Laura Keene's Theatre

Event Information

Venue(s):
Laura Keene's Theatre (1862-63)

Manager / Director:
Laura Keene

Conductor(s):
Thomas Baker

Event Type:
Play With Music

Record Information

Status:
Published

Last Updated:
8 July 2013

Performance Date(s) and Time(s)

25 Nov 1862, 7:30 PM
26 Nov 1862, 7:30 PM
27 Nov 1862, 2:00 PM
27 Nov 1862, 7:30 PM
28 Nov 1862, 7:30 PM
29 Nov 1862, 7:30 PM

Program Details



Performers and/or Works Performed

1)
Blondette; or, the naughty prince and the pretty peasant
aka Blondette
Participants:  Corps de ballet, unidentified;  Mary Sedley [actor-voc.] Brown (role: vocals);  Ione [vocal/actor] Burke (role: vocals)
2)
"Blondette polka"
Composer(s): Baker
3)
"Chorus of the bridesmaids"
4)
"Cruel fate, why thus pursuing?"
5)
Ballet of laces
6)
"Song of the perfect cure, The"
aka Perfect cure, The
Composer(s): Blewett
Text Author: Perry
7)
Tableau, unidentified
8)
Ballet of beauty
9)
"Oh, miserable"

Citations

1)
Advertisement: New York Herald, 16 November 1862, 7.
Announces starting date as Nov. 24.
2)
Advertisement: New York Herald, 23 November 1862, 7.
– “LAURA KEENE’S THEATRE WILL BE CLOSED MONDAY NIGHT for a dress rehearsal of . . . BLONDETTE, which will be produced TUESDAY NIGHT, NOV. 25.”
3)
Advertisement: New York Herald, 25 November 1862, 7.
“TO-NIGHT AND EVERY NIGHT DURING THE WEEK.”
4)
Advertisement: New-York Times, 25 November 1862, 7.
Includes detailed synopsis of scenery. Between some acts and scenes are listed the following titles: THE KINGDOM OF THE HOURS THE GROTTO OF LOVE THE RIVAL PRESTIDIGITATORS THE PALACE OF DIAMONDS BALLET OF BEAUTY—BLONDETTE POLKA CRYSTAL KINGDOM OF THE MAGIC WATCH
5)
Advertisement: New-York Times, 26 November 1862, 7.
Act I, Scene I includes a “Chorus of Bridesmaids.” Act II, Scene 4 includes the “Blondette Polka by Corps de Ballet of Laces.” “First time of a new three-act fairy spectacle. . . . New and Beautiful Music by Thomas Baker.”
6)
Review: New-York Times, 26 November 1862, 4.

          “Whenever [Keene] presents to the public a fairy extravaganza or pictorial burletta, she does it with a recklessness of pecuniary outlay, a wealth of fancy, and an artistic finish that have never been approached at any New-York theatre but her own. . . .

          The piece brought out by her, last evening, is the most expensively brilliant and magnificently showy of all the experiments of the same kind that she has ever made. . . .

         . . . Miss Burke and Miss Brown sing several songs very charmingly.  There is dancing, too, by a physically well-favored and liberally appointed corps de ballet; and a few pantomime tricks are executed with sufficient smartness to bewilder the juvenile imagination.”

7)
Advertisement: New York Herald, 27 November 1862, 7.
Full cast list. “Beautiful Music by Thomas Baker.”
8)
Advertisement: New York Herald, 28 November 1862, 7.

Includes excerpts of reviews from the NYH, NYT, The New York World, and The New York Express. From the World. "LAURA KEENE'S THEATRE--'BLONDETTE.' This bijou theatre was densely crowded last evening to witness the first representation of the most superb spectacle ever produced in any theatre on this continent. . . . Miss Keene has produced many tasteful and brilliant spectacular extravaganzas; but in this one she has surpassed herself. Every scene is new, and all are gems. . . . 'Blondette' is really a very charming fairy play rather than an extravaganza. From the Express. The novelty in this city, last night, was the production, at Laura Keene's Theatre, of the new spectacle, 'Blondette.' There was a crowded house, of course, and everybody was delighted."

9)
Advertisement: New-York Times, 29 November 1862, 7.