The Daily Dispatch: April 26, 1862., [Electronic resource]

---

---

Varieties.

--The engagement of Mr. Walter Keevel is proving very successful. The house is crowded every night with an enthusiastic audience. The play of "The Stranger" has seldom, if ever, been better rendered in Richmond than it was on Wednesday night. We take pleasure in saying that Miss M. Johnson, Mrs. Jennie Powell, Miss Jessie Clarke, and Mrs. De Barr, have succeeded admirably in their endeavors to please the public.

In giving utterance to the above we are not to be understood as asserting that some styles of acting indulged in by the performers at the Varieties could not be improved, with decided advantage to the public and the performers themselves. While Mr. Morton (an exceedingly clever actor) does very well all the time, it is not to be denied that Mr. Ogden, who is the light comedy and general utility man of the corps dramatique at the establishment, very often, in his great anxiety to excite the risibilities of his audience, sadly overdoes his part, by lugging in antiquated jokes, and getting off bad "puns." They no doubt serve as often, after the true result is summed up, to bring down the actor as the house. It is an insult, even to a miscellaneous audience, to think that nothing is too outrageous for their endurance. We noticed, too, a few nights since, that this gentleman attempted the character of Beausseant, in the Lady of Lyons, one entirely out of his line. He would perhaps have made a tolerable "Glavis," that being in his range of conception and ability. In these war times, however, criticism is out of place, and we drop the subject.