MAY-JUNE 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).

MAY-JUNE 1899 

*=novelties (recent plays new to Brooklyn) 

May 1-6:

Amphion: Cavalleria Rusticana, H.M.S. Pinafore, The Mikado (Jaxon Opera Company)
Bijou: The Turtle
Columbia: Mlle. Fifi (Grace George)
Gayety: Two Little Vagrants (Mildred Holland)
Montauk: Rip Van Winkle, The Rivals (Joseph Jefferson)
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Brooklyn Music Hall, Star, Empire, Novelty 

May 8-13:

Amphion: Lucia di Lammermoor, Il Trovatore, The Bohemian Girl, Carmen (Jaxon Opera            Company)
Bijou: The Prodigal Daughter
Gayety: The Silver King
Montauk: Aida (Castle Square Opera Company)
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Brooklyn Music Hall, Star, Empire, Novelty 

May 15-20:

Columbia: Romeo and Juliet (Maude Adams)
Gayety: Too Much Johnson
Montauk: Faust (Castle Square Opera Company)
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Brooklyn Music Hall, Empire, Star 

May 22-27:

Columbia: Romeo and Juliet (Maude Adams; May 26-27)
Montauk: Romeo and Juliet (Castle Square Opera Company)
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Sta 

May 29-June 3:

Montauk: Il Trovatore (Castle Square Opera Company)
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, StaR 

June 5-10:

Montauk: Carmen (Castle Square Opera Company)
Vaudeville/burlesque: Star 

June 12-17:

Montauk: The Mikado (Castle Square Opera Company)1 

MAY 1-6, 1899

MAY 8-13, 1899

 

MAY 15-20, 1899

MAY 22-27, 1899

 

MAY 29-JUNE 3, 1899

JUNE 5-10, 1899

JUNE 12-17, 1899

We will skip the offerings on view during the summer of 1899, most of them at the entertainment establishments of Bergen Beach, Manhattan Beach, and Brighton Beach, and resume when legitimate theatre returns in late August and early September. The Star, “cooled by electric fan,” reopened for burlesque and other nonlegitimate amusements on August 14. The new season officially opened on Labor Day, September 4, although the Bijou opened two nights earlier.