Venue(s):
Tony Pastor's Opera House
Event Type:
Variety / Vaudeville
Status:
Published
Last Updated:
18 May 2016
“Tony Pastor places on the boards of his opera house, in the Bowery, this evening, a new and exciting drama, entitled The Robber King; or, Roll of the Red Hand. The piece will engage the talent of the entire company. There will also be produced a new eccentric character ballet, named the Dancing Master from Paris, in which the ballet troupe will appear. Tony Pastor sings two more new and original songs.”
“Tony Pastor is no classicist. He belongs to the modern school of caterers for the million. He has placed himself entirely en rapport with the spirit of the Bowery, whose denizens nightly crowd his place of amusement to suffocation. His opera house is the Pantheon of popularity, and such is the infinite variety of his entertainments that all kinds of people with all kinds of taste cannot fail of gratification. Last evening the redoubtable Tony presented several novelties – among them the highly sensational drama of The Robber King, and the beautiful eccentric sketch of The Dancing Master from Paris. At an early hour the house was crowded, mainly with that sterling class who after severe toil find relaxation and pleasure in the rare olla podrida which Pastor provides so bounteously for his innumerable patrons. Ethiopian extravaganzas, songs, music, dancing (from the regular breakdown to the bewitching ballet, rejoicing in abbreviated cerulean skirts and silken hose, ventriloquism, posturing, tumbling, aerial flights, and we know not what else, were given in rapid and bewildering succession. The audience was the best natured possible; and, if continued applause and roars of laughter are any manifestation of delight, little could have been left to desire. The performer who was not compelled to repeat his or her particular part at least six times was but a slender favorite. Everything seemed to the supreme satisfaction of the crowd, which at as late an hour as eleven o’clock, evinced no symptom of weariness, but gave indications of lingering in enthusiastic admiration of all they saw and heard.”
“Probably the most important announcement we can make to the patrons of Tony Pastor’s Opera House is the fact that ‘Tony sings two more new songs this week.’ This covers a good deal of ground, although occupying but little space on paper. A new drama called ‘The Robber King’ is also ‘on’ this week, which, together with the ever popular ballet, will assist in making a programme of rare excellence for the Bowery slope, and one which will assuredly please.”