"[1][2] After a successful run in Chicago, it ran for 152 performance at the Bijou in Manhattan from February to June 1890, making it one of the biggest hits of the 1889-90 season in New York.

Then, when the City Directory opened, it was feared that despite Potter's friendly relations with Chicago critics, the piece would be condemned.

Instead, a few minutes into the opening performance, uproarious laughter came from box where Frohman and Howard were watching—to help out their friend Potter.

Thus, the biography suggests, the critics "were so impressed that they praised the farce and started The City Directory on a career of remarkable success.

"[4] The New York Sun called the show an "outgrowth of the public demand for that type of funny writing that which is harmless and valueless at the same time, with more song than satire, and with the punctuations of specialities of the vaudeville order.