The Broadway Theatre, called the Old Broadway Theatre since its demise, was at 326–30 Broadway, between Pearl and Anthony (now Worth) Streets in Lower Manhattan, New York City.See map published in 1853, below. With over 4000 seats, it was the largest theater ever built in New York when it opened. During its brief existence, many prominent performers of the era appeared on its stage. It presented plays, opera, ballet, hippodrama, and circus performances in a space that was reconfigured several times. The operators always struggled to make money, however, and after twelve years the Broadway Theatre was replaced by a more profitable building, for the textile trade.
The founding
The original projector of the Old Broadway Theatre was Thomas S. Hamblin, in an agreement with James R. Whiting. But on April 25, 1845, just as Hamblin was about to begin construction, his Bowery Theatre burned to the ground, involving him in a loss of $100,000. At first he announced he was carrying on with his plan. Then he was publicly opposed by David Hale, editor of The Journal of Commerce and prominent member of the Broadway Tabernacle, across Anthony Street, which was used as a venue for concerts and other events. The New York Herald thought Hale objected to the prospect of competition so close by. Hamblin gave the project up.
Col. Alvah Mann,Slout (ed.): Mann, Col. Alvah a well-known circus proprietor, then commenced the erection of it. After spending $14,000, he was obliged to call in the aid of James R. Raymond,Slout (ed.): Raymond, James R. a wealthy touring-menagerie owner, in order to complete the building. George Barrett was the initial acting and stage manager, and assembled the stock company of actors. On January 24, 1848, a few months after the theatre opened, Mann took a partner, E. A. Marshall, manager of the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia, with "[t]he sole management of the Theatre, so far as its dramatic and theatrical arrangements are concerned, ... in the hands of Mr. Marshall. ... " Barrett left and was replaced by William Rufus Blake on February 21. The partnership was dissolved on October 25, 1848, Mann relinquished the building to Raymond, who held a mortgage on it, and Marshall became sole lessee and manager. He remained with the theater nearly ten more years.
The building
One writer called the location "the very best spot in the city. It is accessible by all the omnibus lines, in the midst of the hotels, on high and wholesome ground." John M. Trimble was the theater's architect, and Addison Alger was the contracted mason and carpenter. The L-shaped lot had 75 feet on the south side of Anthony Street and the same on the east side of Broadway, the main entrance; it was 175 feet deep west to east. The façade on Broadway was three stories high and finished to look like stone. The upper stories each had six colored-glass windows. A balcony with thirteen large gas-lit globes overlooked the sidewalk from the second floor. (All the gas for the theater was manufactured in the rear basement from oil, to save money.) There was a square observatory on top. The Evening Post called the theater "a decided ornament to Broadway".
The effect on entering the house was called "brilliant in the extreme". It was lighted by thirteen chandeliers, each under a colorful grotesque figure of a Moor in the attitude of feeding it with oil. The stage curtain was of fringed crimson silk looped up by cords, and the drop depicted a Swiss landscape. The ornaments throughout the theater were gold on a white ground, and the fronts of the boxes represented a chase beginning on the lowest front, and continuing on the other two, turning alternately from right to left and from left to right. The top of the stage was adorned with portraits of Washington and Lafayette with the arms of New York State and the United States. The orchestra pit, surrounded by an open balustrade, was twelve feet by twenty-seven, with a double floor and a sounding chamber to increase the body of tone, especially of the cellos and basses. The stage was ninety-five feet wide by eighty-seven deep, and forty-seven feet across the proscenium.
The arrangement of seats was unusual for the period. The pit was transferred from the ground floor to the gallery (third tier), and in its place the inclined plane of the dress circle (first tier) was extended with the slope of an amphitheatre clear down to the stage. These seats were all entered from the dress circle, and cost the same price: one dollar. They were "well-stuffed sofas of luxurious width and inclination, leaving ample room between them for the 'largest liberty' of the feet." One writer contrasted the "personal comfort and luxury" with the Park Theatre's "system of torture applied to legs and arms" and "old fashioned filth, darkness and discomfort", adding, "all that is over".
The family circle (second tier) cost 50 cents and had 13 rows of benches. The third tier had "upper boxes", for which seats cost 50 cents, and the gallery, which cost 25 cents and had 20 rows of benches plus three additional rows, in the back, for African-American customers. The third tier included an unconnected female section with a separate entrance, on Anthony Street; the rest was for males. A newspaper editorial published October 2, 1847, addressed this arrangement in the context of sexual activity in theaters.
(On October 18, 1847, prices for the upper boxes and gallery were reduced by half. On January 10, 1848, prices for the rest of the house were reduced by half, as well.)
A large reservoir on the top of the building held a hundred tons of water, in case of fire.
