Bowery Theatre

Bowery Theatre, New York.

1. The first Bowery Theatre opened in 1826 with Holcroft's The Road to Ruin. The theatre was lit by gas enclosed in glass shades, not, as elsewhere, with naked jets. Edwin Forrest made many of his early successes at the Bowery, first appearing there as Othello. In 1828 the theatre was burnt down, and the actors had to migrate to the Sans Souci (see NIBLO'S GARDEN). A second Bowery opened in the same year, again with Forrest as its star, and became the first theatre in New York to have continuous runs. In 1836 the theatre was burnt down, as was a third Bowery in 1838 and a fourth in 1845, rebuilt in the same year. In 1851 an actor who was to be the idol of the Bowery audiences, Edward Eddy (1822–75), made his appearance in a series of strong parts. He took over in 1857 but closed it after one season. In 1858 the theatre reopened under George L. Fox and James W. Lingard with plays and pantomimes. When they left for the New Bowery (below), the old one, by now the oldest playhouse in New York, was subjected to a series of incompetent managers. During the Civil War it was occupied by the military, and it then became a circus. Fox reopened it as Fox's Old Bowery, with melodramas as the staple fare, though oldfashioned farce continued to flourish there long after it had vanished from New York's new playhouses. The audiences were notoriously uncouth. The theatre then fell a victim to the prevalent craze for burlesque, and closed in 1878, reopening a year later as the Thalia for plays in German. It was destroyed by fire in 1923 and again, for the sixth and last time, in 1929.

2. The New Bowery opened in 1859, under Fox and Lingard, with a good company. It had a short and undistinguished career, enlivened only by visits from guest stars and the inevitable Uncle Tom's Cabin. It was destroyed by fire in 1866.