Olympic Theatre, New York

Olympic Theatre was the name of five former 19th and early 20th-century theatres on Broadway in Manhattan and in Brooklyn, New York.

Not to be confused with Olympia Theatre (New York City).
Stereoscopic view of the third Olympic Theatre (1856–1880)

First Olympic Theatre (1800–1821)
For broader coverage of this topic, see Anthony Street Theatre.
Portrait of Edmund Kean as Richard III, which he played at the theatre in 1820

Although perhaps best known as the Anthony Street Theatre, the first theatre in New York to bear the name Olympic (for only one year, in 1812–1813) was on 79–85 Anthony Street (later renamed Worth Street) in Manhattan. Converted in 1800 from a former circus building, it was named the Olympic Theatre in July 1812 under the management of actor-manager William Twaits along with Alexander Placide and Jean Baptiste Casmiere Breschard.[1] Twaits and Placide had come to New York after the disastrous Richmond Theatre fire in Richmond, Virginia, where they had been co-managers of the theatre there. The Olympic was due to open with a production led by Charlotte Melmoth and Twaits, but while travelling to fulfil this engagement Melmoth was involved in a carriage accident, resulting in a severe fracture to her arm that failed to heal, forcing her to give up her acting career.[2] Circus acts continued to appear there throughout this period. [3]

The theatre was renovated and redecorated in 1813 when it was named the Anthony Street Theatre, becoming the Commonwealth Theatre in 1814 and the Pavilion Theatre in 1816 and reverting to Anthony Street Theatre in 1820.[4] During the 1820–1821 season, the theatre was the home of the acting company of the Park Theatre while their own theatre was being rebuilt after having burnt down. With this company Edmund Kean made his first appearance to much acclaim in New York in Richard III.[4] The theatre was demolished in 1821 shortly after the Park Theatre company left, following which the plot was bought for the Christ Episcopal Church.[5]

Second Olympic Theatre (1837–1852)
Mitchell's Olympic Theatre

The second Olympic Theatre was built on 444 Broadway, near Grand Street in New York, in 1837. It was designed by the architect Calvin Pollard, who modeled it on the Olympic Theatre in London, which concentrated on Victorian burlesque, a form of theatrical parody, often of opera or classic plays. It was built by Willard and Blake, who struggled as managers and leased it, at first, to a series of even less successful managers.[6]

In 1839 actor-manager William Mitchell took over the theatre and offered parodies and comic entertainments at reduced prices.[7] The house became known as Mitchell's Olympic Theatre. One of his entertainments was Amy Lee, or Who Loves Best? (1839), a parody version of Amilie, or the Love Test.[8] Noteworthy musicals produced at the theatre included 1940! (1840) and A Glance at New York in 1848 (1848).[9] After his retirement in 1850, it became a German-language theatre and minstrel hall.[6] The theatre changed ownership in 1852 and continued to operate as "George Christy and Wood's Minstrels". The building burned down in December 1854 in a fire that destroyed several connected buildings, across which the City Assembly Rooms extended on an upper floor.[10]

Productions
  • The Deep, Deep Sea (1835 and 1837) – musical play by Charles Dance and James Planché
  • Sam Parr, with His Red Coarse Hair (1839) – burlesque version of Zampa, the Red Corsair, by William Mitchell
  • Amy Lee, or Who Loves Best? (1939) – burlesque version of Amilie, or the Love Test, by William Mitchell[8]
  • The Strange Gentleman/The Roof Scrambler (1839–1840) – musical burlesque
  • 1940! (1840) – musical extravaganza by A. Allan
  • The Cat's in the Larder (1840–1841) – musical burlesque by James Henry Horncastle
  • The Bohea-man's Girl (1845) – burlesque of The Bohemian Girl, by B.A. Baker
  • A Glance at New York In 1848 (1848) – original musical

Third Olympic Theatre (1856–1880)
This Olympic Theatre opened in 1856 as Laura Keene’s New Theatre

The third Olympic Theatre was located on 622 Broadway, near Houston Street in New York.[9] It was built in 1856 to a design by architect John M. Trimble as Laura Keene's Theatre under the management of Laura Keene, a popular actress of the time. Keene had lost her lease on the Metropolitan Hall (Tripler Hall), and she relocated her Varieties to this theatre.[11][12] The stage manager in the 1860s was Harry Eytinge. Many of Keene's productions had music by Thomas Baker and starred Joseph Jefferson.[11]

Under Keene's management, the theatre saw a number of notable premieres including Our American Cousin in 1858 by English playwright Tom Taylor when the title character was played by Jefferson with Edward Askew Sothern as Lord Dundreary. Keene was acting in the play at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. on 14 April 1865 when United States President Abraham Lincoln, in the audience, was assassinated by actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth. Other works to receive their premieres here included the melodrama The Colleen Bawn by Dion Boucicault (1860) and the long-running musical The Seven Sisters (1860–1861). In The Colleen Bawn, Keene played Anne Chute with Boucicault playing Myles na Coppaleen.[13]

