on daylight realm encroaches,’ by Misses Lydia Thompson and Hetty Tracy, were eminently worthy of the honor.

Harry Beckett, as the father of the family, Cabriolo, did some very effective burlesque acting. Willie Edwin, who created a most favorable impression in ‘Blue Beard’ is very successful in his impersonation of the maiden Manela. Of Lydia Thompson’s Regina we need not speak, as whatever she does the public seem to be thoroughly satisfied with.

The scenery and costumes are all new and elegant throughout.”

[preceded by a general paragraph] “’The Princess of Trebizonde,’ as seen on Monday night at Wallack’s Theatre, contains, in truth, few traces of its French origin. The translation is free—a little too much so—and the interpolated witticisms are, in general, singularly devoid of humor. Of the music, judging from a first hearing, a good deal of it is commonplace and tawdry, and some few passages excessively pretty. The overture is conspicuously in the first category, and the song called ‘The Turtle Doves’ in the second. Offenbach imitates himself throughout the score with great zeal and success, and, any particular fancy for novelty apart, these affectionate reminiscences are often pleasing. The effect of the first act is, on the whole, not agreeable. Perhaps, from too anxious a solicitude for success, most of the performers on Monday night shouted their spoken passages most unconscionably during the opening parts of the opera—possibly to make up for the more delicate treatment of the singing—and the impression of what seemed a poor imitation of Planché—interspersed with ‘local’ allusions not always in the best taste, was far from exhilarating. As regards the singing, most of the artists are like the French interpreters of opera bouffe we have been used to hear in one respect—that of having rather slight voices. The resemblance, however, is not always carried out in other more desirable particulars. In a word, if ‘The Princess of Trebizonde’ is a fair example of English opera bouffe, it must in honesty be pronounced very like champagne without effervescence. Sin is not plated with gold in this instance, and, therefore, in one sense, may be held the more harmless. It is fair to say that the audience of Monday evening seemed highly gratified with their entertainment. If their applause and laughter may be reckoned trusty indications, ‘The Princess of Trebizonde’ will draw and please amazingly; and our readers must reconcile the anomaly as they may.

As regards the performers, if determined effort should win approval they merited it without stint, and without stint they received it. They evinced in no case any lack of animation—and if a trifle more of light and shade must be considered even in burlesque to be desirable, there are certainly apparent intelligible reasons why the performers should think otherwise. Miss Lydia Thompson is exceedingly sprightly in Regina. If she succeeds in imparting to the character no very marked individuality, she is always volatile, alert and painstaking, and pleases her audience to a nicety. Mr. Willie Edouin is well versed in the ingenious arts whereby a gentleman in female apparel can provoke laughter from a general audience, and Mr. Harry Beckett tries hard, and often successfully, to make Cabrioli distinctive and amusing. Of the other artists, nothing in particular need be said. The scenery and dresses are quite pretty, and despite the dismal inanity of many of the jokes, and the fact that there is far too much talk in proportion to the music, the attention of the audience seemed always pleasurably occupied. Some of the airs and concerted pieces, among which we may name the duet for two sopranos, a hunting chorus of considerable originality, and the finale to the second act, will help, no doubt, to give the opera a hold on public favor. There was a full house on Monday night.”

“Mr. Moss has since brought forth the new burlesque, based on the opera bouffe by Offenbach, of ‘The Princess of Trebizonde.’ This piece has been re-written, adapted, and especially arranged to suit the Lydia Thompson Burlesque organization. A full house gave it welcome, on Monday evening, and enjoyed it.

It was done partly as an opera bouffe and partly as an extravaganza. It impressed us as a neat piece of mechanism, entirely lacking in sparkle. It is in three acts, and each of them is studded with melodies, not one of which can vie with certain familiar numbers in ‘La Grande Duchesse’ and ‘La Belle Helene.’ Its story is more unsubstantial than the stories even of current burlesque usually are. The first act shows how, through the drawing of a lucky lottery ticket, the family of a mounteback became rich, titled, and socially distinguished. The second act exhibits this family in its newly-acquired state of splendor, and contains passages that recall the character-painting and satire of some of Lord Duberly’s scenes in ‘The Heir at Law.’ The leading motive of the work is the love of a Prince for a girl who personated the Princess of Trebizonde in a wax-work show. Act first passes in a public square—well painted by Mr. George Evans. Act second passes in the gardens of the newly-made Baron’s house. Act third reveals an apartment in the chateau of the Prince’s father and shows what came of the main stratagem. We do not follow out this fooling to its climax. Something may well be left to public curiosity. The ravishing delights of these burlesques must not be made too familiar, in the cold light of printer’s ink. They have, for many people, a glamour on the stage, but they are tedious nothings away from it. Mr. Beckett worked hard, and his excellent nonsense gave a great deal of pleasure. There is a solemn humor in the doings of this actor that yields delight. Miss Thompson was as radiant and tantalizing as the wicked witch that tempted St. Anthony. One of her songs—‘When upon the Tight-rope dancing’—merits mention for its joyous volatility and dashing spirit. It awoke much applause, and received the compliment of a recall—which also rewarded the quartette, ‘Farewell, old Booth’ (no allusion being intended to the tragedian), and the rondo, ‘The Lawful Wife of Rustifuin.’ Miss Dubois and Miss Zerbini evoked manifestations of public rapture, by their duo, in the second act, ‘Yonder sure, ‘tis she.’ Much laughter was bestowed on an episodical farce-scene, called ‘The Rose-Bud of Stinging Nettle Farm.’ There were some ill-bred jests, and there was the usual allowance of that abortive, callow straining after mirth which makes the thinking hearer ashamed of the human species; for instance the witticisms on the word Pole, in act second. Not to linger upon a trifling subject, let us record a fair popular success for ‘The Princess of Trebizonde.’ It is not a dazzling gem, but it will hold its own, for luster and ‘loudness,’ among the popular gew-gaws of the day. Our impression is that the public would have preferred ‘Ixion;’ but the assemblage gave the new opera bouffe a generous welcome, and that surely is a prognostic of monetary prosperity.”

Complete cast listing. “It is in three acts, there being but one scene to each, the first a public square with mountebanks performing, the gardens of a baronial hall and an apartment in a chateau. It was not well adapted to display the peculiar talents of either Miss Thompson or the members of her company, and as the opera had never been performed in this country, the majority of the audiences, it is fair to suppose, were neither familiar with the music nor the plot of the opera, which marred, in a great degree, the enjoyment of the burlesque. We could discover but few traces of Offenbach’s music therein. The most familiar air was that of ‘Mari Sage’ from ‘La Belle Helene.’ The dialogue was neither sparkling nor witty, and the puns were far-fetched and lacked crispness. The only really meritorious part of the entire performance was the acting of a brief burlesque melodrama in the last act, which occasioned a great deal of hilarity. As a whole, the performance may be recorded as a comparative failure, and so the management seems to have regarded it, as it was withdrawn after the performance of Saturday evening.”