ACROSS THE RIVER FROM BROADWAY: ANNALS OF THE BROOKLYN STAGE (1898-1908): APRIL 1899

This blog is dedicated to preserving a record of Brooklyn theatre theatre-related images based largely on publication in nearly a half-dozen contemporary Brooklyn newspapers and one weekly magazine (Brooklyn Life) of 1898-1908. It also lists the week-by-week productions at each legitimate theatre from January 1898 through December 1908. It is adapted from my earlier blog, BROOKLYN THEATRE FROM 1898: AN ILLUSTRATED CHRONOLOGY and is intended as a supplement to a forthcoming two-volume book also called ACROSS THE RIVER FROM BROADWAY: ANNALS OF THE BROOKLYN STAGE (1898-1908).

The book covers everything related to Brooklyn theatre during the first decade of the former city's first decade as a borough of Greater New York, including plays, playhouses, productions, people, producing policies, scandals, lawsuits, fires, accidents, brawls, ethnic theatres, crimes, religious attacks, rivalry with Manhattan, and so on. The focus is on legitimate theatre, but considerable attention is paid to developments in vaudeville and burlesque as well.

To find a specific month, please use the search box in the upper left corner. May-June and August-September are always joined, so searches for one of those months should be, for example, May-June 1906.

Samuel L. Leiter

Author: BROOKLYN TAKES THE STAGE: NINETEENTH-CENTURY THEATER IN THE CITY OF CHURCHES (McFarland: 2024).

APRIL 1899

*=novelties (recent plays new to Brooklyn)

April 3-8:

Amphion: The Chimes of Normandy, The Bohemian Girl (Jaxon Opera Company)
Bijou: Yon Yonson (Ben Hendricks Company)
Columbia: The Turtle*
Gayety: The Village Postmaster
Grand Opera House: Jack and the Beanstalk
Montauk: Her Atonement
Park: Wang (Milton Aborn Comic Opera Company)
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Brooklyn Music Hall, Empire, Star, Novelty

April 10-15:

Amphion: Olivette, The Mascot, Lucia di Lammermoor, Il Trovatore, Faust (Jaxon Opera Company)
Bijou: A Romance of Athlone* (Chauncey Olcott)
Brooklyn Academy of Music: A Runaway Girl* (Augustin Daly’s Company, with Virginia Earl and James T. Powers)
Columbia: The King’s Musketeer* (E. H. Sothern)
Gayety: King of the Opium Ring
Grand Opera House: London Life*
Montauk: Her Atonement
Park: The Isle of Champagne (Milton Aborn Comic Opera Company)
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Brooklyn Music Hall, Empire, Star, Novelty

April 17-22:

Amphion: The Little Minister (Maude Adams)
Bijou: A Romance of Athlone (Chauncey Olcott)
Brooklyn Academy of Music: Nathan the Wise (Adolf von Sonnenthal; one performance only, April 17; in German)
Columbia: The King’s Musketeer (E. H. Sothern)
Gayety: London Life
Montauk: The Three Dragoons* (Broadway Theater Opera Company)
Park: Cavalleria Rusticana, H.M.S. Pinafore, The Chimes of Normandy, The Bohemian Girl, Boccaccio (Milton Aborn Comic Opera Company)
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Brooklyn Music Hall, Empire, Star, Novelty, Grand Opera House

April 24-29:

Amphion: Fra Diavolo, Martha (Jaxon Opera Company)
Bijou: King of the Opium Ring
Columbia: At the White Horse Tavern* (Amelia Bingham)
Gayety: The Ragged Earl (Andrew Mack)
Grand Opera House: Too Much Johnson
Montauk: Trelawny of the “Wells”* (Lyceum Theatre Company, with Mary Mannering, Hilda Spong)
Park: Said Pasha, Martha, The Mikado (Milton Aborn Comic Opera Company)
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Brooklyn Music Hall, Empire, Star, Novelty