King of the Commons

Event Information

Venue(s):
Wallack's Theatre

Event Type:
Play With Music

Record Information

Status:
Published

Last Updated:
16 September 2012

Performance Date(s) and Time(s)

06 Feb 1866, 8:00 PM
08 Feb 1866, 8:00 PM
10 Feb 1866, 8:00 PM

Program Details



Performers and/or Works Performed

Citations

1)
Advertisement: New-York Times, 02 February 1866.
2)
Announcement: New-York Times, 06 February 1866, 5.
3)
Review: New-York Times, 07 February 1866, 4.

     “There is a kind of play in which all serves as pad: even as there is a sort of man to whom all serves as pillow.  The ‘King of the Commons’ is so evidently manufactured that the padding is conspicuous even in the fourth act, which is by all odds the best of the play.  The plot is so slight that it needs in fact every king of expansion to draw if through five acts.  Mr. White’s best success is in the delineation of the irascible King—a portraiture of some power and correctness.  It gains additional value from the fine performance of James W. Wallack, for whom the piece has, we suppose, been revived.  Whether it was worthy of the theatre and the actor we shall not presume to decide.  But we are quite certain that there is more that is mediocre than memorable in the dialogue.  The situations are stagey, and the action has to be thrust forward by the devices most familiar to dramatists.  The cast last night was in every way good.”