First Theater in America / When was the drama first introduced in America? An inquiry, including a consideration of the objections that have been made to the stage.

In the winter of 1751 another company came to New York, and opened the theater in Nassau street on December 23, 1751, with “Othello” and the farce of “Lethe.” The company was under the management of a Mr. Upton, and in all probability came from Jamaica, in a vessel which had arrived a short time before. The company were either inferior to the former, or the public had become indifferent, for the manager, after performing three weeks, announced that, to his great disappointment, he had not met with encouragement enough to support the company for the season, and that he would bring it to an end by giving a few benefits. Some doubt of the merits of the new performers seems to have prevailed, as he assured the public in a card that the company “were perfect, and hope to perform to satisfaction.” It was the custom then for the actors to wait upon all the principal inhabitants and solicit their patronage, and fearing that he had been held accountable for some remissness of duty in this particular, he begs the public to remember that “he is an absolute stranger in the city, and if in his application he has omitted any gentlemen or ladies’ house or lodging, he humbly hopes that they will impute it to his want of information, and not to want of respect.” But though he produced several pieces not yet played in New York, such as “The Fair Penitent,” “Venice Preserved,” “The Provoked Husband,” and “Othello,” it was of no avail. A few benefits were given, one for a Mr. Leigh, another one for the poor widow Osborne, who, with Mr. Tremaine of the former company, had become attached to this one; and on March 27, 1752, the last performance took place for the benefit of the manager’s wife, Mrs. Upton. Upton delivered a farewell epilogue, and a few days after he left in a vessel for London.