Performers and performances
As at other theaters, the resident stock company presented familiar plays in repertory, with guest stars – touring actors – playing the leading roles during engagements of one or more weeks. Sometimes a new play or special production had a run of consecutive performances. A bill opened with an overture by the house orchestra and comprised a full-length play plus a curtain-raiser or afterpiece, and perhaps another musical, dance, or specialty act, as well. Sometimes the main piece was an opera or ballet by a guest troupe. Summers the company was off, and the house was rented to touring acts. The performers who played the Broadway were the same as those who played the city's other theaters, such as the Park, the Bowery, Niblo's Garden, and the Academy of Music.
1847–50
The first season began September 27, 1847, with The School for Scandal. Lester Wallack made his American debut (using the name John Lester) in the afterpiece, Used Up. The company also presented Love's Sacrifice, The Rivals, Temper (a new comedy by Robert Bell), Money, Buckstone's Flowers of the Forest, Ernestine, George Barnwell, She Would Be a Soldier, Robert Macaire, Old Heads and Young Hearts, and London Assurance, the last two starring Blake. Thomas Talfourd's new play, Glencoe, and H. P. Grattan's new drama, Advocate, were also produced. Short pieces included Ladies, Beware; The Jacobite; Thomas Haynes Bayly's Ladder of Love; Captain of the Watch; Box and Cox; and a new farce, Young America.
Guest actors included James E. Murdoch in Hamlet and The Lady of Lyons, Samuel Lover in his own play, Emigrant's Dream, Mrs. George Percy Farren (née Mary Ann Russell) in The Stranger, The Gamester, and The Ransom, Mr. and Mrs. James W. Wallack Jr. in Macbeth with guest actor James Stark, W. B. Chapman, James Robertson Anderson in Othello and Romeo and Juliet. John Brougham's comedy, Romance and Reality, starring the author, was a big hit and ran two weeks, as did John Collins, the Irish singer and actor.
Professor Risley & Sons, a popular gymnastics act, was on the bill for two weeks in October. The popular Italian ballerina Giovanna Ciocca, with Gaetano Morra, played two weeks. The French Ballet Company directed by Victor Bartholomin and featuring Hippolyte Monplaisir and his wife Adèle Monplaisir was on the bill from October 21 to November 29. Another French ballet company played April 3 – 15, starring Mlle. Hermine Blangy, with Mons. Bouxary, in L'Illusion d'un Peintre and Giselle. Anna Bishop's Dramatic Company presented Lucrezia Borgia in Italian and Linda of Chamouni in English. The Monplaisirs returned on July 6 for four weeks (sans Bartholomin), presenting the ballets L'Almee and Le Diable a Quatre.
The stock company was not successful the first season; audiences were meager and the press critical.
Edwin Forrest opened the second season August 28, 1848, in Othello. He played a total of eight weeks over three engagements during the season, in the roles of Macbeth, Virginius, Richelieu, Damon in Damon and Pythias, and Spartacus in The Gladiator. Ann Childe Seguin and her husband Edward Seguin, singers of opera in English, performed October 11 – 24, and performed The Enchantress by Michael William Balfe for 20 nights beginning March 30. December 4 – 9 General Tom Thumb acted in Hop o' My Thumb, or the Seven League Boots, written especially for him. On Christmas night, Lester Wallack (John Lester) played the title part in the premiere of The Count of Monte Cristo, adapted by G. H. Andrews for this theatre, the first dramatization of the Alexandre Dumas novel to be performed in America. It ran 50 nights (dress circle and parquette raised to 75 cents), and was revived May 14–23, 1849. Henry Placide played March 5 – 24; with John Collins from March 12. April 18 – 21 James Henry Hackett played Falstaff in Henry IV. The Monplaisir Ballet Company ran May 28 – June 23, which ended the season. There followed a summer engagement of Italian opera, and ballet featuring Mlle. Blangy, August 13 – September 15.
The third season opened September 17, 1849, with Blake as acting and stage manager. James Hudson made his American debut, performing six weeks during the season. Charles Walter Couldock also made his American debut, appearing with Charlotte Cushman a total of six weeks. John Collins played five weeks. The Seguin troupe played two weeks. Mrs. George Barrett appeared 14 nights. Ellen and Kate Bateman, four and six years of age, respectively, made their first appearance in New York; they played a week, as did each of Murdoch, Hackett, and McKean Buchanan. Extremes, a new comedy, was played for a month beginning February 25. Barrett returned as manager on March 21, after a grand benefit March 20 for Blake, who left the company at the end of the week. May 1 – 11, Mrs. Farren appeared. May 13 Jean Margaret Davenport appeared as Evadne, sharing a bill with dancers Giovanna Ciocca and Gaetano Neri in a new ballet, The Magic Flute. Her engagement ended May 25. July 4–6, 1850, Madame Augusta's production of the ballet Nathalie, and Felix Carlo and family, pantomimists and gymnasts, formed a bill, closing the season.
1850–53