AMUSEMENTS LAST EVENING.
CHARLES THEATER.—The bill at the St. Charles last evening was much of more than common interest, and much more than common excellence. The house was very well filled to see Mr. Hackett’s Falstaff, in “King Henry IV,” and to hear Miss Macarthy in the burletta of “Jenny Lind.”
Concerning the play, in its leading parts, we have little but commendation to express. In the acting of Mr. Hackett there was a rich, oily and abundant merriment that brought out the spirit of the impersonation most naturally and clearly. It was “honest Jack Falstaff,” and no one else, from the commencement to the conclusion; him, in the mad freaks, in the strange philosophy, in the overflow of animal spirits and the creeping of flesh when danger came too near. The port, character and person—so far as a myth and fable can be personated—were up to the conceptions we have all of us formed of that brightest and most humorous Shaksperianism. The piece, too, was well mounted and well dressed. Some fault might be found with subordinate characters but none with the chief and most prominent. It is only justice to add that Mark Smith’s Earl of Worcester, the Prince of Wales by Wright, and the very excellent Francis of Vining Bowers, accorded most happily and harmoniously with the leading character.
The amusements closed with the laughable burletta of “Jenny Lind,” in which Miss Macarthy sang and danced through the part of Jenny Leatherlungs to the highest gratification of all present. Possessing an exceedingly rich, clear and ringing voice, and a spirit that harmonises completely with the fun and frolic of the piece, she called down the house, not once, but a dozen times, and received such very marked applause as is bestowed only on real merit. With a vivid recollection of Mrs. Howard’s brilliant performance of the same character, we have no hesitation—and the audience of last night will endorse us—in saying, that Miss Macarthy is by far her superior. Coming among us, as she did, comparatively unheralded, in one week’s time she has established her position as the most pleasing actress, in her line, we have ever had in New Orleans.
18 December 1855, New Orleans Daily Crescent, New Orleans, LA. Print.