Every night that the play was performed, there was this excitement and controversy that was, was really an expression of the kinds of passions that...uh...differences of aesthetics and political opinions, and taste could give rise to.
round somebody/something ↔ up
2to find and gather together a group of people, animals, or things:
See if you can round up a few friends to help you!
So, to protect himself, he rounded up his friends for opening night.
And Hugo writes about this arrival of the romantics, these wild and bizarre characters and their outlandish customs, which stupefied and infuriated the more conventional theater-goers