A HISTORY OF THE BROOKLYN STAGE: ACROSS THE RIVER FROM BROADWAY (1898-1908): DECEMBER 1906

Robert Mantell as Richard III.

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).

DECEMBER 1906

*=novelties (recent plays new to Brooklyn)

December 3-8:
Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) Moths
Blaney’s Amphion: At the World’s Mercy*
Broadway: The Prince of India*
Columbia: While ’Frisco Burns*
Folly: Eileen Asthore (Chauncey Olcott)
Grand Opera House: The Volunteer Organist
Majestic: Down the Pike (Johnny and Emma Ray)
New Montauk: Cymbeline (Viola Allen)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) The Life of Dora Thorne
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) The Train Robbers
Shubert: The Shulamite;* Mrs. Dane’s Defense (Lena Ashwell)
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Gotham, Gayety, Keeney’s, Star, Imperial, Novelty

December 10-15:
Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company)
Blaney’s Amphion: The Phantom Detective
Broadway: Alice Sit-by-the-Fire (Ethel Barrymore)
Columbia: When Girls Leave Home
Folly: Around the Clock (William Ritchie’s London Comedy Company)
Grand Opera House: Confessions of a Wife*
Majestic: Rufus Rastus (Ernest Hogan)
New Montauk: Caesar and Cleopatra (Johnston Forbes-Robertson and Gertrude Elliott)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) Under Two Flags
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) Hoodman Blind
Shubert: The Tourists*
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Gotham, Gayety, Keeney’s, Star, Imperial, Novelty

December 17-22:
Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) A Scrap of Paper
Blaney’s Amphion: Big Hearted Jim*
Broadway: Brigadier Gerard* (Kyrle Bellew, Ida Conquest)
Columbia: The Governor’s Pardon*
Folly: Rufus Rastus (Ernest Hogan)
Grand Opera House: A Desperate Chance
Majestic: The Girl from Broadway* (Grace Edmond)
New Montauk: King Richard III; Othello; Hamlet; King Lear; Macbeth; The Merchant of Venice (Robert Mantell, Marie Booth Russell)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) Othello
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) The Child Wife
Shubert: Taps; Hamlet (John E. Kellerd)
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Gotham, Gayety, Keeney’s, Star, Imperial, Novelty

December 24-29:
Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) Aladdin and His Magic Lamp
Blaney’s Amphion: The Burglar’s Daughter
Broadway: Clothes* (Grace George)
Columbia: The Curse of Drink
Folly: The Girl and the Gambler (Florence Bindley)
Grand Opera House: Behind the Mask*
Majestic: Arrah-na-Pogue (Andrew Mack)
New Montauk: His House in Order* (John Drew)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) A Midnight Bell
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) The Night Before Christmas
Shubert: The Love Route*
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Gotham, Gayety, Keeney’s, Star, Imperial, Novelty