The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1914-02-20
FREAKISH SHOWS.
Stage FiasCos In the Old Days
In the Metropolis.
A SINGLE NIGHT "0THElL0."
Wolfsohn Turned the Play Into Near
Riot and Never Acted Again-George
Reynolds Melancholy Romeo to Six
Ambitious Amateur Juliets.


Rignold's Melancholy Romeo to Six
Ambitious Amateur JuIiets.
The freak play or the performance
that Is trayesty is little in evidence
today, but it does not seem so long
ago when a slump in business some
times embOldened even the most con-
servative of theatrical managers to re-
sort to extraordinary measures to at
tract at least one capacity audience.
One Of the early freak performances
was intended ms an event OF great ar
tistic value The late Henry Wolf
sOhn, who afterward became famous
as an impresario, aspired to the great
Forests mantle. The great tragedian
was playing at Niblo's Garden in
"Othello" and WolfsOhn. then twenty
two. had saved little money with the
idea OF purchasing the privilege OF ap-
pearing as the Moor in New York once
at least His ambition appealed to
Marie Seebach. the German actress,
who was appearing in that year 0S6S)
at the Theatre Francais on West Four
teenth street. Wolfsohn paid the man
himself selling out the capacity Of the
theater.
Although the audience was composed
chiefly Of his friends and relatives, the
portrayal was so ludicrous that riot
seemed imminent and was only pre-
vented through an appeal to the audi
ence from Nine Seebach to consider
her own position Wolfsohn never trod
the boards again.
The next year i'm the same theater
opera boulfc was the rage. owing to
the tremendous hit Of comedian OF
the name OF Gabel, who appeared as
one of the two gendarmes In Gene
We've de Brabant." Gabels popularity
was so great that a benefit was ten
dered to him. He decided to present
"Genevieve" as traveSty, the male
principals assuming the female roles
and the women those of the men. The
house was sold out one hour after the
advance sale opened Spectators reap
ed n harvest
The audience began to laugh before
the curtain rose, the conductor was
greeted with rOars Of merriment Even
the ushers were grinning I'm anticipa-
ton OF festival of fun. When Gabel
appeared deliberately gowned as Gene
We've il was fully two minutes before
he was allowed to sing the beautiful!
serenade number He. too, was burst
ing with laughter. The same reception
greeted each Of the principals, but from
then on the performance was about as
enlivening as a funeral. The theater
was half empty before the act ended.
Gabel said the next day that he would
gladly give back the $4,000 It yielded II
he could forget the experience.
IL was fifteen years before anything
OF this nature was attempted again.
This time it was for the late Maurice
Grau. who had suffered many reverses,
that the benefit was organized at the
Academy of Music. Grau himself ar
ranged the program, the feature OF
which was Il travesty Of the first act
of LA Grande DuChesse." The great
Aimee, queen of opera boutfe. was
cast for General Boum, the ponderous
NJ. Duplan played the Duchess and
the droll NJ. MeZieres was Wanda
]
The house was crowded, but. alas, the
fiasco was even more complete than at
! Gabel's benefit.
Booths theater, then at Twenty-third
! street and Sixth avenue, was the
| scene of the next freak performance
! George Rignold, famous as matinee
! idol. was attracting all New York TO
see his Henry the Fifth Joseph
Tooker, an ingenious Snowman, If ever
! there was one, conceived the idea OF n
! special matinee of Romeo and Ju-
liet," with six amateurs to appear as
! Juliet. Rignold was the Romeo. Such
scene as was on view on West Twen-
ty-third street that matinee day was
never witnessed before nor since. Az
early as . Il. m the lobbies were pack
ed and the line To the box office
reached TO Broadway.
At noon mt least 5000 women were
congregated in front of the theater-
and the management, fully awake to
conditions. commissioned big" Jun
Brown. king of ticket spectators of
that day. to work the line" This
Brown did SO well that 4,2OO persons
% per cent women, were packed into
playhouse seating 800 comfortably.
The performance itself was SO bad
that Rignold would have quit In the
fourth scene but for Tooker's plaintive
plea TO stick II out. Tooker's idea had
been that the .Iuliets would be so bad
that they would be funny. whereas
five of them were just rank incompe
tents. The sixth juliet was none other
than Marie Wainwright. who distip
guished herself all the more 10y tn.
contrast. Miss Wainwright was imme
diately engaged rs professional and
quickly became star.-New York sun