Broadway Theater

“Song and Dance.”

“When we state that Miss Helen Western is a well looking lady, with a free and unembarrassed presence in the fairest of garments, we have said all that is necessary of [French Spy].  Better qualities were displayed in the farce, and we are disposed to think that Miss Helen’s talent will yet reveal itself in some such generally accepted form or work.  We cannot close this brief notice without referring to the character of the audience assembled last night.  Whenever the opportunity for a double meaning occurred, the denizens of the parquette seized it with a yell.  The language, from the interpretation thus put upon it, verged constantly on the indecent, and must have embarrassed the lady as much as it disgusted the respectable portion of the audience.”

Brief review; no mention of music.  French Spy is “a piece which depends for success on pantomime and on a profuse display of limbs.  It is a vigorous, muscular play, and Miss Helen Western is a vigorous, muscular actress. . . . [Her performance] seemed to fully satisfy the large and enthusiastic audience which was present.”

“Helen Western made her first appearance since her engagement in this city in 1858, at the Broadway, on Monday evening, 11th inst., in the ‘French Spy.’  The attendance was very large. . . . Nature has bestowed on Miss Helen some of her richest gifts: she is possessed of youth, good looks, a vivacious temperament, quick perception of fun and frolic, a form finely developed, and well-rounded limbs; her voice is a shrill soprano, and not of very extended compass. As an actress, she is but moderate; she has learned most of the tricks of the profession, but not many of its excellencies; her pantomimic action is not what we were led to expect; she plays to her audiences, and sometimes takes unwarranted liberties with them, but this is the fault of the school in which she has been reared. The company  . . . is of a very mediocre character, . . . some of them seemed to be entirely ignorant of their parts, others gagged [sic] in the most ridiculous manner; in one or two instances the audience showed their displeasure by hissing the offenders.”