The Academy of Music was a theatre in Buffalo, New York located near the corner of Main Street and Seneca Street. Originally called the Metropolitan Theatre, the performance venue was built and opened in 1852. Its name was changed to the Academy of Music in 1868. The theatre was demolished in 1955. [1]
New York theatre impresario Henry T. Meech built the Metropolitan Theatre in 1852. [1] The theatre's inauguration took place on October 15, 1852; an event which began with an opening address written by the writer Anson G. Chester (1827-1911) and read by the actress Anna Cora Mowatt. The grand opening also featured Mowatt in a production of John Tobin's The Honey Moon . [2] The theatre was initially leased to C. T. Smith during its first season. Smith joined with Thomas Carr and Henry Warren to co-manage the theatre during its second year. The firm of Carr, Warren, & Smith also managed a theatre in Rochester, New York, and Smith left Buffalo to look after the firm's interests in Rochester. Carr & Warren co-managed the theatre for approximately three seasons, before Carr bought his partners out and continued to manage theatre on his own for a brief period. [2]
In 1857 Carr left the Metropolitan Theatre after failing to make it financially profitable, and Henry Meech took over the management of the theatre for a short period. The theatre then came under the management of Olney & Whitman, but they too failed to make the theatre profitable. Meech took back control of the theatre and continued to manage it until 1865 when he relinquished control of the theatre to his son, John H. Meech. In 1868 the theatre was re-named the Academy of Music after undergoing extensive remodeling. It was given a grand re-opening under that name on July 28, 1868. [3]
Henry Meech died on December 6, 1870, [3] after which John H. Meech was joined by his brother, Henry L. Meech, in the management of the theatre. [2] In 1875-1876 the Meech brothers leased the theatre to Henry E. Abbey and John B. Schoeffel. [2] [3] In 1882 the theatre was renovated once again, and its main entrance was moved from Seneca Street to Main Street. [2] The newly renovated theatre re-opened on September 4, 1882 with a production of Bob starring Lotta Crabtree. [3]
The Academy of Music was demolished in 1955. [1]
The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Midwest, along with the intermediate cities of Albany, Buffalo, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Detroit, Rochester and Syracuse. New York Central was headquartered in New York City's New York Central Building, adjacent to its largest station, Grand Central Terminal.
Henry Eugene Abbey was an American theatre manager and producer.
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His Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre situated in the Haymarket in the City of Westminster, London. The building, designed by Charles J. Phipps, was constructed in 1897 for the actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who established the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) at the theatre. In the early decades of the 20th century Tree produced spectacular productions of Shakespeare and other classical works, and the theatre hosted premieres by such playwrights as Bernard Shaw, J. M. Synge and, later, Noël Coward and J. B. Priestley. Since the First World War the wide stage has made the theatre suitable for large-scale musical productions, and His Majesty's has accordingly specialised in hosting musicals. It has been home to record-setting musical theatre runs such as the First World War hit Chu Chin Chow and Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera, which has run at His Majesty's since 1986, except during the COVID-19 pandemic theatre closures.
Felix Octavius Carr Darley, often credited as F. O. C. Darley, was an American illustrator, known for his illustrations in works by well-known 19th-century authors, including James Fenimore Cooper, Charles Dickens, Mary Mapes Dodge, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Washington Irving, George Lippard, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Donald Grant Mitchell, Clement Clarke Moore, Francis Parkman, Harriet Beecher Stowe and Nathaniel Parker Willis.
The Academy of Music was a New York City opera house, located on the northeast corner of East 14th Street and Irving Place in Manhattan. The 4,000-seat hall opened on October 2, 1854. The review in The New York Times declared it to be an acoustical "triumph", but "In every other aspect ... a decided failure," complaining about the architecture, interior design and the closeness of the seating; although a follow-up several days later relented a bit, saying that the theater "looked more cheerful, and in every way more effective" than it had on opening night.
