ACROSS THE RIVER FROM BROADWAY: ANNALS OF THE BROOKLYN STAGE (1898-1908): APRIL 1900

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 1900

*=novelties (recent plays new to Brooklyn)

April 2-7:
Amphion: Ein New Yorker Brauer (Adolf Phillip and company)
Bijou: Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Columbia: The Girl from Maxim’s
Gayety: The Gunner’s Mate
Grand Opera House: A Stranger in New York (Corse Payton Comedy Company)
Montauk: When We Were Twenty-One* (Nat C. Goodwin, Maxine Elliott)
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Brooklyn Music Hall, Empire, Star, Novelty

April 8-14:
Bijou: On the Stroke of 12*
Gayety: A Female Drummer (Johnstone Bennett)
Grand Opera House: The Prodigal Daughter; Camille; The Parisian Princess; Aristocracy; Jim, the Penman; My Kentucky Home; Drifted Apart; Romeo and Juliet; Diplomacy; A Midnight Folly; The Plunger (Corse Payton’s Comedy Company; different plays at each matinee and evening performance)
Montauk: Papa’s Wife* (Anna Held)
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Brooklyn Music Hall, Empire, Star, Novelty

April 16-21:
Amphion: A Romance of Athlone (Chauncey Olcott)
Bijou: The Bowery after Dark*
Columbia: The Degenerates* (Lillie Langtry)
Gayety: A Stranger in New York
Grand Opera House: The Galley Slave; East Lynne; Diplomacy; A Child of State; The Parisian Princess; The Plunger; A Midnight Folly; My Kentucky Home; The Prodigal Daughter; Sapho; A Gigantic Liar (Corse Payton’s Comedy Company; different plays at each matinee and evening performance)
Montauk: The Song of the Sword; The Sunken Bell* (2 performances) (E. H. Sothern, Virginia Harned)
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Brooklyn Music Hall, Empire, Star, Novelty

April 22-28:
Amphion: From Broadway to Tokio* (Fay Templeton)
Bijou: A Young Wife*
Columbia: Oliver Goldsmith * (Stuart Robson)
Gayety: McFadden’s Row of Flats
Grand Opera House: The Parisian Woman; Jim, the Penman; A Gigantic Liar; Sapho; The Prodigal Daughter; Drifted Apart; Romeo and Juliet; Diplomacy; Aristocracy; The Plunger; A Child of State; My Kentucky Home (Corse Payton’s Comedy Company; different plays at each matinee and evening)
Montauk: Wheels within Wheels*
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Brooklyn Music Hall, Empire, Star, Novelty