Ben Cotton and Sam Sharpley’s Minstrels

“Second Week of this Beautiful Temple.  The metropolitan sensation, imitated but not equaled.  Entire change this week.  Ben Cotton and Sam Sharpley’s Minstrels, in new songs and some more new jokes.”

“Charley White having entered into a partnership with Ben Cotton and Sam Sharpley, these favorites have opened the theatre on Broadway, opposite the St. Nicolas Hotel, with a lively variety entertainment.  The Buislay family give pantomimes and congress of singers and comedians furnish a merry spell of music and fun every night.”

“The Theatre Comique has been very liberally patronized since it opened under the management of Sharpley, Cotton and White.  The entertainment consists of a regular minstrel first part by thirteen performers, after which an olio of acrobatic and gymnastic feats, banjo solo, songs and Ethiopianisms.  The minstrel entertainment is replete with genuine fun – original fun, too, for we are spared old jokes, stale conundrums, and bad puns, and the company have become favorites with the public, which is owing to the downright excellence of their music, vocal and instrumental, the wit and humor of their colloquial interludes, and the mirth provoking extravagance of their burlesques. The Niagara Leap was well done by the Buislays; Mlle. Devere’s terpsichorean efforts were deservedly applauded, and Eva Brent’s singing of ‘McGregor’s Gathering’ was capitally given. Sam Sharpley’s banjo solo is original, and therefore very entertaining. The pantomime of the ‘French Milliners,’ with the Buislay and Caron families in the principal roles, was a laughable affair. Business was good all the past week.”