ACROSS THE RIVER FROM BROADWAY: ANNALS OF THE BROOKLYN STAGE (1898-1908): 2026-07-19

Minnie Maddern Fiske

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 1905

*=novelties (recent plays new to Brooklyn)

April 3-8:
Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) The Girl I Left Behind Me
Broadway: The Second Fiddle* (Louis Mann)
Columbia: (American Stock Company) The Octoroon
Folly: Busy Izzy (George Sidney)
Gotham: Her First False Step
Grand Opera House: Terence
Majestic: The Wizard of Oz (Montgomery and Stone)
Montauk: Woodland*
Novelty: The Village Parson
Park: On the Suwanee River
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) Faust
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) Why He Divorced Her
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Gayety, Unique, Orpheum, Nassau, Star, Keeney’s, Amphion, Garden

April 10-15:
Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) Aristocracy
Broadway: Babes in Toyland
Columbia: (American Stock Company) Faust
Folly: Siberia
Gotham: Queen of the Highway
Grand Opera House: How He Won Her*
Majestic: Lew Dockstader’s Minstrels
Montauk: The Little Minister
Novelty: Wedded and Parted
Park: No Wedding Bells for Her
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) A Texas Steer
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) Alone in the World
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Gayety, Unique, Orpheum, Nassau, Star, Keeney’s, Amphion, Garden

April 17-22:
Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) The Wages of Sin
Broadway: Little Johnny Jones (George M. Cohan)
Columbia: (American Stock Company) All for a Woman
Folly: Desperate Chance
Gotham: The Gypsy Girl* (Dolly Kemper)
Grand Opera House: The New Eight Bells
Majestic: In Dahomey (Williams and Walker)
Montauk: (Weber Star Stock Company) Higgledy Piggledy (Marie Dressler, Trixie Friganza)
Novelty: The Span of Life
Park: A Little Outcast
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) A Royal Slave
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) Deserted at the Altar
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Gayety, Unique, Orpheum, Watson’s, Star, Keeney’s, Amphion, Garden

April 24-29:
Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) Jack and the Beanstalk
Broadway: A Message from Mars (Charles Hawtrey)
Columbia: (American Stock Company) Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Folly: Wedded but No Wife (Selma Herman)
Gotham: The Village Parson
Grand Opera House: Sis Hopkins (Rose Melville)
Majestic: In Dahomey (Williams and Walker)

Montauk: King Richard III; The Misanthrope; Ivan the Terrible*; Beau Brummel; A Parisian Romance; The Merchant of Venice; Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Richard Mansfield)

Novelty: Human Hearts

Park: The Curse of Drink

Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) The Pearl of Savoy

Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) A Working Girl’s Wrongs

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

1. April 3-8, 1905