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.
Each theater operated under other names and managers after (and in one case before) the Wallack company's tenure. All three are demolished.
485 Broadway
+ 485 Broadway As of Name Reference December 23, 1850 Brougham's Lyceum Ireland:584 September 8, 1852 Wallack's Lyceum Wallack:13–14 November 1, 1852 Wallack's Theatre The New York Times, November 1, 1852 May 22, 1861 The Broadway Music Hall Brown v1:508 March 1, 1862 The New York Athenæum Brown v1:509 March 17, 1862 Mary Provost's Theatre Brown v1:509 April 21, 1862 George L. Fox's Olympic Theatre Brown v1:510 June 26, 1862 Mary Provost's Theatre Brown v1:511 The New Idea Brown v1:511 September 15, 1862 The German Opera House Brown v1:511 September 7, 1863 The New York Theatre Brown v1:511 November 10, 1863 The Broadway Amphitheatre Brown v1:511 May 2, 1864 The Broadway Theatre Brown v1:512 April 28, 1869 [last performance] Brown v1:523
James W. Wallack and Lester Wallack, father and son, were 19th century actors and theater managers; that is, entrepreneurs whose business was a theatrical stock company, a troupe of actors and support personnel presenting a variety of plays in one theater. Actor-managers, such as the Wallacks, were members of their own company. Often, a manager leased a theater from its owner, and since the building was deemed an important part of the playgoer's experience, typically renovated it to his own taste. Sometimes a manager was able to have a theater built to his specifications, as did Irish-American actor and dramatist John Brougham.
Brougham's Lyceum, 1850–52 On December 23, 1850, John Brougham opened his Lyceum at 485 Broadway near Broome Street. The next day, the New York Herald reported:
This new temple of Thespis was opened last evening, before a brilliant and crowded audience, with an éclat which prognosticates its future career to be triumphant. ... [It] is capable of containing about 1,800 or 2,000 persons. ... The whole presents a very pretty little theatre. ... Mr. Trimble, the well-known builder, has added another 'story' to his architectural fame. ... The opening entertainments commenced with a humorous and appropriate address, entitled 'Brougham and Co.,' in which the whole company were introduced. ... The performances concluded with the laughable interlude of Deeds of Dreadful Note, and a new piece, called The Light Guard, or Woman's Rights.Jenkins:208
Builder and architect John M. Trimble, a theater specialist, had rebuilt the Bowery Theatre in 1845 after its destruction by fire, and had designed the Broadway Theatre, between Pearl and Anthony (now Worth) Streets in 1847. Earlier in 1850, he had built the new "Lecture Room" (theater) of Barnum's American Museum, and Tripler Hall (a concert venue).
The performances at the new theater were principally burlesques and farces.
Wallack's Theatre, 1852–61 1852–56 Brougham was a successful actor, but this enterprise failed. After two seasons, James W. Wallack leased the house and, following custom, renamed it for himself.Wallack:145–47 Aged 57, he was a well-known and well-respected British American actor who had proved himself as a manager at the National Theater (Church and Leonard Streets) from 1837 until it burned down in 1839.Brown v1:243–54 and Florence:455 last sentence – 456 After extensive renovation, he opened his new theater on September 8, 1852, with The Way to Get Married and The Boarding School. His sons, Lester, age 32, and Charles, were stage-manager and treasurer, respectively. Theodore Moss, who was to become a lifelong associate of the Wallacks, was assistant treasurer and later became treasurer, his position for many years. Admissions were fifty and twenty-five cents.Wallack:18, Jenkins:208, and Brown v1:477
The elder Wallack had made his first appearance in America at age 24, on September 7, 1818, playing Macbeth at the Park Theatre to much acclaim.Winter:300 Lester's first appearance in the United States had been made, also to much acclaim, at age 27 on opening night of the aforementioned Broadway Theatre, September 27, 1847, playing Sir Charles Coldstream in the afterpiece, Dion Boucicault's and Charles Mathews' farce Used Up. (His stage name was John Lester; he didn't work as Lester Wallack until October 1858.)
In 1854, Putnam's Monthly commented:
There are two theatres in New York, and but two which are devoted exclusively to the performance of the regular drama; these are Burton's in Chambers Street, and Wallack's in Broadway. ... Wallack's Lyceum, in Broadway, is an exceedingly elegant little house, the style of the interior decoration is in excellent taste, and the effect of a full house is light, cheerful, exhilarating, and brilliant. ... Great attention is always paid to the production of pieces at this brilliant little house, and the costumes and scenery form an important part of the attraction. English comedy and domestic dramas form the chief attractions at Wallack's, and the house is generally full. The utmost order and decorum are maintained ... and everything offensive to the most delicate taste carefully excluded from the stage.
Charlotte Thompson made her theatrical debut at Wallack's in 1854. In 1855, Wallack engaged the actress Mary Gannon, who had a series of critical triumphs in comedies with Wallack's company over the next decade, including performances in James Sheridan Knowles's The Love Chase, Octave Feuillet's The Romance of a Poor Young Man, Knights of the Round Table, Elizabeth Inchbald's To Marry or Not to Marry, and Augustus Glossop Harris's The Little Treasure, among others.
