Wallack's Theatre

Full cast, list of company.

Cast and crew. “The full and very complete ORCHESTRA will execute a variety of NEW MUSIC, under the direction of Mr. Robert Stoepel.”

“The orchestra, as heretofore, will be under the direction of Mr. Robert Stoepel.”

Cast & crew.  Time, musical works.  “During the evening the Orchestra, under direction of Mr. Robert Stoepel will perform…”

            . . . The house was crowded. To a considerable extent it was filled with the same people who will attend constantly throughout the Fall and Winter. Every performer, as he or she came upon the stage, was recognized as an old friend and favorite, and was greeted accordingly. Applause was generous and prolonged, without being noisy, and bouquets were plentiful but discriminating. Mrs.Rose[?] is brilliant, finished, faultless; Miss Gannon natural and piquant; Miss Henriques fresh and charming as ever. It is impossible to bestow compliments on men; yet Mr. Lester Wallack, Mr. Mark Smith, and others, who sustained the masculine share of the performance, deserve them. Everything passed off delightfully, and seemed to bear the promise of a prosperous future. The theatre itself looks bright and pleasant. A new drop curtain has been painted and is a decided improvement on the old one.  The orchestra is full and efficient, and, under Mr. Robert Stoepel’s able conduct, supplies the choicest music to be heard outside the Academy.”

“The opening of Mr. Wallack’s theatre for the season is, to a large class of persons, of more consequence than the opening of all the other theatres put together. People of fashion regard it as an event by which to reckon the proper time for coming back from watering places to the City. Fastidious people look forward to it as to a dramatic dawn which shall dispel the clouds of ennui that they seek to rid themselves in vain. With a select but extensive circle Wallack’s is the only alternative of, or for, the Opera. In a circle more promiscuous, but wider, a dogma has generated to the effect that it is the last home of histrionic taste and talent – the final link which binds the degenerate present to the palmy past. Other theaters may have more attractive companies – may produce more alluring pieces – may appeal more pointedly to passing passions – may seek to dazzle with occasional performers of more radiant magnitude; but at Wallack’s – so these many people think – there is a certainty of smooth and equable completeness – of variable, but sustained ability – of careful, yet not prudish, purity – that more than counterbalance all the fascinating charms of fitful genius, meretricious splendor or ephemeral combination. . . .