Kelly and Leon’s Minstrels

“Mephistopheles with a sooty face, elongated nose and twinkling eye, Marguerite with an enormous quantity of auburn hair, shrieking voice and prima donna strut, and Faust in a swallow-tailed coat are the latest arrivals at Kelly and Leon’s Minstrels. The burlesque is excellent and good for the blues.”

“People may sneer at the operatic attempts of minstrel companies, but were they to analyze the music, and the sweetness of melody of some of the voices composing Kelly and Leon’s Company they would find more harmony, more soul, at least in connection with our feelings, than is generally produced by nine tenths of the Italian Opera singers who have appeared in this city within the last ten years. We now speak of music in its pure, unalloyed state, music stripped of its appendages, its variations, and the vast power of the human voice when excited to the screaming point.”

“Leon sang at Kelly and Leon’s Minstrel Hall last week a song called ‘The Funny Girl,’ written by Howard Paul. Being one of those songs especially adapted to the style of this performer, he sang and danced it in a manner that convulsed his audience with laughter, and was encored each evening. He also appeared with Mr. Kelly in a laughable sketch called ‘Domestic Bliss.’ These performers have made this style of business a specialty, and they are very good in short operettas. The burlesque opera of ‘Faust’ has been so well received the past two weeks as to warrant the management in continuing it on the programme for the present. Mssrs. Delehanty and Ward, clog dancers, closed their engagement at this house on the 16^th inst.”