Newcomb and Arlington’s Minstrels

Forthcoming alterations to the lower Apollo Hall, 28^th St., by new managers William Newcomb and William Arlington.

For April 10.

For April 10.

Postponement until 17 April.

Decline in the public’s interest in minstrelsy.  

Complete program for opening night. 

“This excellent company, in which may be found some of the leading members of the profession, have found permanent quarters in one of the handsomest and coziest little halls that ever a cork face illuminated. It is immediately under Apollo Hall, and for room, ventilation and elegance is everything that might be desired. It will seat about eight hundred people, and the frescoing, light and appointments are all first class in their way. In the company are those old favorites, Newcomb, Arlington, Rice, Leveridge, Reynolds, Murphy, Henry, Stanwood and Walters. The end men are Messrs. Arlington and Reynolds, and Leveridge is the middle man. There is an excellent vocal quintet, and the orchestra, under the direction of Mr. Donniker, is a feature in the entertainment. The bill for this week consists of a capital burlesque on the Ninth Regiment Band, in addition to a choice olio and an introduction of the most amusing character. Altogether the company has commenced a season which bids fair to be a highly successful one. The public are the best judges of this kind of entertainment, and last night encores were quite numerous, and several obese gentlemen in the audience went into convulsions of a cachinatory nature which threatened to become serious.”

“The new company has refitted the hall in Twenty-eighth street, near Broadway, with excellent taste. The walls are tinted in subdued and pleasant colors, the stage is bright with new scenery, and the auditorium is handsomely and comfortably furnished. Evidently the minstrels have come to stay. Their opening entertainments have shown that in the varied branches of their profession they have a well organized, competent, and effective company. Whatever our ‘colored brethren’ have ever done, this particular company is equally able to do. The programme consists of the usual variety: First the accustomed black circlet of singer and players, resplendent in white shirt bosoms, with the end men looking absurdly solemn and grotesque. From these we have sentimental ballads, comic songs by the end men, and chorus singing by a skillful quartet. After this is a burlesque of Fisk’s Ninth Regiment band concerts. Then a capital travestie by Mr. W. H. Rice on Miss Nilsson’s lackadaisical rendering of the ‘Old Folks at Home.’ There is also some good double clog dancing, and a variety of comic scenes. The company has some unusually good instrumental soloists—for instance, Mr. Hammond, the cornet player; and the singing men have voices of good quality, lacking, as is somewhat generally the case with the minstrels, in cultivation. If the gentlemen of this calling would recognize the fact that there is but one school of singing, and that exactly the same training is required to make a good negro minstrel as to make an operatic singer, and if, acting under this theory, they should put themselves into the hands of the best Italian singing teachers, then we should have as artistic vocalism in the minstrel halls as on the operatic stage; for there is in many of these companies, as there is noticeably in this one, the very best material for training. But there is no such thing possible as a self-made singer. It is the one thing that does not ‘come by nature.’

Charles Reynolds (bones) and William Arlington (tambourine) are the two men on whom the fun of the evening depends, and they are both admirably gifted with comic power. Reynolds has a delightful infectious laugh, and Arlington is bright, clever, and absurdly droll in everything he says and does. We foresee but one drawback to the success of this company, and that is the serious one of the ill ventilation of the hall.”

Names of company and orchestra members. 

