ACROSS THE RIVER FROM BROADWAY: ANNALS OF THE BROOKLYN STAGE (1898-1908): APRIL 1903

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 1901

*=novelties (recent plays new to Brooklyn)

April 1-6:

Bijou: Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Milt G. Barlow Company)
Brooklyn Academy of Music: L’Aiglon; Camille (Sarah Bernhardt, Coquelin; three performances)
Columbia: The Girl from Up Here* (Edna May, Charles Frohman Musical Comedy Company)
Gayety: The Bowery After Dark (Terry McGovern)
Grand Opera House: Quo Vadis
Montauk: Hamlet; Camille (E.H. Sothern, Virginia Harned)
Park: The Pearl of Savoy (Spooner Stock Company)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: Nell Gwynne (Payton Stock Company)
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Brooklyn Music Hall, Star, Novelty, Orpheum

April 8-13:

Amphion: Der Millionen Schwab, German light opera (Adolf Phillip)
Bijou: On the Suwannee River
Criterion: Friends (Baker Stock Company)
Columbia: To Have and to Hold* (Isabel Irving)
Gayety: Human Spiders*
Grand Opera House: The Little Minister
Montauk: David Harum (William H. Crane)
Park: The Butterflies (Spooner Stock Company)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: A Midnight Bell (Payton Stock Company)
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Brooklyn Music Hall, Star, Novelty, Orpheum

April 15-20:

Bijou: The Dangers of Paris
Columbia: The Lash of a Whip; The Shades of Night
Criterion: Too Much Johnson (Baker Stock Company)
Gayety: Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Al W. Martin’s Company)
Grand Opera House: A Trip to Chinatown
Montauk: David Harum* (William H. Crane)
Park: That Girl from Paris; East Lynne (Spooner Stock Company)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: The Belle of Richmond (Payton Stock Company)
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Brooklyn Music Hall, Star, Novelty, Orpheum

April 22-27:

Amphion: Richard Carvel (John Drew)
Bijou: The Tide of Life*
Criterion: The Late Mr. Jones (Baker Stock Company)
Gayety: Sons of Ham (Bert Williams, George Walker)
Grand Opera House: Sapho (Sadie Martinot)
Montauk: Fiddle-Dee-Dee; burlesques of The Gay Lord Quex and A Royal Family (Weber and Fields, De Wolf Hopper, John T. Kelly, Lillian Russell, David Warfield)
Park: The Galley Slave (Spooner Stock Company)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: Romeo and Juliet (Payton Stock Company)
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Brooklyn Music Hall, Star, Novelty, Orpheum

April 29-May 4:

Bijou: The Still Alarm (Harry Lacy)
Columbia: Ben Hur*
Criterion: The Man from Mexico (Baker Stock Company)
Gayety: Sapho (Sadie Martinot)
Grand Opera House: Old Jed Prouty* (Richard Golden)
Montauk: Are You a Mason?*
Park: A Soldier of the Empire (Spooner Stock Company)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: The Sporting Duchess (Payton Stock Company)
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Brooklyn Music Hall, Star, Novelty, Orpheu