A HISTORY OF THE BROOKLYN STAGE: ACROSS THE RIVER FROM BROADWAY (1898-1908): APRIL 1908

Maude Adams in The Jesters.

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 1908

*=novelties (recent plays new to Brooklyn)

April 6-11:
Bijou: The Big Stick (Four Mortons)
Blaney’s: The Flaming Arrow*
Broadway: Classmates (Robert Edeson, Wallace Eddinger)
Columbia: Sweet Molly, O* (Dolly Kemper)
Folly: The Dancer and the King (Cecil Spooner)
Gotham: (P. G. Williams’ Stock Company) May Blossom
Grand Opera House: La Traviata (Aborn Opera Company)
Majestic: Lena Rivers (Beulah Poynter)
Montauk: The Jesters* (Maude Adams)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) Ingomar
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) Thelma
Vaudeville/burlesque: Keeney’s, Olympic, Novelty, Orpheum, Star, Gayety, Grand Opera House, Park, Royal

April 13-18:
Bijou: Happy Hooligan
Blaney’s: Sweet Molly O (Dolly Kemper)
Broadway: The Squaw Man (William Faversham)
Columbia: The Hired Girls’ Millions (Russell Brothers)
Folly: Lena Rivers (Beulah Poynter)
Gotham: (Percy G. Williams’ Stock Company) Leah, the Forsaken
Grand Opera House: The Bohemian Girl (Aborn Opera Company)
Majestic: Arizona
New Montauk: Lonesome Town* (C. William Kolb, Max M. Dill)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) The Heir to the Hoorah
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) A Young Wife
Vaudeville/burlesque: Keeney’s, Olympic, Novelty, Orpheum, Star, Gayety, Grand Opera House, Park, Royal

April 20-25:
Bijou: Montana* (Harry D. Carey)
Blaney’s: Our Cinderella* (Cecil Spooner)
Broadway: The Hoyden* (Elsie Janis)
Columbia: The Boy Detective* (Harry Clay Blaney)
Folly: Arizona
Gotham: (P. G. Williams’ Stock Company) The Heart of Maryland
Majestic: Bandanna Land* (Walker and Williams)
New Montauk: Marrying Mary (Marie Cahill)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) The Heir of the Wallabout
Vaudeville/burlesque: Keeney’s, Olympic, Orpheum, Star, Gayety, Park, Royal

April 27-May 2:
Bijou: Broadway After Dark
Blaney’s: A Nutmeg Match (Cecil Spooner)
Broadway: Salomy Jane (Eleanor Robson)
Columbia: Kate Barton’s Temptation*
Folly: In Old Kentucky
Gotham: (Fuller Stock Company) Blue Jeans
Majestic: George Washington, Jr.
New Montauk: The Talk of New York* (Victor Moore)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) The Hypocrites
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) Queena