After Keene left in 1863 the theatre was renamed the Olympic and was managed by a number of actresses, including Mrs. John Wood (c. 1866).[11] The theatre closed in 1880 and was demolished in the same year.[11]

Productions (as Laura Keene's Theatre)
Broadside for the theatre, presenting Offenbach's La Grande Duchesse de Gerolstein (1873)

Productions (as the Olympic Theatre)

Fourth Olympic Theatre (1908–1928)
Tammany Hall on East 14th Street (1914). The building was demolished in 1928

The fourth Olympic Theatre in New York was located on 143 East 14th Street in Manhattan. Built in 1868 for the Tammany Society, the building had an auditorium big enough to hold public meetings, and a smaller one that became the Olympic Theatre. The structure was topped off by a larger-than-life statue of Saint Tammany.[14] The smaller auditorium was renamed Bryant's Minstrel Hall in 1868 when it became the home of Don Bryant's Minstrels. After Bryant's Minstrels left, the theatre was leased to a German company:

Tammany Hall merged politics and entertainment, already stylistically similar, in its new headquarters. ... The Tammany Society kept only one room for itself, renting the rest to entertainment impresarios: Don Bryant's Minstrels, a German theater company, classical concerts and opera. The basement – in the French mode – offered the Café Ausant, where one could see tableaux vivant, gymnastic exhibitions, pantomimes, and Punch and Judy shows. There was also a bar, a bazaar, a Ladies' Café, and an oyster saloon. All this – with the exception of Bryant's – was open from seven till midnight for a combination price of fifty cents.[15]

In 1881 Tony Pastor took over the lease, renaming the venue Tony Pastor's 14th Street Theatre and making the theatre New York's most famous vaudeville house during the 1880s and 1890s.[16] After Pastor left in 1908 the theatre was renamed the Olympic and became a burlesque house until Tammany Hall was sold in 1928 and demolished in the same year.[17]

Fifth Olympic Theatre (1925–1927)
As the Tivoli Theatre in 1954

The fifth theatre in New York to bear the name Olympic was located at 365 Fulton Street in Brooklyn, New York. It was originally called Hyde & Behmans Theater and was one of the leading vaudeville theatres in America during the late 19th- and early 20th-centuries. This theatre was remodeled as the 2,000-seat Olympic Theatre, which opened on Labor Day, 1925. In 1926 an organ was installed in the theatre by the M. P. Moller company of Hagerstown, Maryland. In 1927 the Olympic later became a movie theatre called the Tivoli Theatre.[18] From 1942 the Tivoli was part of the Century Theatres circuit, and by 1950 it was operated by Liggett-Florin Booking Service. The Tivoli Theater closed in 1952 and, after being damaged by a fire in 1954, was subsequently demolished.[19]

References
  1. Poppiti, Kimberly. A History of Equestrian Drama in the United States: Hippodrama’s Pure Air and Fire, Routledge (2018), via Google Books
  2. Highfill, Philip H., Kalman A. Burnim and Edward A. Langhans (eds.) A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, 1660–1800 (Vol 10), SIU Press (1984), p. 184 ISBN 0809311305 · via Google Books, accessed 1 April 2020
  3. Green, John C. Theatre in Belfast 1736–1800, Lehigh University Press (2000), p. 258 ISBN 093422353X
  4. Law, Jonathan. The Methuen Drama Dictionary of the Theatre, Bloomsbury (2011), p. 23, via Google Books
  5. The Olympic Theatre (1800–1821), Internet Broadway Database, accessed March 31, 2020
  6. The Olympic Theatre (1837–1852), Internet Broadway Database, accessed March 31, 2020
  7. Odell, George C. D. "Some Theatrical Stock Companies of New York", in Corin, Blanche A. (ed.) The Theatre Annual 1951 (Vol. IX), pp. 9, et. seq.
  8. Rogers, Delmer D., Public Music Performances in New York City from 1800 to 1850, in Anuario Interamericano de Investigacion Musical, Vol. 6, (1970), p. 33
  9. Kenrick, John. Demolished Broadway Theatres, Musicals101: the Cyber Encyclopedia of Musical Theatre, Film and Television
  10. The New York Times, December 21, 1854, p. 1, Newspapers.com, accessed December 3, 2020
  11. The Olympic Theatre (1856–1880), Internet Broadway Database, accessed March 31, 2020
  12. "Olympic Theater Broadway NYC", Ephemeral New York, accessed March 31, 2020
  13. Parkin, Andrew. Selected Plays – Dion Boucicault. The Guernsey Press Co. Ltd., Great Britain (1987), p. 192
  14. Allen, Oliver E. (1993). The Tiger: The Rise and Fall of Tammany Hall. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company. ISBN 978-0-201-62463-2.
  15. Burrows & Wallace p.995
  16. Wurman, Richard Saul. Access New York City. New York: HarperCollins, 2000. ISBN 0-06-277274-0
  17. Olympic Theatre (1868–1928), Internet Broadway Database, accessed March 31, 2020
  18. Olympic Theatre in Brooklyn, The New York City Chapter of the American Guild of Organists
  19. Tivoli Theater, 365 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, NY- Cinema Treasures website


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