Live Theater Growing Pains

By Kathy Kovach

By the turn of 19th century, British influence had been suppressed in colonial America thanks to the American Revolution. The new nation was free to create its own identity, and live theater accepted the challenge. Some hotspots, of course, still remained, most notably the Astor Place Riot that occurred in New York City on May 10, 1849. More on that later.

In 1832, William Dunlap, known as “The Father of American Drama”, characterized theater as a powerful engine.

“No arts can be made more effectual for the promotion of good than the dramatic and the histrionic. They unite music, poetry, painting, and eloquence. The engine is powerful for good or ill—it is for society to choose.”

Even though some southern states had already embraced live theater, three northern cities became the nerve center: Boston, Philadelphia, and New York.

Boston’s growing pains didn’t stem from British prejudice, but from Puritan resistance. Heavy hitters such as John Hancock and Sam Adams contributed to the religious, as well as artistic, suppression.

Poster of The Boston Museum, circa 1847

However, creativity cannot be squelched. Theaters were masked under names such as Exhibition Hall and Boston Museum. A comedic play, The Contrast, was billed as “a moral lecture in five parts” according to an advertisement in Boston’s Independent Chronicle and the Universal Advisor (October 18, 1792).

Beginning in the late 1700s, Philadelphia claimed to have been the center of theater entertainment until New York commanded the stage after the 1830s. In the 19th century alone, Philadelphia built over 100 theaters. The Chestnut Street Theatre, first opened in 1794 with a capacity of entertaining 2,000 patrons. In comparison, the Gershwin Theatre in New York is considered the largest on Broadway and holds 1,933 seats. The Chestnut Street Theatre was also the first in America to be lit by gaslight.

The Arch Street Theatre opened on October 1, 1828 and boasted a magnificent 108-year run. The notoriously infamous John Wilkes Booth joined the stock company there in 1857.

Louisa Lane Drew as Ophelia c. 1840-48

The Arch was the first theater to employ a female manager. In 1860, stockholders suggested veteran actress Louisa Lane Drew replace her husband, John Drew, due to his mismanagement for ten years. It thrived under her watchful eye until her retirement in 1892.

Lionel, Ethel, and John Barrymore, c. 1904

Drew Barrymore, 2014

Born into a performing family, Louisa Drew started acting as a child. The genes must have been strong as she went on to become the grandmother of Lionel, Ethel, and John Barrymore. Establishing herself as the matriarchal ancestor to the famous Barrymore-Drew acting family, spanning four centuries.

New York City live theater started small. The first appeared on Nassau Street in 1732. Nearly twenty years later, the New York Theatre became the first to present a musical in 1750.

Bowery Theatre

Park Theatre

Opening in 1826, the Bowery Theatre, located on the rowdy lower east side of Manhattan, became popular. Audiences there were known to disrupt performances, going as far as throwing projectiles. Their polar opposite competition, the elite Park Theatre, was located in what is now the Civic Center neighborhood of Manhattan. They catered to imported British actors, presenting Shakespeare.

Astor Place Riot

In 1847, the Astor Place Theatre, located in lower Manhattan, had been built to attract the upper crust of society. European entertainment fit their bill. A dress code was implemented, insisting on “freshly shaven faces, evening dress, and kid gloves”. While attempting to establish an air of refinement, no one could envision the tragedy that would ensue less than two years after its opening.

Yes, the Revolutionary War had helped America to establish its own identity, and yes, much of the British influence had been suppressed, but not eradicated. Sixty-four years after the war, pockets of loyalists remained on both sides.

William Charles Macready

Edwin Forrest

Enter William Charles Macready, a renowned British thespian, and Edwin Forrest an equally loved American actor having established himself at the Bowery Theatre. Both performed notable Shakespearean characters. Both were accomplished in their art.

Astor Place Riot

On the surface, the Astor Place Riot may have looked like a rivalry between the two men and their supporters, Macready’s fans preferring the gentility of the British style, and Forrest’s championing his robust, athletic technique. Forrest exacerbated the feud by hissing at Macready from a private box seat in the audience during a performance of Hamlet in Edinburgh, Scotland. This was in retaliation of the European audience doing the same to him while delivering his interpretation of Macbeth, of which his style of acting was unsuited.

In a plot twist, once Isaiah Rynders became involved, things got ugly.

Hollywood actor Edward G. Robinson as a mob boss

Isaiah Rynders was an underworld figure (I read that as gangster) who was known for organizing election fraud and participating in voter intimidation. When Macready performed Macbeth at the Astor Place Theatre on May 7, 1849, three days before the riot, Rynders stirred up the audience, encouraging them to throw things and be disruptive. On May 10, he went too far, and in an attempt to make a point against the British, he handed out handbills and free tickets throughout saloons and various places in the city, inviting patriots to Macready’s next performance in order to demonstrate their feelings about the British.

When the play opened that evening, 10,000 people lined the streets. The riot broke out and vegetables and shoes were replaced with stones. Some attempted to set fire to the building.

The militia was called in, as were the police. In all, 600 soldiers and law enforcement personnel fought against angry civilians answering Rynders’s question: “Shall Americans or English rule this city?”

In the end, nearly two dozen rioters were killed and forty-eight were injured. The militia and policemen also suffered wounds. The theater never was the same, and ended up closing after the next season. Edwin Forrest’s reputation took a hit, as well, because some still saw it as one rival actor attacking another.

Whether this tragedy opened people’s eyes, or the stigma of British rule simply faded, I’m not certain, but at some point in American theater’s four-decade history, things have settled down.

To finish on a happy note, who’s up for musical theater?

Titanic: Legacy of Betrayal

A TIME-SLIP NOVEL

A secret. A key. Much was buried on the Titanic, but now it's time for resurrection.

Follow two intertwining stories a century apart. 1912 - Matriarch Olive Stanford protects a secret after boarding the Titanic that must go to her grave. 2012 - Portland real estate agent Ember Keaton-Jones receives the key that will unlock the mystery of her past... and her distrusting heart.

To buy: Amazon

Kathleen E. Kovach is a Christian romance author published traditionally through Barbour Publishing, Inc. as well as indie. Kathleen and her husband, Jim, raised two sons while living the nomadic lifestyle for over twenty years in the Air Force. Now planted in northeast Colorado, she's a grandmother and a great-grandmother—though much too young for either. Kathleen has been a longstanding member of American Christian Fiction Writers. An award-winning author, she presents spiritual truths with a giggle, proving herself as one of God's peculiar people.

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