actors." On 15 October 1858, Our American Cousin premiered in New York. After a couple of unhappy weeks in the small role, Sothern began portraying the role as a lisping, skipping, eccentric, weak-minded fop prone to nonsensical references to sayings of his "bwother" Sam. His ad-libs were a sensation, earning good notices for his physical comedy and spawning much imitation and merry mockery on both sides of the Atlantic. His exaggerated, droopy side-whiskers became known as "Dundrearys". Sothern gradually expanded the role, adding gags and business until it became the central figure of the play. The most famous scene involved Dundreary reading a letter from his even sillier brother. The play ran for 150 nights, which was very successful for a New York run at the time. Sothern made his London debut in the role when the play ran for 496 performances at the Haymarket Theatre in 1861, earning rave reviews. The Athenaeum wrote, "it is certainly the funniest thing in the world... a vile caricature of a vain nobleman, intensely ignorant, and extremely indolent". Dundreary became a popular recurring character, and Sothern successfully revived the play many times, making Dundreary by far his most famous role. A number of spin-off works were also created, including Charles Gayler's sequel, Our American Cousin at Home, or, Lord Dundreary Abroad (Buffalo, New York, 1860, and then New York City, 1861) and H. J. Byron's Dundreary Married and Done For. Sothern wrote his own play, Suspense, produced for Keene's 1860-61 season. He won wide popularity from his interpretation of Sam Slingsby in John Oxenford's Brother Sam (1862; revived in 1865), a play about Dundreary's brother. 1860s and 1870s In 1864, Sothern created the title role in Tom Robertson's David Garrick at the Haymarket Theatre. The play was a great success. The Times praised Sothern's acting in the Act II scene where Sothern depicted "the most extravagant form of drunkenness... perpetually brought into contact with the real agony of mind which is now on the point of casting aside the mask of debauchery". He also appeared in Robertson's Home and later claimed to have written some of the best scenes in each work (a claim that was disputed by Robertson). Other plays written for the now-famous Sothern were The Woman in Mauve, by Watts Phillips; The Favourite of Fortune and A Hero of Romance by Westland Marston; A Lesson for Life by Tom Taylor;