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Abbey's Park Theatre

April 12, 2024

For Henry Abbey's Theatre, see Knickerbocker Theatre (Broadway). For a later New Park Theatre (1883–1894), see Herald Square Theatre. For other buildings named Park Theatre, see Park Theatre.

Abbey's Park Theatre or Abbey's New Park Theatre was a playhouse at 932 Broadway and 22nd Street in what is now the Flatiron District of Manhattan in New York City. It opened as the New Park Theatre in 1874, and was in use until 1882 when it burned down and was never rebuilt as a theatre.

Description edit

The theatre stood on a plot of land 60 x 100 feet (20 x 30 meters). The façade was "plain and substantial, rather than ornamental."[1] It was made of Philadelphia brick with trimmings of Nova Scotia stone.

The auditorium was 60 x 60 feet (20 x 20 m) with a parquet or orchestra circle, dress circle, and gallery. There were 12 proscenium boxes, six on each side of the stage.[1] The stage was 34 x 60 feet and 52 feet to the girders. The proscenium was 26 feet wide and 24 feet to the top of the arch. The cost of the building (exclusive of the plot of land upon which it stood) was expected to be $100,000.[1]

The color scheme in the auditorium was French gray, and gold, with lines of red for relief.[1]

History edit

Construction edit

 
Henry E. Abbey in c. 1896

The New Park Theatre, designed by Frederic Draper, was built on the site of a previous theatre from May 1873 – March 1874 by Dion Boucicault and William Stuart at a cost of $100,000.[1][2] They had previously been involved with the Winter Garden Theatre, which Boucicault left in 1860 and was destroyed in March 1867 in a fire which almost cost Stuart his life.[3]

An advance description of the New Park appeared in the New York Times on May 31, 1872.[4] In July 1872 Draper, the architect, put forward an enlarged design. This included buying an adjacent plot of land, whose rightful ownership was mired in litigation.[4] The theatre was meant to open in October 1873 but a deadlock in litigation dragged on for so long that Boucicault and Stuart cancelled the opening. In the end another suitable plot came up for sale, and work progressed. The available artistes were re-engaged.[4] By the end of March 1874 the work was nearly complete. [1]

Opening edit

Boucicault had been announced to be interested in the management, but withdrew just before the theatre opened: and Stuart teamed up instead with the actor, playwright and theatre manager Charles Fechter to run the house.[5] The New Park Theatre opened on April 13[6] or April 15, 1874[2] with William Stuart as manager, and Fechter appearing in his own play Love's Penance, an adaptation of Le médecin des enfants by Count d'Avrigny.[6] Edwin Booth, who had been with Stuart at the Winter Garden, was fairly scathing about the whole enterprise:

"I should like to hear of Stuart's success – but I doubt it, for I fear Fechter is unlucky, & Stuart really possesses very little, if any theatrical business capacity. F's remarkable talents both as actor and as stage manager shd. ensure the success of any theatre – could he be managed; otherwise I doubts the safety of any enterprise he has to do with."[6][7]

Love's Penance closed on May 6, 1874, and shortly after Fechter withdrew from the management and retired. Stuart suffered financial embarrassments, and the theatre may have been shut down by the Sheriff on more than one occasion.[8] The house remained closed until the fall of 1874, when John T. Raymond performed Mark Twain's Colonel Sellers for 100 nights. This was followed by the Grau-Chizzola company in Charles Lecocq's Giroflé-Girofla, and George Fawcett Rowe appeared in his own play Brass.[9][5][10]

The following season Stuart presented Mr. & Mrs. William J. Florence in Benjamin E. Woolf's The Mighty Dollar which reached its 100th performance on December 13, 1875.[11] Gold medals were struck for the occasion,[12] but the calamitous failure of Oakey Hall (former Mayor of New York 1869–1872) in his own play The Crucible, and an unprofitable production of F. Marsden's The Clouds early in the winter season of 1876 left him unable to carry on, and Stuart swiftly relinquished control of his theatre.[5]

Henry E. Abbey edit

In November 1876 Henry E. Abbey took over the management of the house and renamed the New Park Theatre to Abbey's Park Theatre.[13] Abbey was associated with John B. Schoeffel, and later with Maurice Grau in the theatrical management partnership of Abbey, Schoeffel and Grau.

The shows were light comedies and farces; and the theatre saw the beginning of the combination of Stuart Robson and W. H. Crane. Acts like Helena Modjeska, and Thomas W. Keene in Shakespeare (especially Richard III) performed there.

