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

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 1901

*=novelties (recent plays new to Brooklyn)

May 6-11:

Bijou: Romance of Coon Hollow
Columbia: Ben Hur
Criterion: Whose Baby Are You? (Baker Stock Company)
Gayety: Old Jed Prouty (Richard Golden)
Grand Opera House: My Lady* (Eva Tanguay)
Montauk: All on Account of Eliza (Louis Mann, Clara Lipman)
Montauk: In a Balcony*; “Land of Heart’s Desire”* (Otis Skinner, Eleanor Robson, Sarah Cowell LeMoyne; May 7 matinee only)
Park: Because She Loved Him So (Spooner Stock Company)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: Woman against Woman (Payton Stock Company)
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Brooklyn Music Hall, Star, Novelty, Orpheum

May 13-18:

Amphion: The Girl We Love* (Charles Dickson, Lillian Burkhart)
Columbia: Ben Hur
Criterion: Charley’s Uncle (Baker Stock Company)
Gayety: The Still Alarm (Harry Lacy)
Grand Opera House: The Charity Ball (Aubrey Stock Company)
Montauk: Lohengrin; Lucia di Lammermoor (Castle Square Opera Company)
Park: The Two Orphans (Spooner Stock Company)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: Hazel Kirke; A Gilded Fool (Payton Stock Company)
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Brooklyn Music Hall, Star, Orpheum, Haverly’s Musée

May 20-25:

Criterion: The Blundering Mr. Budds (Baker Stock Company)
Gayety: The Honest Blacksmith (Robert Fitzsimmons)
Grand Opera House: Men and Women (Aubrey Stock Company)
Montauk: Carmen; Faust (Castle Square Opera Company)
Park: Hazel Kirke; The Buckeye (Spooner Stock Company)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: A Runaway Wife (Payton Stock Company)
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Brooklyn Music Hall, Star, Orpheum, Haverly’s Musée

May 26-June 1:

Amphion: The Hunchback (Brennan Stock Company)
Columbia: The Merchant of Venice (Nat C. Goodwin, Maxine Elliott; one performance, May 20)
Criterion: Nancy Hanks (Baker Stock Company)
Grand Opera House: We ‘Uns of Tennessee (Aubrey Stock Company)
Montauk: La Bohème; Martha (Castle Square Opera Company)
Park: Barbara Frietchie (Spooner Stock Company)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Payton Stock Company)
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Brooklyn Music Hall, Star, Orpheum, Haverly’s Musée

June 3-8:

Montauk: Il Trovatore; The Bohemian Girl (Castle Square Opera Company)
Park: Caste (Spooner Stock Company)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: Eagle’s Nest (Corse Payton Stock Company, replacing local Payton Stock Company; third such visit)
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Brooklyn Music Hall, Star, Orpheum, Haverly’s Musée, Criterion

June 10-15:

Montauk: Diplomacy (Charles Frohman’s Empire Stock Company, including William Faversham, Margaret Anglin; June 13, one night only)
Park: For Fair Virginia (Spooner Stock Company)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: The Little Minister (Payton Stock Company)
Vaudeville/burlesque: Star, Orpheum, Criterion

June 17-22:

Criterion: The Arabian Nights (Brennan Stock Company)
Park: Becky Bliss, the Circus Girl (Spooner Stock Company)
Vaudeville/burlesque: Star

June 24-29:

Park: “A Happy Pair”; A Child of the Regiment (Spooner Stock Company)
Vaudeville/burlesque: Star

MAY 6-11, 1901