ACROSS THE RIVER FROM BROADWAY: ANNALS OF THE BROOKLYN STAGE (1898-1908): DECEMBER 1902

William Gillette as Sherlock Holmes.

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 1902

*=novelties (recent plays new to Brooklyn)

December 1-6:
Amphion: My Lady Peggy Goes to Town* (Cecil Spooner)
Bijou: Madame Sans Gêne (Spooner Stock Company)
Blaney’s: The Fugitive (Blaney’s All-Star Stock Company)
Columbia: Secret Service (Greenwall Stock Company)
Folly: The Governor’s Son (the Four Cohans)
Gotham: Blow for Blow (Elite Stock Company)
Grand Opera House: Are You a Mason? (John C. Rice, Thomas A. Wise)
Montauk: Du Barry* (Mrs. Leslie Carter)
Park: Not Guilty*
Payton’s Lee Avenue: The Shaughraun (Payton Stock Company)
Phillips’ Lyceum: The Face in the Moonlight (Lyceum Stock Company)
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Star, Orpheum, Gayety, Unique

December 8-13:
Amphion: Quincy Adams Sawyer* (Charles Dixon)
Bijou: The Still Alarm (Spooner Stock Company)
Blaney’s: The Great Poison Mystery* (Blaney’s All-Star Stock Company)
Columbia: Carmen (Greenwall Stock Company)
Folly: Are You a Mason? (John C. Rice, Thomas A. Wise)
Gotham: The Red Barn (Elite Stock Company)
Grand Opera House: Alphonse and Gaston*
Montauk: Du Barry (Mrs. Leslie Carter)
Park: Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Payton’s Lee Avenue: Aristocracy (Payton Stock Company)
Phillips’ Lyceum: The Man Without a Country (Lyceum Stock Company)
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Star, Orpheum, Gayety, Unique

December 15-20:
Amphion: The Defender*
Bijou: East Lynne (Spooner Stock Company)
Blaney’s: In the Heart of the Storm (Blaney’s All-Star Stock Company)
Columbia: My Friend from India (Greenwall Stock Company)
Folly: Alphonse and Gaston
Gotham: The Turn of the Tide (Elite Stock Company)
Grand Opera House: A Desperate Chance*
Montauk: The Night of the Party* (Weedon Grossmith)
Park: At Cripple Creek
Payton’s Lee Avenue: A Midnight Folly (Payton Stock Company)
Phillips’ Lyceum: Her One Great Sin (Lyceum Stock Company)
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Star, Orpheum, Gayety, Unique

December 22-27:
Amphion: Robert Emmet; or, the Days of 1803* (Brandon Tynan)
Bijou: A Lady of Quality (Spooner Stock Company)
Blaney’s: The Power of the Cross* (Blaney’s All-Star Stock Company)
Columbia: As You Like It (Greenwall Stock Company)
Folly: A Fight for Millions
Gotham: The Slaves of Russia (Elite Stock Company)
Grand Opera House: A Prince of Tatters*
Montauk: Sherlock Holmes (William Gillette, Alida Cortelyou)
Park: The Little Mother*
Payton’s Lee Avenue: Michael Strogoff (Payton Stock Company)
Phillips’ Lyceum: Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Lyceum Stock Company)
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Star, Orpheum, Gayety, Unique

December 29-January 3:
Amphion: The Toreador (Francis Wilson)
Bijou: Little Lord Fauntleroy (Spooner Stock Company)
Blaney’s: The Strange Adventures of Miss Brown (Blaney’s All-Star Stock Company)
Brooklyn Academy of Music: The Sword of the King* (Henrietta Crosman

Columbia: Antony and Cleopatra (Greenwall Stock Company; Melbourne McDowell, Florence Stone

Folly: A Desperate Chance
Gotham: The City of New York (Elite Stock Company)
Grand Opera House: Spotless Town*
Montauk: The Joy of Living*; The Second Mrs. Tanqueray (Mrs. Patrick Campbell)
Park: Eight Bells (the Byrne Brothers)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: A Milk White Flag (Payton Stock Company)
Phillips’ Lyceum: The Queen of Chinatown (Lyceum Stock Company)