A century ago, in an era when the area now known as Midtown was still primarily made up of farms and forests, the theatrical arts were already flourishing in Lower Manhattan. The first professional theater in the British colony of New York, called the New Theatre, opened in 1732. Located on Maiden Lane, between Nassau Street and John Street, it could seat up to 400 patrons. It regularly staged Shakespearean plays and light musicals like The Beggar’s Opera. However, by the mid-1760s, the property became more valuable as commercial real estate, leading to its demolition and redevelopment, according to manhattan-trend.com.
The Dawn of the First Theatres
Soon after, the John Street Theatre opened around the corner, accommodating over 700 spectators. During the American Revolution, when British forces fully occupied New York, the theatre was renamed the Theatre Royal. After the war ended, it reverted to the name John Street Theatre. At the time, it was home to the Old American Company theatrical troupe. Former President George Washington was a regular attendee of their performances. For five days in April 1796, the John Street Theatre staged the musical The Archers, which some historians believe was the first written for the American stage. In 1798, the John Street theatre met the same fate as its predecessor on Nassau Street and was redeveloped. However, that same year, the grand Park Theatre opened on Chatham Street (now Park Row). It could seat over 1,000 spectators, each paying between 35 and 75 cents per ticket. As noted by historian and City University of New York Professor Christopher Swift in his book The City Performs: An Architectural History of New York City Theatres, the Park Theatre was modelled after European playhouses. Yet, due to a lack of human and material resources, it lacked the full extent of European opulence. Since marble quarries were not yet established in America, the columns of the double stage were painted white to mimic the stone. Similarly, the flat ceiling was painted to look as much like a dome as possible. After a fire in 1820, the Park Theatre was rebuilt, expanding its capacity to 2,500 patrons. Five years later, it hosted the U.S. premiere of Rossini’s Italian opera The Barber of Seville. The building closed in 1840 when the Astor family purchased the land and opened a marketplace on the site. However, during its heyday, the theatre was so popular that city officials paved a new street behind it, Theatre Alley, to handle the congestion of horse-drawn traffic created by wealthy theatregoers. Theatre Alley, remembered as the first one-way street in New York, survives in Lower Manhattan to this day. It is a neglected palimpsest, stretching one block and ending at Ann Street and Beekman Street, running parallel between Park Row and Nassau Street.
Theatrical Manoeuvres
Before the Park Theatre closed, the city acquired a former military fortress and immigration centre from the federal government, located in what is now Battery Park. In 1845, the former Fort Clinton became Castle Garden —a theatre and concert hall that could hold 6,000 spectators. In 1850, the renowned European soprano Jenny Lind gave her first U.S. concert there. Demand for tickets was so high that impresario Phineas Barnum, who had promised Lind $1,000 per evening, sold tickets by auction rather than at a fixed price. According to a report published in the New York Sun newspaper, the first round of bidding was won by John Genin, the city’s leading hatter, who paid $225 for a single ticket. Adjusted for inflation, this would be about $10,000 today. Although most patrons paid considerably less, averaging around 50 cents, Barnum still earned approximately $14,000 per night throughout Lind’s performances.
Class-Based Theatre Attendance
The Bowery Theatre opened in 1826, initially targeting upper-class audiences, but soon faced overly stiff competition. New management decided to focus on the working class, presenting spectacular, action-packed performances. American tragedian Edwin Forrest debuted on its stage with sensational melodramas and impassioned interpretations of the classics. Over time, two distinct entertainment centres emerged in Manhattan. Theatres in the Bowery area catered exclusively to the working class, while Broadway increasingly targeted the wealthy city dwellers. Discontent grew on both sides of the social divide. When a group of wealthy patrons built the lavish Astor Place Opera House at the intersection of Astor Place and Broadway in 1847, no one suspected that a civic tragedy was brewing. In the spring of 1849, two actors appeared simultaneously in productions of Macbeth. American star Edwin Forrest found his fans among the working and lower classes on the Bowery (one of the oldest streets in Manhattan), while the intellectual tragedian William Macready was a favourite of high society at the Astor Place Opera House. Press sensationalism and widespread anti-British sentiment spurred a group of Forrest’s admirers to disrupt Macready’s performances. Ultimately, the actor was pelted with garbage, rotten eggs, and even planks ripped from the floor. On the night of May 10, 1849, a crowd of lower-class and working-class men rushed the Astor Place Opera House. As Macready continued to play Macbeth inside, the crowd outside erupted into full-scale riots. When the violence peaked, police fired directly into the crowd, killing approximately 22 people and wounding 150. Following the Astor Place Riot in 1849, entertainment in New York became segregated by class. Opera was preferred by the upper and middle classes, melodramas by the middle class, and vaudeville in concert saloons by working-class men living in tenements.
The Theatrical Arts Level Up
By the 1850s, Lower Manhattan’s theatrical star was already setting. By the start of the Civil War, a large number of theatres had opened in the Union Square area. As the 20th century approached, even this new theatre district gave way to a concentration of venues in the Broadway and 42nd Street area. Significantly, during the first two decades of the 20th century, the concrete traffic island between Broadway and 7th Avenue at 47th Street became a popular gathering spot for unemployed vaudeville performers and actors, earning it the nickname “the Beach.” There, performers would showcase their talent to onlookers. Today, this same stretch of pavement attracts far more people than ever before, as it is home to the TKTS booth, which sells discounted tickets. The contemporary theatre scene in Downtown New York has experienced a renaissance with the opening of the Perelman Performing Arts Centre at the World Trade Center, the establishment of the Sands College of Performing Arts at Pace University, and the relocation of the Stella Adler Studio of Acting to Lower Manhattan. Theatre troupes such as The Flea and Soho Rep also play a major role in its development. The theatrical arts continue to actively evolve in Manhattan, with many troupes offering audiences unique productions. Furthermore, new theatres are actively opening across New York City.
