Colonel T. Allston Brown Complimentary Benefit

Event Information

Venue(s):
Academy of Music

Conductor(s):
Giuseppe Operti

Price: $1.50, $1 reserved; $1, $.50; $3 reserved box seats

Event Type:
Minstrel, Variety / Vaudeville

Record Information

Status:
Published

Last Updated:
13 August 2022

Performance Date(s) and Time(s)

31 May 1870, 8:00 PM

Program Details

“In the evening LOTTA plays NAN, her farewell of the American stage prior to her departure for Europe.” Additional performance in the afternoon; see separate event entry.

Performers and/or Works Performed

1)
LIST OF PERFORMER(S)/ORGANIZATION(S)
Participants:  Orchestra, unidentified;  Kiralfy Ballet and Pantomime Troupe;  Bobby Newcomb;  Nelse Seymour;  Tony Pastor;  Lotta Crabtree;  Frank Kerns;  [song and dance] Cummings;  William Carleton [comedian, singer, composer];  William [clog dancer] Ashcroft;  James Unsworth;  Alice [clog dancer] Somers;  Rose [actress] Massey;  Charles [clown, pantomimist] Abbott;  Lillie [actress] Whiting;  Prince Sadi de Jalma
2)
Good for nothing, The
aka Nan, the good for nothing; Nan the good for nothing ; Crazy Nan
Text Author: Buckstone
Participants:  Lotta Crabtree (role: Nan)
3)
Olio
4)
Cancan
aka Can can
5)
"Den I was gone"
aka Then I was gone
Participants:  [song and dance] Cummings;  William [clog dancer] Ashcroft
6)
Comic songs
Participants:  Tony Pastor
7)
Irish songs
aka Irish melodies; Popular, national, and Irish airs; Hibernian songs
Participants:  William Carleton [comedian, singer, composer]
8)
Don't judge by appearances
Text Author: Morton
Participants:  Rose [actress] Massey

Citations

1)
Announcement: New-York Times, 15 May 1870, 4.
2)
Advertisement: New York Herald, 19 May 1870, 9.
3)
Announcement: New York Clipper, 21 May 1870, 54.

“Col. T. A. Brown’s connection with this paper will cease on and after Monday, May 30th, as he intends to enter the dramatic agency business, at No. 643 Broadway, on the 1st of June…In view of his retirement from journalism, a number of gentlemen have tendered him a testimonial…” Generic announcement for the benefit follows.

4)
Advertisement: New York Herald, 26 May 1870, 12.
5)
Announcement: New York Herald, 27 May 1870, 4.

Brief. The benefit “will be a stupendous affair. Over one hundred volunteers will appear.”

6)
Announcement: New York Clipper, 28 May 1870, 62.
7)
Advertisement: New York Herald, 29 May 1870, 9.

Full cast list. “A magnificent chromo lithograph of Lotta will be presented to every lady visiting the afternoon and evening performance, as a farewell Lotta souvenir.”

8)
Announcement: New York Post, 30 May 1870, 2.
9)
Announcement: New York Herald, 30 May 1870, 5.
10)
Announcement: New-York Daily Tribune, 31 May 1870, 5.
11)
Advertisement: New York Herald, 31 May 1870, 9.

Multiple cards; full cast list.

12)
Review: New-York Daily Tribune, 02 June 1870, 4.

No mention of music.

13)
Review: New York Clipper, 11 June 1870, 78.

Long and positive review; little mention of music. Notes Ashcroft and Cummings’s song and dance “met with unqualified approval.”