As a phase of city life which does not often turn its side to the
public, and as a place to enjoy an unlimited amount of fun for a little
money, the Church street colored Theatre is well worth visiting.
A grand Shakspearean festival was lately announced to come off here, on
which occasion the tragedy of Macbeth was to be performed with "all the
original music, new and gorgeous scenery, rich and elegant costumes,
magnificent scenic appointments, &c.," according to the time-honored
"gag" in such case made and provided.
The novelty of seeing a black Macbeth with the entire tragedy done in
colors by the best artists, promised to be almost as good a burlesque as
the bearded Indian exhibition made by the great American Tragedian at
the Broadway; and so with a varied assortment of friends I started to
witness the unusual spectacle of a Bowery darkey representing a Scotch
king.
Paid the entrance fee all in dimes, as the door-keeper couldn't read the
Counterfeit Detector, and wouldn't take bills for fear he would get
stuck with bad money.
Orchestra consisted of a bass-drum, one violin, and a cornet-a-piston.
Seats, new benches with coffee-sacks spread over those constituting the
Dress Circle.
Orchestra essayed the Prima Donna Waltz, which gradually degenerated
into "Wait for the Wagon," and concluded in "Few Days."
Great deal of whispering and shuffling about behind the scenes, a great
deal of emphatic ordering about from the unseen prompter, who was
trying, as nearly as I could judge, to have Macduff take his chew of
tobacco out of his mouth, and at last the curtain rolled up.
Macbeth was a fat gentleman of jetty hue who might have been head-cook
at Delmonico's for twenty years, and who would, had he been subjected to
a melting process, have furnished soap and candles enough for a small
chandlery business.
Whether he _intended_ to give the tragedy a gastronomical interpretation
or not is uncertain, but it is a veritable fact that he dressed the
character in a cook's apron, had a paper cap with a long turkey feather
in it on his head, his steel by his side, a butcher-knife in his hand,
and the cover of the soup-pot for a shield.
Macduff was attired more like a Lake Superior Indian than anything else,
with a superfluity of red flannel fringe, and silver rings in his ears
and nose.
Lady Macbeth rejoiced in a tin crown with seven points, each one with a
crescent on top, brass-heeled gaiters, a dress with a purple waist, and
a green baize train, two cameo bracelets, and lemon-colored kid gloves.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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