Abbey put on popular successes like Our Boarding House, set in Chicago, by Leonard Grover, starring Stuart Robson, W. H. Crane and William E. Sheridan.[14] It opened on January 29, 1877 and played for 104 performances, running for at least eight weeks to March 1877.[15][16] Among Abbey's many artistes one of the biggest names was Lotta, a light-comedy star. She was one of the highest-paid actress in America, earning sums of up to $5,000 per week.

Boucicault's Dot, a dramatisation of Charles Dickens's The Cricket on the Hearth with John E. Owens played at the Park Theatre from January 20, 1879.[17] Divorçons by Victorien Sardou opened at Abbey's New Park Theatre on April 1, 1882.[18][19]

 
The burning of Abbey's Park Theatre in New York on October 30, 1882.

Destruction edit

On one of his trips to Europe looking for new stars, Abbey saw Lilly Langtry perform in Edinburgh, and offered her a season in America.[20] Langtry's tour of the US was due to open at the Park Theatre on October 30, 1882, but during the day the building was completely demolished by fire and was never rebuilt.[2]

The next day the papers implicated Langtry in the misfortune. They declared that the burning of the Park Theatre was the biggest and costliest advertisement ever designed to welcome a star to America's shores.[21] Langtry presented Tom Taylor's An Unequal Match a week later to capacity houses at Wallack's Theatre instead.[21]

Aftermath edit

With Abbey's theatre—and one main source of income—gone, he and Schoeffel invited Maurice Grau to join them in partnership.[22] The theatrical management firm of Abbey, Schoeffel and Grau went on to lease and manage the brand-new Metropolitan Opera House (the 'Old Met') for its opening season of 1883–4. It was a critical success but a financial disaster: Abbey as manager was personally responsible for losses of $250,000.[23]

Similarly named theaters edit

Soon after Abbey's Park Theatre burned down in October 1882, another New Park Theatre opened at 1331 Broadway in 1883. It was leased by David Belasco, who survived the 1883-1884 season with a new version of his The Stranglers of Paris, adapted from a story by Adolphe Belot. It played at his New Park Theatre on November 12, 1883. Belasco's adaptation of Uncle Tom's Cabin (a 'Tom show') probably also played there.[24] The New Park Theatre was renamed as the Herald Square Theatre in 1894.[25]

References edit

Citations edit

  1. ^ a b c d e f "The New Park Theatre". New York Times. March 30, 1874.
  2. ^ a b c Dimmick 1913, p. 51.
  3. ^ "Total Destruction of the Winter Garden Theatre—Considerable Damage Occasioned to the Southern Hotel—Aggregate Loss about $250,000". New York Times. (hosted at Music in Gotham). March 24, 1867. p. 1. Retrieved September 11, 2017.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  4. ^ a b c "The New Park Theatre". New York Times. September 28, 1873.
  5. ^ a b c “Death of William Stuart”, The New York Times, December 29, 1886.
  6. ^ a b c Watermeier 2015, p. 48.
  7. ^ Fechter was noted for an uncontrollable temper, and had left two or three other theatres after arguments.
  8. ^ Abbey's Park Theatre. International Broadway Database. Retrieved September 10, 2017.
  9. ^ Fisher 2015, p. 382.
  10. ^ "Amusements: 'Brass' at the Park Theatre" (PDF). The New York Times. February 18, 1876. Retrieved September 11, 2017.
  11. ^ Woolf wrote the libretto for one of the first modern Broadway musicals, The Doctor of Alacantra. See William A. Everett, Paul R. Laird (2015)). "Historical Dictionary of the Broadway Musical". Rowman & Littlefield, p. xiii.
  12. ^ Park Theatre Presentation Medal for the 100th Performance of "The Mighty Dollar". Bronze struck medal with obverse showing accolated male and female busts facing left with legend: "PRESENTED BY Mr. & Mrs. WM. J.FLORENCE." Reverse with legend above: "PARK THEATRE/DECEMBER 13TH 1875"; inscription below within laurel wreath: "100TH/NIGHT/OF THE/MIGHTY DOLLAR". New-York Historical Society Museum and Library. Retrieved September 11, 2017.
  13. ^ Dimmick 1913.
  14. ^ His only stage success. Grover appeared in The Day of Days (film) (1914, lost).
  15. ^ Fisher 2015, p. 336.
  16. ^ "Park Theatre". The Stage. XXIV (44). March 23, 1877. Retrieved September 10, 2017.
  17. ^ "Park Theatre". New York Times, January 21, 1879. Retrieved September 10, 2017.
  18. ^ "Divorcons 1882". Performing Arts Archive. Retrieved September 11, 2017.
  19. ^ This ad calls it "Abbey's (new) Park Theatre": "Amusements". Spirit of the Tines, April 8, 1882, p. 270.
  20. ^ "Lillie Langtry – a biography". theislandwiki.org. Retrieved September 11, 2017.
  21. ^ a b Head 1970, p. 11.
  22. ^ "Impresario Grau Is Dead". The Sun. New York City. March 15, 1907. p. 9a. [NB The article says (incorrectly) that his father was Hermann Grau, and not Emmanuel.]
  23. ^ Herx, Stephen (1999). "Marcella Sembrich and Three Great Events at the Metropolitan". Opera Quarterly. 15 (1): 49–71. doi:10.1093/oq/15.1.49. (subscription required)
  24. ^ Belasco 1925, pp. 15, 18.
  25. ^ "Herald Square Theatre". IBDB. Retrieved September 11, 2017.

