Park Theatre

Park Theatre, New York, the first outstanding theatre of the United States, known as the ‘Old Drury’ of America. Under Hallam and Hodgkinson it opened in 1798 with As You Like It, followed by Sheridan's The School for Scandal. The engagement of the brilliant young actor Thomas Cooper, who made his first appearance as Hamlet on 28 Feb., brought prosperity to the theatre, but his success was jeopardized by constant quarrels between the managers, one of whom, Dunlap, finally took over alone. His repertory consisted mainly of contemporary successes from London and the European stage, together with some of his own plays, but older plays were sometimes staged, and in 1804 Twelfth Night was seen for the first time in New York. A year later Dunlap went bankrupt and was replaced by Cooper, but it was not until a business man, Stephen Price took control in 1808 that the theatre prospered. Under him, in 1809, the first American play on Red Indian life was produced—The Indian Princess; or, La Belle Sauvage, by J. N. Barker. Price also inaugurated the policy of importing foreign stars, G. F. Cooke appearing under him in 1810. Ten years later, just as Edmund Kean was about to appear at the theatre, it was burnt down. Rebuilt, it reopened in 1821 and embarked on a period of prosperity which lasted until the death of Price in 1840. It then went downhill, and when in 1848 it was again destroyed by fire it was not rebuilt.