JANUARY 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).

 

JANUARY 1899 

JANUARY 1899

 *=novelties (recent plays new to Brooklyn)

January 9-14:
Amphion: The Jolly Musketeer (Jefferson De Angelis); Shenandoah (Maurice Barrymore)
Gayety: Superba
Grand Opera House: The Evil Eye*
Montauk: The Head of the Family* (William H. Crane)
Park: Cyrano de Bergerac (Kate Claxton Company)
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Brooklyn Music Hall, Empire, Star

January 16-21:
Amphion: The Village Postmaster*
Bijou: Hogan’s Alley* (Gilmore and Leonard)
Columbia: The Charlatan*U (De Wolf Hopper)
Gayety: A Lucky Coon (Bert Williams, George Walker)

Montauk: Sporting Life*
Park: The Battles of Our Nation*
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Brooklyn Music Hall, Empire, Star

January 23-28:
Amphion: The Master,* Heartsease (Henry Miller)
Bijou: The Red, White and Blue*
Columbia: The White Heather (Rose Coghlan)
Gayety: Devil’s Island
Grand Opera House: Primrose and Dockstader’s American Minstrels
Montauk: Mary Stuart, Antony and Cleopatra, Camille, Macbeth (Helena Modjeska)
Park: The Battles of Our Nation
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Brooklyn Music Hall, Empire, Star

January 30-February 4:
Amphion: The White Heather (Rose Coghlan)
Bijou: Have You Seen Smith?*
Columbia: On and Off*
Gayety: Primrose and Dockstader’s American Minstrels
Grand Opera House: At the French Ball* (Fannie Rice)
Montauk: Cyrano de Bergerac (Richard Mansfield)
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Brooklyn Music Hall, Empire, Star

January 2-7, 1899

 January 9-14, 1899 

January 16-21, 1899

 

JANUARY 23-28, 1899

JANUARY 30-FEBRUARY 4, 1899