The Black Crook Review by Charles Dickens

[it is] the most preposterous peg to hang ballets on that was ever seen. The people
who act in it have not the slightest idea of what it is about, and never had; but, after
taxing my intellectual powers to the utmost, I fancy that I have discovered Black
Crook to be a malignant hunchback leagued with the Powers of Darkness to separate
two lovers; and the Powers of Lightness coming (in no skirts whatsoever) to the
rescue, he is defeated.

The Black Crook Review by Mark Twain 1867

Beautiful bare-legged girls hanging in flower baskets; others stretched in groups on
great sea shells; others clustered around fluted columns; others in all possible
attitudes, girls---nothing but wilderness of girls—stacked up, pile on pile, away aloft
to the dome of the theatre, diminishing in size and clothing, till the last row, mere
children, dangle high up from invisible ropes, arrayed only in camisa. The whole
tableau resplendent with columns, scrolls, and a vast ornamental work, wrought in
gold, silver and brilliant colors—al lit up with gorgeous theatrical fires, and
witnessed through a great gauzy curtain that counterfeits a soft silver mist! It is the
wonders of Arabian Nights realized.

“the scenery and the legs were everything”

Stempel, Larry (2010). Showtime A History of the Broadway Musical Theatre.

W.W.Norton & Company, New York London