San Francisco Minstrels

"Grand re-opening."

“Last evening witnessed the reopening of this popular minstrel hall; a large audience was present, who, at the rising of the curtain, greeted the performers with great applause. The company is substantially the same as last season, with the addition of ‘Bobby’ Newcomb and the ‘Buffalo boys,’ who perform a laughable extravaganza, with Charley Gibbons, called ‘the dancing Quartette.’ Backus and Birch as the ‘end men’ are ready and funny with their songs and jokes. Wambold amuses as the ‘middle man,’ and acts the stout, pompous, but good natured darkey in his usual pleasing manner. The rest of the company are good in their several specialties, and with the present programme, which is new, the season promises to be a good one.”

“The new season, at the comfortable and cheerful little theatre of the San Francisco Minstrels, has commenced in success for the performers and pleasure for the public. This troupe was organized in 1854, and we believe it to be the oldest association of the kind—as certainly it is one of the best—before the community. It numbers, this season, twenty-two members—Messrs. B. Newcomb, C. Gibbons, J. Cheever, E. Kennedy, W. Dwyer, J. F. Oberist, C. Templeton, C. Shattuck, J. B. Donniker, A. Schmidt, J. Salcedo, J. Jach, F. Bucknor, L. Nortur, W. Shaw, B. West, the Buffalo Boys, B. Birch, D. S. Wambold, W. Bernard, and C. Backus. Its opening programme, though framed upon the usual plan, contains some novel features and much variety of sentimental and humorous matter. Mr. Backus makes Bret Harte’s ‘Heathen Chinee’ the topic of a good comic song, and Mr. Wambold sings a plaintive ballad called ‘Little Footsteps.’ One farcical act ridicules amateur theatricals in the country, and another serves up satirical hits at the times. The entertainment, like Caesar’s Gaul, is divided into three parts, and it closes with a rattling burlesque called ‘Nilsson, or the Black Nightingale.’ We know not where a more satisfying performance is to be enjoyed than this of the San Francisco Minstrels—satisfactory in this especial sense, that it makes no extravagant pretensions, but entirely keeps the word of promise, and actually is, in all respects, what it pretends to be. Perhaps some of the minstrels would be better artists should they merge their identity in their occupation, and contrive to seem less conscious of their own fun. But—there is no need to set up too rigid a standard of criticism, as to art of this kind. One of the things that make life—and newspapers—tedious, is the strenuous discussion of trifles. The reader may escape that, and many other forms of weariness, by a visit to the San Francisco Minstrels.