The Chatham Theatre or Chatham Street Theatre was a playhouse on the southeast side of Chatham Street in New York City. It was located at numbers 143-9, between Roosevelt and James streets, a few blocks south of the Bowery. At its opening in 1839, the Chatham was a neighborhood establishment, which featured big-name actors and drama. By the mid-1840s, it had become primarily a venue for blackface minstrel shows. Frank S. Chanfrau restored some of its grandeur in 1848.
The Royalty Theatre was a small London theatre situated at 73 Dean Street, Soho. Established by the actress Frances Maria Kelly in 1840, it opened as Miss Kelly's Theatre and Dramatic School and finally closed to the public in 1938. The architect was Samuel Beazley. The theatre's opening was ill-fated, and it was little used for a decade. It changed its name twice and was used by an opera company, amateur drama companies and for French pieces.
The Royal Gallery of Illustration was a 19th-century performance venue located at 14 Regent Street in London. It was in use between 1850 and 1873.
James Henry Mapleson was an English opera impresario and a leading figure in the development of opera production and of the careers of singers in London and New York in the mid-19th century.
Three New York City playhouses named Wallack's Theatre played an important part in the history of American theater as the successive homes of the stock company managed by actors James W. Wallack and his son, Lester Wallack. During its 35-year lifetime, from 1852 to 1887, that company developed and held a reputation as the best theater company in the country.
The Rochester metropolitan area, denoted the Rochester, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area by the United States Census Bureau, is a metropolitan statistical area consisting of six counties in Western New York, anchored by the city of Rochester, New York. Many counties are mainly rural with various farming communities scattered throughout the metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, the MSA had a population of 1,090,135. The Rochester MSA is the 3rd largest MSA in New York state.
Pike's Opera House, later renamed the Grand Opera House, was a theater in New York City on the northwest corner of 8th Avenue and 23rd Street, in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. It was constructed in 1868, at a cost of a million dollars, for distiller and entrepreneur Samuel N. Pike (1822–1872) of Cincinnati. The building survived in altered form until 1960 as an RKO movie theater, after which it was replaced by part of Penn South, an urban renewal housing development.
The Boston Museum (1841–1903), also called the Boston Museum and Gallery of Fine Arts, was a theatre, wax museum, natural history museum, zoo, and art museum in 19th-century Boston, Massachusetts. Moses Kimball established the enterprise in 1841.
The Rapids Theatre is an indoor concert venue and events center situated in downtown Niagara Falls, New York. It hosts a variety of shows and events, including music concerts, comedy acts, wedding receptions, and corporate meetings. Some performances recently held at the Rapids include Passion Pit, Stone Temple Pilots, Pauly Shore, Morrissey, City and Colour, Thirty Seconds to Mars, Snoop Dogg, The Band Perry, Dropkick Murphys, Chevelle, the Headstones, and Eric Church. The venue was also featured on an episode of SyFy's Ghost Hunters that aired on October 19, 2011. The episode was appropriately titled "Stage Fright".
Abbey, Schoeffel and Grau was a US theatre management and production firm, active from 1880 until 1896. The partners were Henry E. Abbey, John B. Schoeffel and Maurice Grau. Abbey and Schoeffel had been in partnership since 1876, and joined forces with Grau in 1882. They managed and ran a number of theatres in New York and Boston, including the Metropolitan Opera House in 1883-4 and from 1891 to 1896, when Abbey died. Schoeffel and Grau remained at the Met until 1903.
Frederick Balsir Chatterton, known as F. B. Chatterton was a 19th-century British theatre manager and impresario who was lessee of the Theatre Royal in London's Drury Lane from 1866 to 1879. He is credited with originating the famous quote, "Shakespeare spelt ruin and Byron bankruptcy".
Olympic Theatre was the name of five former 19th and early 20th-century theatres on Broadway in Manhattan and in Brooklyn, New York.
Edward Tyrrel Smith (1804–1877) was a versatile British entrepreneur and showman, best known as an opera and theatrical manager.
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