1856–61 For the two seasons 1856–58 Wallack leased the house to William Stuart, who managed it with Lester Wallack as stage manager, Dion Boucicault as general director, and Theodore Moss as treasurer. Stuart, an Irishman whose real name was Edmund O'Flaherty, had been a Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom. An alleged embezzler, he fled to New York in 1854, and wrote for the New York Tribune. He later managed the Winter Garden, and then the New Park Theatre, on Broadway between 21st and 22nd Streets, and was widely popular socially.
The elder Wallack performed October 20 through November 22, 1856, and May 11 through June 6, 1857. Brown asserts that Wallack's engagement was unsuccessful, that he played to the poorest houses of the season, and that he insisted on appearing in parts for which at this time he was too old, though he had gained a reputation in them twenty years before. Wallack did not perform during the 1857–58 season, and he resumed management of the theater in fall 1858. He appeared for the first time that season on December 9, as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice; on January 17 created the part of Colonel Delmar in The Veteran, Lester's new play, which ran 102 nights; and ended his acting career on May 14, as Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing. He managed the house for two more seasons.Brown v1:492–93 and 497–99Ireland:657–59
Ireland's assessment (published in 1867):
The establishment heretofore known as Brougham's Lyceum, which during the [1851–52] season had ceased to attract any share of public attention, [in 1852] passed into the hands of James W. Wallack, who, with [his department heads], soon succeeded not only in rivaling, but in a measure superseding Burton's Theatre in public esteem. The hand of a master was visible in every production, and the taste, elegance, and propriety displayed about the whole establishment gave it a position of respectability never hitherto enjoyed in New York, except at the old Park Theatre.Ireland:610–11
In 1858, the English violinist and conductor Henry Cooper and English soprano Annie Milner formed an opera company for Wallack's Theatre. The company, which performed mostly Italian operas, was not successful compared to the established opera companies performing Italian opera in New York City. The company instead became a touring company, and finally returned to England in 1861 after the outbreak of the Civil War.
After Wallack, 1861–69 In 1861, Wallack moved his company. After he left number 485, the theater was continued under various managers and names and underwent various vicissitudes—German opera, melodrama, legitimate theatre, concerts, Lent's Circus—until 1864, when it came under the management of George Wood, who restored its pre-circus condition and opened it May 2 as the Broadway Theatre.The 1847 Broadway Theatre had closed permanently on April 2, 1859 (Ireland:682). On April 1, 1867, Wood transferred the lease to Barney Williams, who managed the house for its last two years. The final performance was a benefit for Williams' business manager on Wednesday, April 28, 1869, comprising Ireland as It Was, the farces The Returned Volunteer and Game of Tag, two dance numbers, and performers with velocipedes. The Broadway Theatre was soon torn down and replaced by the extant (in 2013) building comprising a store and lofts.
844 Broadway at 13th Street
+ 844 Broadway at 13th Street As of Name Reference September 25, 1861 Wallack's Theatre Brown v2:245 September 15, 1881 The Germania Theatre Brown v2:303 March 26, 1883 The Star Theatre Brown v2:303 April 20, 1901 [last performance] The New York Times, April 21, 1901
Wallack's Theatre, 1861–81 As the city grew northward, James Wallack sought to follow. So did William Gibson, a glass stainer and supplier of architectural ornament, who by 1860 had acquired land on the northeast corner of Broadway and 13th Street for a new home for his business (and himself). Gibson was persuaded to include in his development a new home for Wallack's company as well."The New Theatre" The New York Times October 8, 1860
Sketches for the interior of the theater were begun by Trimble, the last he ever made: the work and his career were ended by blindness. The design was carried out by his student Thomas R. Jackson.Phelps:329 and The New York Times October 8, 1860 (cited above): "For the lot, 150 by 75, which [Wallack] has taken on a lease of ten years, he pays Mr. Gibson an annual rent of $10,000 a year, and all taxes, the rent to commence from to-day. In addition, he is to pay $2,500 for the entrance on Broadway, for the first five years, and $3,500 for the remaining five. Mr. Wallack lodges with Mr. Gibson $5,000 as security for the erection of the building, which sum, on its completion, is to be allowed in the first payment of rent. The theatre is estimated to cost, in erection and fittings, etc., $30,000, and at the close of the ten years passes into Mr. Gibson's hands. Mr. Trimble is preparing the plan."
For something more than twenty years [writes Brown] the most famous theatre in the United States was that of James W. Wallack, situated on the northeast corner of Broadway and Thirteenth Street. ... It was in this house the name of Wallack won its proudest laurels. [James] W. Wallack was its first manager, but he never played there, and to all intents and purposes J. Lester Wallack, with Theodore Moss in the business department, was from the first head and front of the theatre. ... The initial program was The New President, by Tom Taylor, September 25, 1861.Brown v2:244–45