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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. cover

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.

Chapter 16: FOOTNOTES:
By Charles P. Daly
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The author investigates competing claims about when drama first appeared in America, challenging the attribution to the Hallam company and marshaling Colonial newspaper evidence for earlier performances. He cites an advertisement implying a playhouse in New York in 1733, recounts the 1750 arrival of a Kean and Murray troupe that obtained gubernatorial permission and converted a Nassau Street room into a theater, and describes its layout, ticketing, and capacity. The paper preserves its original text and concludes with a supplement summarizing additional findings uncovered after the initial presentation.

THE BEEKMAN STREET THEATER.

In 1761 Douglass returned to New York, and abandoning the theater upon Cruger’s Wharf, erected one in Beekman street, a few doors below Nassau street. This was torn down in a riot in 1764. Three years after, the theater in John street, between Nassau street and Broadway, was built, which continued to be the principal one until the erection of the old Park Theater in 1797.[4]

FOOTNOTES:

[4] It was in 1766 and not in 1764 that this theater in Beekman street, or, as it was then called, Chapel street, was torn down in a riot growing out of the Stamp Act. The bill for the performance that night was “May 5, 1766, at the theatre in Chapel Street, a comedy called the ‘Twin Rivals,’ with a Song in praise of liberty and the King and the Miller of Mansfield.

“N. B. As the packet is arrived and has been the messenger of good news relative to the Repeal it is hoped the public has no objection to the above performance”—a hope that was not fulfilled.

Gabriel Furman, in a manuscript history of the New York stage, says, “about the year 1761 Phil Miller, well-known in the city for a plodding, active, managing man, obtained permission of Governor Colden to build a theatre and act plays, which he did in Beekman Street, a little below Nassau Street. This was a wooden building, in poor condition, with paper scenery and a wretched wardrobe. The whole was destroyed by a mob, created by the Stamp Act. Phil Miller lost his house and company. He was a jocose fellow and played Justice Gattle with great humor.”