Vice Versa

After the failure of his Irish melodramas Suil-a-mor (1882) and The Amadan (1883), Boucicault adapted the French play Le Truc d’Arthur for his new three-act comedy Vice-Versa, which premiered in Boston on 21 March 1883 and opened in New York City at the new Star Theatre on 26 March. Boucicault claimed that the play was “simply a bit of fun” in contrast to the gloomier dramas that had been recently staged, but his critics were no more impressed with this latest offering than his sensation dramas. The Boston Evening Transcript called it “stupid and threadbare,” while the New York Herald claimed it was a “hash of trite farcical incidents” that “stirred laughter here and there and then died out into mere inanity.” The New York Dispatch joked that “it made a show of wit, but inspection proved it to be ‘Vice Versa.’ The incidents were stamped original, but their exhibition resulted in a verdict that they were ‘Vice Versa.’ The argument and situations were expected to be of a new coinage—but alas they were merely ‘Vice Versa.’” As a result, the play was pulled after 11 April 1883; Boucicault’s struggles to remain relevant continued.

USF Special Collections has a fascinating assortment of materials related to Vice-Versa. The main prompt book for the performance at the Star Theatre in New York is digitized here, but also in the collection are documents outlining the creative and adaptive process Boucicault undertook with the play.