New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1870-03-23
FKOU-FROU.

| This piece is soon to be presented at the
Academy of Music, with Miss Western IN it.
| and there is an interest, therefore. in what
| is said of the play. The st. Louis Republi
can publishes the following:
We have said that "Frou-Frou" is q
strange but pleasing combination of tragedy
aud comedy, and perhaps this popularity is,
after all, the chiefest attraction of the play.
| The two first acts are full of the bright, daZ.
cling, frivolous, fascinating life OF Paris.
| In the second we are introduced into the
home Of man of rank and wealth; we
watch his gay and beautiful wife as she
yields to the spell which surrounds her on
every eide, and plunges into the whirlpool
OF innocent dissipation. leaving husband,
child and household to take care of them.
selves.
We see, too, the temptations to which she
is subjected. the associations that while
they do not harden her heart, are yet alien.
ating her from those she really loves, and
preparing the way for wretched future.
But in spite of these evil influences, and this
misconduct, which springs from thought.
lessness rather than Indifference, we can
discern in FrOn-FrOu the outcroppings OF
noble and generous SOU. deep and pas
siOnate nature which oppol tnnity is soon to
develop. That development comes in the
third act, where for the first time she real
ICES the danger to which she is exposed
through the love of FdlredS, and realizes,
too, that her sister has usurped
the place which should have been
her own. In the terrible mental
struggle which ensues, Miss Western rises
into her native element. and plays Frou-
Frou with the same graphic earnestness
and intensity with which che plays Lady
Isabel. Indeed, we think she is better in
the former than in the latter, for there is
nothing in EAST Lynne" which, in dramatic
completeness, equals the third act of ''Frou-
Frou."
The dialogue with the Baroness, the in
terview with FGlreGS, the conversation
with her husband, and the closing scene in
which the jealous and desperate wife re-
proaches and denounces her sister, and
flies with the waiting lover-all these iur-
nish ample room for the display of Miss
Westerns genius, and she works the material
up to the very highest. pitch.
a finer piece of acting, taken as a whole,
than is given in this act we have not wit
messed for many q day, and we believe the
the head OF Miss Westerns repertoire. Thus
far, at least, she has achieved remarkable
success in it, and will improve with each
''Frou-Frou," as now produced at the
Olympic, is one of the best performances St.
Louis has seen IN long. long time. and we
are GLAD to observe that the public appre.
ciate it.
later number of the ST. Louis Repatbli.
can. says:
Unlike tbs most of its class, it wears we'll,
and we are not surprised that Frou-Frou"
has been kept upon the boards for weeks
and months in Paris, London and New
York. The merits of the piece are not at all
discernable at a single glance. but they
amply repay the necessary scrutiny, and
when revealed are found to possess some
elements quite original and unique. Miss
Westerns delineatiOn of the leading role is
in every respect excellent, and the quiet
scenes of the first two acts, the crisis of the
third, the intense and overwhelming
wretchedness of the fourth, and the sad fin
ale of the fifth, are alike rendered with an
ease, a grace and power which fill and
satisfy ones conception of the part.
Miss Western will follow Miss Kate Reig
nolds at the Academy Of Music.