ACROSS THE RIVER FROM BROADWAY: ANNALS OF THE BROOKLYN STAGE (1898-1908): APRIL 1904

Viola Allen as Viola in Twelfth Night.

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).

APRIL 1904

*=novelties (recent plays new to Brooklyn)

April 3:
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) Human-kind (one performance)

April 4-9:
Amphion: Way Down East
Association Hall: Everyman* (Ben Greet Players, Edith Wynne Matthison)
Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) Our Red Riding Hood
Broadway: Vaudeville; Whoop-De-Doo* (Weber and Fields, Lillian Russell, Louis Mann; Thursday, Friday, two performances Saturday)
Columbia: Cleopatra (Melbourne MacDowell)
Folly: A Midnight Marriage (Florence Bindley)
Gotham: Human Hearts
Grand Opera House: A Son of Rest
Montauk: Twelfth Night (Viola Allen)
Novelty: Queen of the Highway
Park: The Great Train Robbery
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) The Danites
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Theatre) Saved from the Sea
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Star, Novelty, Watson’s, Unique, Gayety, Keeney’s

April 11-16:
Amphion: Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall* (Bertha Galland)
Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) Marie Antoinette
Broadway: The Fortune Teller
Columbia: The Village Postmaster
Folly: A Son of Rest (Nat M. Wills)
Gotham: The Man Who Dared (Howard Hall)
Grand Opera House: Sis Hopkins (Rose Melville)
Montauk: Glittering Gloria*
Novelty: Across the Pacific (Harry Clay Blaney)
Park: Tracy the Bandit
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) The Two Orphans
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Theatre) The World against Her
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Star, Novelty, Watson’s, Unique, Gayety, Keeney’s

April 18-23:
Amphion: The Battle of the Butterflies* (Century Players)
Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) A Good Fellow
Broadway: Arizona
Columbia: La Tosca (Melbourne MacDowell)
Folly: Queen of the White Slaves
Gotham: The Village Parson
Grand Opera House: An Irish Gentleman (Andrew Mack)
Montauk: Her Own Way* (Maxine Elliott)
Novelty: The Two Sisters
Park: Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) The Lady of Lyons
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Theatre) The Dice of Death
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Star, Novelty, Watson’s, Unique, Gayety, Keeney’s

April 25-30:
Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) Hearts of the Blue Ridge
Broadway: Sky Farm
Columbia: The Prisoner of Zenda (Richard Buhler)
Folly: Terence (Chauncey Olcott)
Gotham: An Orphan’s Prayer
Grand Opera House: The Awakening of Mr. Pipp* (Charley Grapewin)
Montauk: The Proud Prince* (E. H. Sothern, Cecilia Loftus)
Novelty: Human Hearts
Park: A Midnight Marriage (Florence Bindley)

Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Corse Payton road company) The Lost Paradise; Thelma; Michael Strogoff; The Two Colonels; Over the Hills to the Poorhouse

Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Theatre) On the Stroke of Twelve
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Star, Novelty, Watson’s, Unique, Gayety, Keeney’s

1. April 4-9, 1904