“This new company of Ethiopian performers has made a most auspicious beginning, at the new Opera House, corner of Broadway and Twenty-eighth-st. Their first performance in the new hall took place last Monday, and the same programme has been repeated every night since then. There is no need to tell the reader that this enterprise starts with the advantage of a good location. The neighborhood of the Fifth Avenue Hotel is now the theatrical district of the city; and it is therein that Messrs. Newcomb and Arlington have set up their standard. It is the Black Flag of revelry, and it denotes a headquarters of mirth. This opera-house is one of the neatest little places our city affords to the seeker after pleasure. It used to be ‘Apollo Hall’; but it has been entirely refitted, and it is now a much handsomer and cooler place. It contains a parquette and parquette-circle, and one gallery, and is supplied with comfortable seats, and is brilliantly lighted. The decorative painting on its walls and ceiling proscenium arch especially pleases the eye by its delicacy of hue. Tinted white and soft dove-color prevail; but blue and red are not wanting to give zest to the general effect. And an atmosphere of wax-like cleanliness and neatness pervades the stage and the auditorium. Refinement seems everywhere to prevail—and this was a marked merit of the Inaugural Performance. Messrs. Newcomb and Arlington have organized quite a numerous company, and it includes several persons of more than ordinary talent. The banjo is played by Mr. William Arlington, who is fortunate in animal spirits, in real humor, in skill, and in ripe professional experience. The bones are rattled by Mr. Charles Reynolds, who is of a merry and irrepressible turn, and largely contributes to the mirthfulness of the entertainment. The middleman is Mr. J. H. Surridge. The prima-donna, whose stage-business and management of voice manifest originality, is Mr. W. Henry Rice—and his exploits very naturally win her a great deal of applause. Upward of twenty features are offered in the programme which has kept the stage this week, and which will be offered at to-day’s matinée and again this evening. The only dull incident is ‘The West Point Cadet,’ and, possibly, there is a little too much the ‘Water Nymph,’ by Mr. Charles Walters. In the minstrel performances the weak point is –an indisposition to stop when the required effect has once been attained. Players should remember this, and should reflect that they are never so popular as when they leave their audiences clamorous for more. One of the hits of the opening programme was ‘The Miller’s Boy.’ Another capital feature was the double clog dance. The general performance, on the night we saw it, was carried through with spirit, and was vigorously applauded by a large company of spectators. The establishment of a new minstrel hall in this convenient quarter of the town will bring comfort to many weary workers, who would fain laugh off their cares, and to whom the more pretentious entertainments offered at the regular theaters are in some sense a burden.”

Complete programme, with performers; description of the auditorium. “The performance, making due allowance for the fact that the performers had recently been brought together for the first time, was a good one. The instrumentation was excellent, and the choruses were well sung. J. H. Surridge, a tenor, sang ‘When the Corn is Waving,’ with good effect. Charles Reynolds, in a comic ditty, was encored. J. H. Murphy evinced the possession of a good voice and considerable musical culture by his singing of ‘Erin Ashore;’ William Arlington sang ‘The Poultry Show’ with imitations of roosters, chickens, etc., so well that he was thrice encored. Charles Henry’s pleasing tenor voice was heard to advantage in ‘Darling Little Daisey.’ In the second part the burlesque of the Ninth Regiment Band was quite a success. The performers wore military caps, red coats and black pants, and discoursed sweet music from brass instruments. W. W. Newcomb was quite successful in caricaturing the movements of a musical conductor. W. Henry Rice as a burlesque prima donna was thrice encored, in response to one of which he sang the ‘Old Folks at Home,’ in imitation of M’lle Nilsson, which was received with much favor; Henry Stanwood played an air very effectively upon a toy violin; J. Hammond played a solo upon the cornet, which required much skill to execute, and W. W. Newcomb performed a solo upon two mouth harmonicons. In part third the statue clog dance by Masters Willie and Tommy was remarkable for rapidity of execution and excellence of time. They were deservedly encored. William Arlington, in burlesque female attire, convulsed the audience with laughter by his grotesque evolutions in a Scotch strathspey. Reynolds and Stanwood were funny in the sketch ‘Through by Daylight.’ The song and dance by Charley Walters, entitled the ‘Water Nymph,’ was one of the most prominent features of the programme. This performer, besides being a good singer and dancer, possesses a degree of acrobatic skill seldom witnessed upon the minstrel boards. He is very graceful and besides throwing a backward somersault with ease performs a number of acrobatic feats which it is impossible to describe. A triple encore rewarded his efforts to please. Henry Stanwood most favorably impressed the audience by his bon mots and banjo playing with comic songs. The company is a good one, and the performances will naturally improve as the performers become accustomed to each other. The jokes and funny sayings in the first part were novel and fresh, and we think this cosy little hall, so excellently situated, will become a permanent institution of popular resort.”