Kelly and Leon’s Minstrels

“At KELLY and LEON’S a new local version of ‘Orphee aux Enfers,’ introducing the entire music of Offenbach, will be produced to-night for the first time. It has been prepared with unusual care, and Leon will be the Eurydice. Two new artists also make their appearance, Messrs. LESLIE and RAYNOR.”

“The travesty of French opéra bouffe, in which Leon hit so happy a vein of amusement, is still the feature at this establishement. The piece most recently brought out and now in the heyday of success is a burlesque of Offenbach’s, ‘Orphée aux Enfers,’ given with the same title. The general plot of the original is preserved, as well as its excellent little morceaux of music, while the mounting of the burlesque in the way of dress and costumes is certainly not inferior to the fashion at more pretentious places of entertainment. Leon is, of course, Eurydice, and a very saucy one. The concourse in Hades, whither Jupiter makes a visit, gives an opportunity for a number of excellent hits in the conundrums which the celestials propound to each other. The transformation scene showing the gradual return skyward of Jupiter and the other deities is one of real beauty, and has not been surpassed in more famous spectacular performances. For fifteen minutes, to slow music, there is a steady involution and evolution of ferns, flowers, clouds and rainbows, until the gods reach Olympus. The piece called ‘Chip of [sic] the Old Block,’ which followed the olio, was mirth provoking; but portions of it are too broad to be in good taste.”

“The classics are proving a great blessing to comedy, especially to burlesque. Travestie [sic] can never die ‘while it hath such meet food to feed it.’ The tragic myths of the deepest and even most infernal dye are the richest mine of extravagant mirth. After being well used for the white opera they are many times better than new for the black. ‘Orphée aux Enfers’ in its last state at Kelly & Leons’ is better than in its first at the French Theater. It is broader in its fun and has a wilder vein of fine Plutonian frenzy running through it. Its frequent steps from the sublime to the ridiculous are more decisive and irresistible. Though Orpheus made the rocks and trees dance in Thrace, he never made people laugh so heartily before as he does now at Kelly & Leon’s. Kelly’s Jupiter lifts the god to his highest jovial eminence, and the only Leon’s Erydice [sic] is irresistibly affecting, even when tossed in a blanket. The other gods shine with tributary light.  Their wit might be improved, being almost as ancient as their immortality. Their jokes have long enjoyed that familiarity which is said to breed disrespect, but they are so preposterously delivered that they turn up with the fresh sparkle of the old oaken bucket in the well. Orphee aux Enfers is produced with a lavish display of magnificent dresses and beautiful scenery. The final tableau is a rich feast of color and exquisite fancy. The piece is an unequivocal success. It is preceded by a variety of gems of humor and song, among which Leon’s new ‘Bend’ and ‘Mrs. Cady Stanton,’ Harry Raynor’s Japanese fiddle and ‘Hen Convention,’ Harry Leslie’s ‘Handsome Eph,’ and Edwin Kelly’s delicious Ballads, are the most brilliant and enjoyable. The music of the spheres of familiar life and the humors of the day are given with peculiar breadth and unction by these talented and favorite minstrels.”

“At KELLY and LEON’S the novelty of the week has been a burlesque version of OFFENBACH’S Orphée aux Enfers, which has been produced in the sumptuous manner usual at this establishment. The music is more familiar to the community than the work whence it is obtained, and, indeed, is better than the text. LEON has adapted both with remarkable skill. The principal morceaux are rendered with artistic skill, and the general production of ‘Orphée’ is in every way equal to that of ‘La Grand Dutch-S.’”

“Messrs. Leslie and Raynor no doubt did please in Australia, South Africa and other countries where a minstrel show is a novelty, but they certainly are not up the required standard as first class end men for New York, where, if a man is funny, it is very quickly found out.  Unfortunately they sung two end songs—the Hen Convention and Hold Your Horses—old enough to have been sung by the first band of minstrels nearly twenty years ago. Then again, all their gags were so old that the audience knew them by heart, and it was impossible to provoke any one to laughter. Although Mr. Leslie has a fair voice, Mr. Raynor has none whatever, and scarcely a word he uttered while singing could be heard. There may be some excuse for the shortcomings of a man on a first night, in a new place and before a strange audience. In the olio they appear to greater advantage, for Raynor’s ‘Japanese Fiddle’ is an act that will make any one laugh, and in the act called ‘Cosmopolitan’ they were pretty good.”