 The Broadway Theatre on the left in 1912, playing Hanky Panky | |
 | |
| Address | 1445 Broadway New York City United States |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 40°45′18.5″N73°59′13.5″W / 40.755139°N 73.987083°W |
| Construction | |
| Opened | March 3, 1888 |
| Closed | January 1929 |
| Architect | J.B. McElfatrick & Co. |
The Broadway Theatre near 41st Street was a Broadway theatre in Manhattan, New York City, which operated from 1888 to 1929. [1] It was located at 1445 Broadway.
James Anthony Bailey, a circus manager and owner (the "Bailey" in Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus) started building the theatre in 1887 on the site of what had been the "Metropolitan Concert Hall" built in 1880. Bailey pulled out, and the project was completed by Frank Sanger, T.H. French, and E. Zborowski, with seating for about 1,800 and standing room for 500 more. [1] The American premiere of La Tosca was performed on the theatre's opening night, March 3, 1888, featuring Fanny Davenport. It was not a great success, due in part to the Great Blizzard of 1888 hitting New York ten days later, and it closed on April 28. [2]
The first successful run was Little Lord Fauntleroy , with the title role alternately played by Elsie Leslie and Tommy Russell, which hit 100 showings on March 21, 1889. [1] Lawrence Barrett's final performance was at the theatre in March 1891, when he became ill during a performance of Richelieu. Edwin Booth's last New York performance occurred at the theatre that same month. El Capitan , John Philip Sousa's most enduring operetta, opened here in 1896 before tours, revivals and a successful London run. [3] The highly successful Ben-Hur debuted in November 1899, the greatest production which the theatre ever hosted. [1] Mrs. Leslie Carter, who later obtained fame with The Heart of Maryland , made her stage debut at the Broadway Theatre in 1890 in The Ugly Duckling.
Starting around 1903, the theatre featured almost all musical productions. In 1913, after the closing of The American Maid, the theatre was used for vaudeville and motion picture shows.
The last performance was a vaudeville show called Broadway Fever in January 1929, and the theatre was soon after demolished. [1] [4] [5] The site is now occupied by the 33-story Bricken-Textile Building, built in 1929. [6]
In 1930, the former Colony Theatre on 53rd Street was renamed the Broadway Theatre, a name it still retains. [7]
William DeWolf Hopper was an American actor, singer, comedian, and theatrical producer. A star of vaudeville and musical theater, he became best known for performing the popular baseball poem "Casey at the Bat".
Lester M. Allen was an American actor, dancer, singer, comedian, and circus performer. After beginning his career as a child acrobat with the Barnum and Bailey Circus, he became a performer in minstrel shows, burlesque, and vaudeville. He worked as primarily a dancer and acrobat in the Broadway musical revues George White's Scandals and Ziegfeld Follies in the 1910s and early 1920s; ultimately progressing to singing and comedic acting parts. He starred as a comic actor in several musical comedies on Broadway during the 1920s and the early 1930s. He transitioned into work as a film actor, appearing in more than 15 films released from 1941 to 1950. He was killed after being struck by a motor vehicle in 1949.
The Knickerbocker Theatre, previously known as Abbey's Theatre and Henry Abbey's Theatre, was a Broadway theatre located at 1396 Broadway in New York City. It operated from 1893 to 1930. In 1906, the theatre introduced the first moving electrical sign on Broadway to advertise its productions.
El Capitan is an operetta in three acts by John Philip Sousa and has a libretto by Charles Klein. The piece was Sousa's first successful operetta and his most successful stage work. The march "El Capitan" became a standard work both for symphonic/wind bands and a crossover into other genres.
Union Square Theatre was the name of two different theatres near Union Square, Manhattan, New York City. The first was a Broadway theatre that opened in 1870, was converted into a cinema in 1921 and closed in 1936. The second was an Off-Broadway theatre that opened in 1985 and closed in 2016.
The Casino Theatre was a Broadway theatre located at 1404 Broadway and West 39th Street in New York City. Built in 1882, it was a leading presenter of mostly musicals and operettas until it closed in 1930.
