Tony Pastor’s Company

“Tony Pastor has another new play on the boards of his Opera House, in the Bowery. This evening his company will perform in a very interesting drama, entitled, Columbia’s Blue Jackets. The great Empalateur, Mons. Eugene Martinie, makes a first appearance in his wonderful feats of impalement, or knife throwing. Two more songs by Tony Pastor, Dancing the Mabel Waltz, and Everything Depends upon the Style in which its Done, will also be given. The ballet grotesque, The Belle of the Village, will be exhibited.”

“East side playgoers are notoriously fond of the startling, sensational and oftentimes of the supremely ludicrous, and they are also extravagantly fond of patronizing those theatres which offer to a discriminating public the greatest variety of entertainment and the largest bills. The unwashed, unterrified democracy of the classic Bowery detests your theatre that will charge an exorbitant price for admission and only give you one piece during the evening, and that, too, very often but poorly performed. They must have at least two or three plays, to say nothing of innumerable songs, dances and extravaganzas that are thrown in to fill up the interstices between the plays and acts: and this very kind of catering it is that has made Tony Pastor’s Opera House such a popular resort for the lovers of unadulterated drama. Every week the redoubtable Tony adds new attractions to his already plethoric stock; and last evening, despite the inclement weather, the house was crowded to witness the grotesque ballet of the Belle of the Village and new nautical drama of Columbia’s Blue Jackets. The story of the drama lacks interest, point, [illeg.], and everything [illeg.] that makes a play enjoyable, and only in [illeg.] to the audience a ‘jolly Jake tar’ who is always ready for a fair fight, who hates oppression, has a large heart and small purse, who always arrives at the right place at the most opportune moment, and who escapes from many a combat and perilous position unscathed. The play, upon the whole, is extremely ludicrous and improbable, provoking laughter from the most staid; It would make a much better comedy than drama. It was well received by those present, and will remain upon the bills during the remainder of the week.”