Tony Pastor’s Opera House

“The management, determined to produce novelties in rapid succession, have engaged the services of Sam Ryan, said to be the greatest Irish comedian of the day.”

Dramatic, operatic, terpsichorean, pantomimic, acrobatic, and Ethiopic entertainments are presented.  They are auditioning entertainers in these fields.

“Tony Pastor, who has opened his opera house in the Bowery, opposite Spring street, will no doubt be more successful with his troupe than Maretzek with his.  Maretzek wields a heavy baton, but Tony is his own prima donna, tenor, etc. so that in his case there is no fear of ‘indisposition,’ or other ailments to which Max’s refractory people are so addicted.  Already Tony has got the whip hand of Max, for he is in full song, with his house crowded every night.  In fact, Tony Pastor’s entertainments take remarkably well on the east side, composed as they are of singing, dancing, gymnastic, minstrel, and various other performances; we notice a great many former patrons of the Old Bowery in attendance at Tony Pastor’s Opera House; the same class of people who visit the old theatre are of that sort who much favor those diversified performances which are now attracting such large audiences to the great comic singer’s opera house; Max, on the other hand, cannot look for much of this patronage; he must rely on his own set—a bad lot now that the war is over, contracts among the things of the past, shoddy of no account and coal oil precarious.  We shall certainly bet on Tony Pastor’s Opera House in the Bowery. . . . Sam Ryan appeared during the week as Tim O’Brien in ‘The Irish Emigrant,’ and proved himself to be a very good Irish comedian. . . . Laura Taylor, said to be from London, and who by the way is a very good vocalist, was added to the company and made a favorable impression.”