Della May Fox was an American singing comedian, whose popularity peaked in the 1890s when the diminutive Fox appeared opposite the very tall DeWolf Hopper in several musicals. She also toured successfully with her own company.
Bird Millman O’Day was one of the most celebrated high-wire performers of all time. During the “Golden Age of the American Circus,” she was a premiere attraction with the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus.
Isabelle Urquhart, also known as Belle Urquhart, was an American contralto and actress, noted for her performances in comic opera and musical comedy.
Émilie Mily Meyer, stage name 'Mily-Meyer' was a French soprano, born 1852 in Paris, died there in 1927, who for a quarter of a century became a major star of the Parisian operetta stage, and is described by Gänzl as an "impishly boyish yet obviously feminine soubrette".
The McCaull Comic Opera Company, also called the McCaull Opera Comique Company, was an American theatral production company founded by Colonel John A. McCaull in 1880. The company produced operetta, comic opera and musical theatre in New York City and on tour in the eastern and midwestern U.S. and Canada until McCaull's death in 1894. It nurtured such stars, in their early careers, as Lillian Russell and DeWolf Hopper.
The Garden Theatre was a major theater on Madison Avenue and 27th Street in Manhattan, New York City. The theatre opened on September 27, 1890, and closed in 1925. Part of the second Madison Square Garden complex, the theatre presented Broadway plays for two decades and then, as high-end theatres moved uptown to the Times Square area, became a facility for German and Yiddish theatre, motion pictures, lectures, and meetings of trade and political groups.
The Lyceum Theatre was a theatre in New York City located on Fourth Avenue between 23rd and 24th Streets in Manhattan. It was built in 1885 and operated until 1902, when it was torn down to make way for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower. It was replaced by a new Lyceum Theatre on 45th Street. For all but its first two seasons, the theatre was home to Daniel Frohman's Lyceum Theatre Stock Company, which presented many important plays and actors of the day.
The Empire Theatre in New York City was a prominent Broadway theatre in the first half of the twentieth century.
Marie Jansen was an American musical theatre actress best known for her roles at the end of the 19th century. She starred in a number of successful comic operas, Edwardian musical comedies, and comic plays in New York, Boston, Philadelphia and London during the 1880s and 1890s.
Alfred Asher Klein was an English-born stage actor, singer and comedian who appeared in operettas and musical theatre in America in the late 19th century.
The Oolah is an 1889 comic opera which starred Francis Wilson and Marie Jansen on Broadway.
The Charlatan is an 1898 American operetta also known as The Mystical Miss, with music and lyrics by John Philip Sousa. Today only excerpts from the work—"The Charlatan March", "The Charlatan Waltzes" and "The Charlatan Overture"—are commonly known. The operetta is set in the early nineteenth century in Russia with scenes in the village of Bohkara; at Gogol's house; and in the Grand Duke's Palace in Russia.
Nancy McCord was an American soprano and actress who had an active career in opera, musical theatre, and vaudeville during the 1920s, 1930s and early 1940s. She appeared in operettas and musicals on Broadway and in operas with several American companies, including the St. Louis Municipal Opera and the Metropolitan Opera. Her repertoire consisted mainly of roles from light opera and operettas. She is best remembered for creating the roles of Marie-Baroness von Schlewitz in the original production of Oscar Hammerstein II and Sigmund Romberg's May Wine (1935); and Mary Stone in the world premiere of Douglas Moore's The Devil and Daniel Webster (1939). She also performed leading roles in the United States premieres of two operettas: Franz Lehár's The Land of Smiles and Robert Stolz's Venus in Seide.
Libbie McCarthy [Macarty] Conger, better known publicly by her stage name Dorothy Morton, was an American stage actress and soprano who had an active career in mainly light operas and musical theatre from the 1880s until her retirement from the stage in 1918. She also occasionally appeared on the stage in grand opera roles like Santuzza in Cavalleria rusticana and Marguerite in Faust, and in vaudeville. She is best remembered for her work on Broadway; including creating the role of Cleopatra in Victor Herbert's The Wizard of the Nile (1895) and portraying the title role in the United States premiere of Sidney Jones' The Geisha (1896); the latter part the most significant of her career.
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