Olympic Theatre

Home > Literature and the Arts > Performing Arts > Theater

Olympic Theatre, New York.

1. At 444 (later 442) Broadway, between Howard and Grand Streets. This handsome theatre opened in 1837 with a mixed bill, but was not a success, and passed through many hands before in 1839 William Mitchell (1798–1856) opened it as a home of light entertainment. As Mitchell's Olympic it flourished for over 10 years with burletta, burlesque, and extravaganza, and survived even the depression of 1842–3 which proved fatal to many other enterprises. It was the first theatre in New York to play a weekly matinée. Among its outstanding successes were Hamlet Travestie by John Poole, and burlesques of Richard III, of Boucicault's London Assurance, and of the opera The Bohemian Girl as The Bohea-Man's Girl. The season of 1847–8 saw Planché's The Pride of the Market, and Frank Chanfrau as Mose, his famous fireman character, in Benjamin Baker's A Glance at New York in 1848. A year later the theatre was redecorated; but Mitchell was failing in health and took the easy way of importing foreign stars. This proved disastrous, and in 1850 the Olympic closed abruptly. After a short spell under William Burton it housed plays in German and finally closed in 1851. It was burnt down in 1854.

2. At 622–4 Broadway, above Houston Street. This opened in 1856 with Laura Keene as Rosalind in As You Like It; as Laura Keene's Varieties it was the first American theatre to have a woman manager. It flourished until 1863 when Laura Keene left, and reopened on 8 Oct. of that year as the Olympic under Mrs John Wood, who ran it until 1866. Among later productions were A Midsummer Night's Dream and Fox's famous pantomime Humpty-Dumpty, which opened in 1868 and ran for 483 performances. In 1872 the theatre became a home of variety. It finally closed in 1880 and was demolished, shops being built on the site.

3. The New Olympic Theatre, at 585 Broadway, was opened in 1856 by Chanfrau who intended to revive the mixed bills of Mitchell's Olympic. He was unsuccessful, and after a few weeks the theatre was taken over by a minstrel show, Buckley's Serenaders, and became Buckley's Olympic. A later manager was Tony Pastor, from 1875 to 1881.