AustLit

Towards the end of the premiere Sydney season of this burlesque version of the popular Black-Eyed Susan, a Sydney Morning Herald, wrote in the paper's 'Musical and Dramatic Notes' column that this "dashing burlesque… is quite different from Burnand's famous travesty… first produced at the Royalty Theatre as long ago as 29th November 1866" (2 March 1895, p.2). What is perhaps more unusual and quite different, however, was the decision to present both a dramatic and a burlesque version each evening of the season. In this respect George Rignold (in an advertisement published in the same paper), suggested that by 'producing Douglas Jerrold's celebrated nautical drama of Black-Eyed Susan, and [having it] travestied on the same evening, I think there is some claim to originality, my contention being that there is no real fun in burlesque unless the subject matter is fresh in the mind of the auditor; and in placing both before the audience on the same evening I trust that my theory will prove correct' (16 February 1895, p.2). Although the paper's theatre critic suggested that the opening night performance of the travesty went on too long, he or she noted that 'Bert Royle has written plenty of smart lines' and that when 'trimmed… there is no reason why the 'new departure' should not justify itself by established success' (19 February 1895, p.6).