Montpellier’s Opera House Grand Opening

Performers.

In “Amusements This Evening.”  “Minstrelsy, Singing, Dancing, Pantomimes, &c.”

“This establishment . . . will open to-night for the first time with a splendid bill, represented by one of the largest companies in the city.  It includes no less than twelve male artists . . . and eighteen ladies of the corps de ballet.  The theatrical and musical entertainments of the Bowery region are becoming more refined and more rational, and will soon put out of sight the blood and thunder drama which has for so long continued to damage the morals of the young in that vicinity.”

“Montpelier’s [sic] Opera House, late Varieties, in the Bowery, was opened by A. Montpelier [sic], formerly of the Varieties, Cleveland, Ohio on the 21st inst., with the following company: Charles Covelli, stage manager; Tim Hayes, Joe Childs, Johnny Carroll, Augusta, Louise and Lizzie Walby, Louise Evans, Victoria Ross, Molly Ward, Mlle Rosetta, Emeline Melville, Maggie Mairs, Mr. Berry, Master Philip Kincade, George Warren and Hank Goodman.  The company is a pretty fair one, but we learn that it will be strengthened during the present week by the addition of several good performers.  Mr. Montpelier [sic] has expended some money in cleaning the place up, and has made a new entrance to the parquet, which is facing the main lobby.  On the opening night, the lower party of the house was well filled, and the upper part about half full.  There are some good and some bad performers in the present organization.  The ballet is a pretty good one, and the Walby Sisters are clever solo dancers.  Mr. Covelli, as a comic singer, is fair to middling, and Tim Hayes is a good clog dancer.  Joe Childs and Johnny Carroll are also clever.  Geo. Warren is not a very brilliant banjoist, but Master Kincade is a good gymnastic performer.  With proper management and a good entertainment, there is no reason why the Varieties should not succeed.”

“For a new man, Mr. Montpelier [sic], of Montpelier’s [sic] Opera House on the Bowery, above Bayard street, has done extremely well.  He took the place under adverse circumstances; he very properly shut it up for a few weeks, and then opened with quite a fair company for that region or country.  During the past week, not crowded but paying audiences have rewarded his efforts.  Tim Hayes, clog dancer, was one of his principal cards, but rumor has it that Tim danced off with another dancer on the 26th and that the twain became one of the silken bands of wedlock, which, the post announcer, is a ticklish thing.  The outgoers are succeeded by several fresh incomers, among them Carrie Reeve, vocalist; John Herron, comedian and Irishist; and Louis J. Donnelly, who is billed as the ‘Ethiopian Cubas.’”