He toured extensively in Britain, South Africa and Australia, first with Frederick Loudin's Jubilee Singers and then with his own minstrel companies.

Their selection consists of a peculiar kind of part song, the different voices joining in at most unexpected moments in a wild kind of harmony ... it is without doubt one of the attributes of the race to which they belong, and in their most sacred songs they seem at times inspired, as if they were lifting up their voices in praise of God with hopes of liberty.

[6] McAdoo's company found strong racial prejudice in South Africa, particularly in Transvaal and the Orange Free State, with a 9 p.m. curfew for blacks.

[8][b] In February 1891, President Paul Kruger saw the Jubilee Singers perform, perhaps entering a theater for the first time in his life, and was said to have been greatly moved by their rendition of "Nobody knows the trouble I have seen".

[11] A sample joke from this show, adapted from the plantation to the South African frontier, was, One of the corner men asks a brother where he would like to be buried when he died.

[1] McAdoo leased the Palace Theatre, Sydney, a vaudeville house, with plans to establish a stock company there.

McAdoo Georgia Minstrels show in the Brisbane Opera House in January 1900 said "The two low comedians of the company−"Billy" McClain and C.W.

Walker−had their hearers in fits of laughter throughout the evening, their reappearance on the stage after their turns in the first part being always the signal for fresh outbursts of mirth.

[1] Mattie E. Allen of Columbus, Ohio provided the lyrics to "The Victory Song", set in 1919 by Frank W. Ford.

The show was well-received, with reviewers focussing on the insight it provided South African audiences into the social, political and cultural implications of the visits at the time.

[17] In 2024 Kramer put on a refreshed version of the show, this time called "Orpheus McAdoo: A Musical", in a first-time collaboration with the Cape Town Opera.