Broadway Theater

Event Information

Venue(s):
Broadway Theatre [485 Broadway; 1864-69]

Manager / Director:
George A. F. Wood

Event Type:
Play With Music

Record Information

Status:
Published

Last Updated:
25 March 2012

Performance Date(s) and Time(s)

11 Jul 1864, 8:00 PM
12 Jul 1864, 8:00 PM
13 Jul 1864, 8:00 PM
14 Jul 1864, 8:00 PM
15 Jul 1864, 8:00 PM
16 Jul 1864, 8:00 PM

Program Details



The French Spy, or The Fall of Algiers: “The edition and music thereof being that used by the celebrated Mme. Celeste.”

Performers and/or Works Performed

2)
aka The French spy; Or, The storming of Algiers; The French spy; Or, The siege of Algiers; The French spy; Or, The fall of Algiers
Text Author: Haines
3)
aka Night's frolic
Text Author: Higgie

Citations

1)
Advertisement: New York Herald, 11 July 1864.

“Song and Dance.”

2)
Announcement: New-York Times, 11 July 1864.

3)
Advertisement: New-York Times, 11 July 1864.

4)
Announcement: New-York Daily Tribune, 11 July 1864.

5)
Advertisement: New-York Daily Tribune, 11 July 1864.

6)
Announcement: New York Herald, 12 July 1864.

7)
Review: New York Post, 12 July 1864, 3.

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.”

8)
Review: New-York Times, 12 July 1864, 4.

“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.”

9)
Advertisement: New York Clipper, 16 July 1864, 112.
Time.
10)
Review: New York Clipper, 23 July 1864, 118.

“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.”