Sources edit

  • ?Belasco, David (1925). Plays produced under the direction of David Belasco. Illustrated with Twelve Crayon Sketches. (illustrated by William F. Kurze). New York City. p. 19.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Brown, Thomas Allston (1903). A History of the New York Stage, Vol. 3. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company.
  • Cahn, Julius, ed. (1898). Julius Cahn's Official Theater Guide. New York: Empire Theatre Building.
  • Dimmick, Ruth Crosby (1913). Our Theatres To-day and Yesterday. New York City: The H. K. Fly Company.
  • Fisher, James (2015). Historical Dictionary of American Theater: Beginnings. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9780810878334.
  • Head, Rose Lee (1970). Mrs. Lily Langtry's costumes for the stage (PDF) (M.A. Thesis). Texas Tech University. p. 11.
  • Watermeier, Daniel J., ed. (2015). Between Actor and Critic: Selected Letters of Edwin Booth and William Winter (annotated ed.). Princeton University Press. ISBN 9781400871674.

External links edit

  • Burning of Abbey's Park Theatre, New York. Photographed at 4.50 pm, October 30, 1882 by B. J. Falk, 949 Broadway [opposite 932 Broadway]. The New York Public Library Digital Collections. Retrieved September 11, 2017.

40°44′24″N 73°59′31″W / 40.740°N 73.992°W / 40.740; -73.992

April 12, 2024
abbey, park, theatre, henry, abbey, theatre, knickerbocker, theatre, broadway, later, park, theatre, 1883, 1894, herald, square, theatre, other, buildings, named, park, theatre, park, theatre, abbey, park, theatre, playhouse, broadway, 22nd, street, what, flat. For Henry Abbey s Theatre see Knickerbocker Theatre Broadway For a later New Park Theatre 1883 1894 see Herald Square Theatre For other buildings named Park Theatre see Park Theatre Abbey s Park Theatre or Abbey s New Park Theatre was a playhouse at 932 Broadway and 22nd Street in what is now the Flatiron District of Manhattan in New York City It opened as the New Park Theatre in 1874 and was in use until 1882 when it burned down and was never rebuilt as a theatre Contents 1 Description 2 History 2 1 Construction 2 2 Opening 2 3 Henry E Abbey 2 4 Destruction 3 Aftermath 4 Similarly named theaters 5 References 5 1 Citations 5 2 Sources 6 External linksDescription editThe theatre stood on a plot of land 60 x 100 feet 20 x 30 meters The facade was plain and substantial rather than ornamental 1 It was made of Philadelphia brick with trimmings of Nova Scotia stone The auditorium was 60 x 60 feet 20 x 20 m with a parquet or orchestra circle dress circle and gallery There were 12 proscenium boxes six on each side of the stage 1 The stage was 34 x 60 feet and 52 feet to the girders The proscenium was 26 feet wide and 24 feet to the top of the arch The cost of the building exclusive of the plot of land upon which it stood was expected to be 100 000 1 The color scheme in the auditorium was French gray and gold with lines of red for relief 1 History editConstruction edit nbsp Henry E Abbey in c 1896The New Park Theatre designed by Frederic Draper was built on the site of a previous theatre from May 1873 March 1874 by Dion Boucicault and William Stuart at a cost of 100 000 1 2 They had previously been involved with the Winter Garden Theatre which Boucicault left in 1860 and was destroyed in March 1867 in a fire which almost cost Stuart his life 3 An advance description of the New Park appeared in the New York Times on May 31 1872 4 In July 1872 Draper the architect put forward an enlarged design This included buying an adjacent plot of land whose rightful ownership was mired in litigation 4 The theatre was meant to open in October 1873 but a deadlock in litigation dragged on for so long that Boucicault and Stuart cancelled the opening In the end another suitable plot came up for sale and work progressed The available artistes were re engaged 4 By the end of March 1874 the work was nearly complete 1 Opening edit Boucicault had been announced to be interested in the management but withdrew just before the theatre opened and Stuart teamed up instead with the actor playwright and theatre manager Charles Fechter to run the house 5 The New Park Theatre opened on April 13 6 or April 15 1874 2 with William Stuart as manager and Fechter appearing in his own play Love s Penance an adaptation of Le medecin des enfants by Count d Avrigny 6 Edwin Booth who had been with Stuart at the Winter Garden was fairly scathing about the whole enterprise I should like to hear of Stuart s success but I doubt it for I fear Fechter is unlucky amp Stuart really possesses very little if any