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

Robert "Bob" Fitzsimmons, world champion boxer-turned-actor, who claimed to have to have taken a fall in Brooklyn (not that kind),

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 1902

*=novelties (recent plays new to Brooklyn)

January 6-11:
Amphion: The Cardinal* (E. S. Willard)
Bijou: Human Hearts
Blaney’s: (Blaney’s All-Star Stock Company) Slaves of Russia
Columbia: (Greenwall Stock Company) Romeo and Juliet
Folly: The Fatal Wedding
Gotham: (Elite Stock Company) The World against Her
Grand Opera House: The Governor’s Son (the Four Cohans)
Montauk: Don Caesar’s Return* (James K. Hackett)
Park: (Spooner Stock Company) Captain Letterblair
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) Monte Cristo
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) Lost in Siberia
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Gayety, Star, Orpheum, Unique

January 13-18:
Amphion: Her Lord and Master* (Herbert Kelcey, Effie Shannon)
Bijou: Across the Pacific
Blaney’s: (Blaney’s All-Star Stock Company) A Mormon Wife
Columbia: (Greenwall Stock Company) The Danites
Folly: The Governor’s Son (the Four Cohans)
Gotham: (Elite Stock Company) The Ticket-of-Leave Man
Grand Opera House: The Volunteer Organist*
Montauk: Quality Street *(Maude Adams)
Park: (Spooner Stock Company) A Nutmeg Match*
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) The Merchant*
Phillips’ Lyceum: Little Lord Fauntleroy
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Gayety, Star, Orpheum, Unique

January 20-25:
Amphion: When We Were Twenty-One (Nat C. Goodwin, Maxine Elliott)
Bijou: On the Stroke of 12
Blaney’s: (Blaney’s All-Star Stock Company) The Only Way
Columbia: (Greenwall Stock Company) My Friend from India
Folly: The Volunteer Organist
Gotham: (Elite Stock Company) Knobs o’ Tennessee
Grand Opera House: Lovers’ Lane
Montauk: The Messenger Boy* (James T. Powers)
Park: (Spooner Stock Company) Faust
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) The Prodigal Daughter
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) Zorah
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Gayety, Star, Orpheum, Unique

January 27-February 1:
Amphion: Colorado*
Blaney’s: (Blaney’s All-Star Stock Company) A Gilded Fool
Columbia: (Greenwall Stock Company) Shall We Forgive Her?
Gotham: (Elite Stock Company) The Streets of New York
Grand Opera House: Sis Hopkins (Rose Melville)
Montauk: Eben Holden* (Charles Frohman’s company)
Park: (Spooner Stock Company) Phroso
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) Rosedale
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) A Social Highwayman
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Gayety, Star, Orpheum, Unique