ACROSS THE RIVER FROM BROADWAY: ANNALS OF THE BROOKLYN STAGE (1898-1908): AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 1898

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).

AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 1898

*=novelties (recent plays new to Brooklyn)

August 29-September 3:
Montauk: What Happened to Jones
Park: (Grover Stock Company) How Brown Was Hypnotized (opened Saturday, August 27)
Vaudeville/burlesque: Star, Brooklyn Music Hall

September 5-10:
Bijou: The Dawn of Freedom (opened Saturday, September 3)
Gayety: An Enemy to the King (opened Saturday, September 3)
Grand Opera House: A Sure Cure* (opened Saturday, September 3)
Montauk: A Stranger in New York
Park: (Grover Stock Company) “The Open Gate,” The New Private Secretary
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s (opened Saturday, September 3), Brooklyn Music Hall, Empire, Star

September 12-17:
Bijou: The Grip of Steel*
Gayety: A Sure Cure
Grand Opera House: My Friend from India
Montauk: The Belle of New York* (Dan Daly)
Park: (Grover Stock Company) Our Boarding House
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Brooklyn Music Hall, Empire, Star

September 19-24:
Amphion: The Telephone Girl
Bijou: Two Little Vagrants
Gayety: My Friend from India
Grand Opera House: At Piney Ridge
Montauk: The White Heather*
Park: (Grover Stock Company) Saints and Sinners (J. H. Stoddart)
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Brooklyn Music Hall, Empire, Star

September 26-October 1:
Amphion: Diplomacy (Mary Shaw)
Bijou: Going to the Races
Columbia: The Meddler* (Stuart Robson)
Gayety: At Piney Ridge (David Higgins)
Grand Opera House: William H. West Minstrelsy Company
Montauk: The White Heather
Park: (Grover Stock Company) Lost in New York
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Brooklyn Music Hall, Empire, Star