ACROSS THE RIVER FROM BROADWAY: ANNALS OF THE BROOKLYN STAGE (1898-1908): JANUARY 1905

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 1905

*=novelties (recent plays new to Brooklyn)

January 2-7:
Amphion: Iris; Mercy Merrick* (Eugenie Blair)
Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) The Cavalier
Broadway: Wang (De Wolf Hopper)
Folly: Cohen’s Luck* (Joe Welch)
Gotham: A Wife’s Secret
Grand Opera House: Texas*
Majestic: Twirly-Whirly* (Charles J. Ross, Mabel Fenton)
Montauk: Much Ado About Nothing; Hamlet; Romeo and Juliet (E.H. Sothern, Julia Marlowe)
Novelty: Too Proud to Beg
Park: Driven from Home
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) The Cherry Pickers
Phillips’ Lyceum: A Royal Slave
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Gayety, Unique, Star, Orpheum, Watson’s, Keeney’s, Columbia Music Hall

January 9-14:
Amphion: Sinbad* (Royal Lilliputians)
Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) Miles Aroon
Broadway: Piff, Paff, Pouf*
Folly: Texas
Gotham: At Risk of His Life*
Grand Opera House: Sky Farm
Majestic: Superba
Montauk: Parsifal (Henry W. Savage Grand Opera Company)
Novelty: At Cripple Creek
Park: Fast Life in New York* (Julian Rose)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: Sweet Kitty Bellairs (Henrietta Crosman)
Phillips’ Lyceum: Northern Lights
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Gayety, Unique, Star, Orpheum, Watson’s, Keeney’s, Columbia Music Hall

January 16-21:
Amphion: Polly Primrose* (Adelaide Thurston)
Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) Zaza
Broadway: Raffles* (Kyrle Bellew)
Columbia: (American Stock Company) Because She Loved
Folly: Sky Farm
Gotham: Too Proud to Beg
Grand Opera House: His Honor, the Mayor of the Bowery
Majestic: His Last Dollar* (David Higgins)
Montauk: Letty* (William Faversham)
Novelty: A Little Outcast
Park: Queen of the White Slaves
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) Out of the Fold
Phillips’ Lyceum: Two Little Sailor Boys
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Gayety, Unique, Star, Orpheum, Watson’s, Keeney’s

January 23-28:
Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) All the Comforts of Home
Broadway: The Pit* (Wilton Lackaye)
Columbia: (American Theatre Stock Company) At the Sign of the Four
Folly: His Last Dollar
Gotham: For His Brother’s Crime
Grand Opera House: Sinbad (Royal Lilliputians)
Majestic: The Burgomaster
Montauk: The School Girl* (Edna May Spooner)
Novelty: On the Suwanee River
Park: A Midnight Marriage
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) For Fair Virginia
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) The Marriage Vow
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Gayety, Unique, Star, Orpheum, Watson’s, Keeney’s

January 30-February 5:
Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) Joan of Arc
Broadway: The Other Girl* (Lionel Barrymore)
Columbia: (American Theatre Stock Company) Tennessee’s Partner
Folly: His Honor, the Mayor of the Bowery*
Gotham: For His Brother’s Crime
Grand Opera House: Quincy Adams Sawyer
Majestic: Primrose’s Minstrels

Montauk: Mrs. Gorringe’s Necklace*; David Garrick; The Case of Rebellious Susan* (Charles Wyndham)

Novelty: Driven from Home (Patrice)

Park: The Child Wife

Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) The Gay Lord Sinch

Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) A Ragged Hero

Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Gayety, Unique, Star, Orpheum, Watson’s, Keeney’

January 2-7, 1905