ACROSS THE RIVER FROM BROADWAY: ANNALS OF THE BROOKLYN STAGE (1898-1908): DECEMBER 1901

Gayety Theatre, at the intersection of Broadway and Throop Avenue.

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).

DECEMBER 1901

*=novelties (recent plays new to Brooklyn)

December 2-7:
Amphion: The Old Homestead (Denman Thompson)
Bijou: A Ragged Hero
Columbia: (Greenwall Stock Company) Hazel Kirke
Criterion: Two Irish Hearts* (Kitty Coleman)
Folly: The County Fair (Neil Burgess)
Gotham: (Elite Stock Company) Hazel Kirke
Grand Opera House: Faust (Lewis Morrison)
Montauk: In the Palace of the King* (Viola Allen)
Park: (Spooner Stock Company) The Deacon’s Daughter
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) The Wife
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) Kit, the Arkansas Traveler
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Star, Novelty, Paula’s Musée, Orpheum, Gayety, Uniqu

December 9-14:
Amphion: Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Edward Harrigan)
Bijou: The Secret Dispatch*
Columbia: (Greenwall Stock Company) Cumberland ‘61
Criterion: The Flip Mr. Flop*
Folly: Faust (Lewis Morrison)
Gotham: (Elite Stock Company) Under the Gaslight
Grand Opera House: The Old Homestead (Denman Thompson)
Montauk: A Royal Rival* (William Faversham)
Park: (Spooner Stock Company) East Lynne
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) Rip Van Winkle
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Theatre Company) The Wheel of Fortune
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Star, Novelty, Unique, Gayety, Paula’s Musée, Orpheum

December 16-21:
Bijou: The Road to Ruin* (Terry McGovern)
Columbia: (Greenwall Stock Company) Cleopatra
Criterion: Down on the Farm*
Gotham: (Elite Stock Company) An Old Colony Girl
Grand Opera House: The Girl from Paris*
Montauk: If I Were King* (E. H. Sothern)
Park: (Spooner Stock Company) Too Much Johnson
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) East Lynne
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) Old Money Bags
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Star, Unique, Gayety, Paula’s Musée, Orpheum

December 23-28:
Amphion: Lovers’ Lane
Bijou: Eight Bells (the Byrne Brothers)
Columbia: (Greenwall Stock Company) Aristocracy
Criterion: The House That Jack Built*
Folly: Tom Moore (Andrew Mack)
Gotham: (Elite Stock Company) The Battle for Life; or, In Prison Bars
Grand Opera House: The County Fair (Neil Burgess)
Montauk: The Second in Command* (John Drew)
Park: (Spooner Stock Company) The Girl from Texas
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) A Midnight Bell
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company)
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Star, Unique, Gayety, Paula’s Musée, Orpheum

December 30-January 4:
Amphion: The Burgomaster

Blaney’s: Only a Shop Girl, with Sidney Toler

Bijou: At Cripple Creek*
Brooklyn Academy of Music: As You Like It, Mistress Nell (Henrietta Crosman)
Blaney’s: Only a Shop Girl, with Sidney Toler
Columbia: (Greenwall Stock Company) Around the World in Eighty Days
Folly: Eight Bells (the Byrne Brothers)
Gotham: (Elite Stock Company) Russian Serfs
Grand Opera House: Tom Moore (Andrew Mack)
Montauk: Liberty Belles
Park: (Spooner Stock Company) Little Lord Fauntleroy
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) The Charity Ball
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) The Queen of Chinatown
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Star, Unique, Gayety, Paula’s Musée, Orpheum