Park Theatre

Park Theatre (New York). Opened in 1798 as the New Theatre by Lewis Hallam and John Hodgkinson to replace the John Street Theatre, it served as New York's only playhouse for a quarter of a century and for several decades thereafter remained a prestigious auditorium. Under its earliest managers it boasted a fine stock company, probably surpassed only by those in Philadelphia and Boston. Matters changed during Stephen Price's thirty‐one‐year tenure, which began in 1808. It was in his time that New York became the largest American city and thus America's theatrical capital. Probably unwittingly, Price initiated the decline of the stock company by importing foreign celebrities and increasingly emphasizing the star system. Because the growing population required more performances of successes, Price also began to abandon the repertory policy. However, it was not until a year after his death that the three‐week stand of Boucicault's London Assurance (1841) gave New York its earliest “long run.” The first American play to enjoy a similar engagement was Fashion in 1845. The theatre had been reconstructed after several fires, but when it burned to the ground in 1848, shortly after Thomas Hamblin had taken over, it was not rebuilt, since by then the theatre district had moved northwards. The first permanent theatre to be built in Brooklyn was also called the Park. It was opened in 1863 and enjoyed many years of prosperity under the Conways.