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

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).

MARCH 1908

*=novelties (recent plays new to Brooklyn)

March 2-7, 1908
Bijou: Panhandle Pete*
Blaney’s: Little Heroes of the Street*
Broadway: The Lion and the Mouse (Edmund Breese)
Columbia: Parted on Her Bridal Tour
Folly: The Volunteer Organist
Grand Opera House: Carmen (Aborn Opera Company)
Majestic: The Big Stick* (Four Mortons)
New Montauk: The Squaw Man (William Faversham)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) The Undesirable Citizen
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) Dora Thorne
Vaudeville/burlesque: Keeney’s, Olympic, Novelty, Orpheum, Star, Gayety, Grand Opera House, Gotham, Park, Royal

March 9-14, 1908
Bijou: Bedford’s Hope
Blaney’s: The Phantom Detective
Broadway: Fifty Miles from Boston* (Edna Wallace Hopper)
Columbia: Uncle Tom’s Cabin (W. H. Martin’s Company)
Folly: The Big Stick (Four Mortons)
Grand Opera House: Rigoletto (Aborn Opera Company)
Majestic: The Vanderbilt Cup (Genevieve Victoria)
New Montauk: The Morals of Marcus* (Marie Doro, C. Aubrey Smith)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) Held by the Enemy
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) Wife for Wife
Vaudeville/burlesque: Keeney’s, Olympic, Novelty, Orpheum, Star, Gayety, Grand Opera House, Gotham, Park, Royal

March 16-21, 1908
Bijou: McFadden’s Flats
Blaney’s: The Outlaw’s Christmas
Broadway: Caught in the Rain (William Collier)
Columbia: Young Buffalo, King of the Wild West
Folly: The Vanderbilt Cup (Genevieve Victoria)
Grand Opera House: Aida (Aborn Opera Company)
Majestic: His Last Dollar (David Higgins)
New Montauk: Her Sister* (Ethel Barrymore)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) An Enemy to the King
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) Pawn Ticket No. 210
Vaudeville/burlesque: Keeney’s, Olympic, Novelty, Orpheum, Star, Gayety, Grand Opera House, Gotham, Park, Royal

March 23-28, 1908
Bijou: Under Southern Skies
Blaney’s: Anita, the Singing Girl* (Agnes Cameron)

Broadway: Macbeth, Richard III, Richelieu, The Merchant of Venice, Hamlet, King Lear, Othello (Robert Mantell, Marie Booth Russell)

Columbia: The Outlaw’s Christmas

Folly: His Last Dollar (David K. Higgins)

Grand Opera House: Lucia di Lammermoor (Aborn Opera Company)

Majestic: Wine, Woman and Song (Bonita

New Montauk: Sapho, Carmen, The Second Mrs. Tanqueray, “The Enigma,”* “The Showman’s Wife,”* Camille (Olga Nethersole)

Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) The Woman in the Case

Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) The Christian

Vaudeville/burlesque: Keeney’s, Olympic, Novelty, Orpheum, Star, Gayety, Grand Opera House, Gotham, Park, Royal

March 30-April 4, 1908
Bijou: Billy the Kid (Joseph Santley)
Blaney’s: The Hired Girl’s Millions* (John and James Russell)
Broadway: The Rogers Brothers in Panama (Rogers Brothers)
Columbia: The Two Orphans (Helen Ormsbee)
Folly: Broadway After Dark
Grand Opera House: Fra Diavolo (Aborn Opera Company)
Gotham: (P. G. Williams’ Stock Company) Sapho
Majestic: Wine, Woman and Song (Bonita)
New Montauk: Classmates* (Robert Edeson, Wallace Eddinger)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) Mrs. Temple’s Telegram
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) The Drunkard’s Daughter