theatrical business capacity F s remarkable talents both as actor and as stage manager shd ensure the success of any theatre could he be managed otherwise I doubts the safety of any enterprise he has to do with 6 7 Love s Penance closed on May 6 1874 and shortly after Fechter withdrew from the management and retired Stuart suffered financial embarrassments and the theatre may have been shut down by the Sheriff on more than one occasion 8 The house remained closed until the fall of 1874 when John T Raymond performed Mark Twain s Colonel Sellers for 100 nights This was followed by the Grau Chizzola company in Charles Lecocq s Girofle Girofla and George Fawcett Rowe appeared in his own play Brass 9 5 10 The following season Stuart presented Mr amp Mrs William J Florence in Benjamin E Woolf s The Mighty Dollar which reached its 100th performance on December 13 1875 11 Gold medals were struck for the occasion 12 but the calamitous failure of Oakey Hall former Mayor of New York 1869 1872 in his own play The Crucible and an unprofitable production of F Marsden s The Clouds early in the winter season of 1876 left him unable to carry on and Stuart swiftly relinquished control of his theatre 5 Henry E Abbey edit In November 1876 Henry E Abbey took over the management of the house and renamed the New Park Theatre to Abbey s Park Theatre 13 Abbey was associated with John B Schoeffel and later with Maurice Grau in the theatrical management partnership of Abbey Schoeffel and Grau The shows were light comedies and farces and the theatre saw the beginning of the combination of Stuart Robson and W H Crane Acts like Helena Modjeska and Thomas W Keene in Shakespeare especially Richard III performed there Abbey put on popular successes like Our Boarding House set in Chicago by Leonard Grover starring Stuart Robson W H Crane and William E Sheridan 14 It opened on January 29 1877 and played for 104 performances running for at least eight weeks to March 1877 15 16 Among Abbey s many artistes one of the biggest names was Lotta a light comedy star She was one of the highest paid actress in America earning sums of up to 5 000 per week Boucicault s Dot a dramatisation of Charles Dickens s The Cricket on the Hearth with John E Owens played at the Park Theatre from January 20 1879 17 Divorcons by Victorien Sardou opened at Abbey s New Park Theatre on April 1 1882 18 19 nbsp The burning of Abbey s Park Theatre in New York on October 30 1882 Destruction edit On one of his trips to Europe looking for new stars Abbey saw Lilly Langtry perform in Edinburgh and offered her a season in America 20 Langtry s tour of the US was due to open at the Park Theatre on October 30 1882 but during the day the building was completely demolished by fire and was never rebuilt 2 The next day the papers implicated Langtry in the misfortune They declared that the burning of the Park Theatre was the biggest and costliest advertisement ever designed to welcome a star to America s shores 21 Langtry presented Tom Taylor s An Unequal Match a week later to capacity houses at Wallack s Theatre instead 21 Aftermath editWith Abbey s theatre and one main source of income gone he and Schoeffel invited Maurice Grau to join them in partnership 22 The theatrical management firm of Abbey Schoeffel and Grau went on to lease and manage the brand new Metropolitan Opera House the Old Met for its opening season of 1883 4 It was a critical success but a financial disaster Abbey as manager was personally responsible for losses of 250 000 23 Similarly named theaters editSoon after Abbey s Park Theatre burned down in October 1882 another New Park Theatre opened at 1331 Broadway in 1883 It was leased by David Belasco who survived the 1883 1884 season with a new version of his The Stranglers of Paris adapted from a story by Adolphe Belot It played at his New Park Theatre on November 12 1883 Belasco s adaptation of Uncle Tom s Cabin a Tom show probably also played there 24 The New Park Theatre was renamed as the Herald Square Theatre in 1894 25 References editCitations edit a b c d e f The New Park Theatre New York Times March 30 1874 a b c Dimmick 1913 p 51 Total Destruction of the Winter Garden Theatre Considerable Damage Occasioned to the Southern Hotel Aggregate Loss about 250 000 New York Times hosted at Music in Gotham March 24 1867 p 1 Retrieved September 11 2017 a href Template Cite news html title Template Cite news cite news a CS1 maint others link a b c The New Park Theatre New York Times September 28 1873 a b c Death of William Stuart The New York Times December 29 1886 a b c Watermeier 2015 p 48 Fechter was noted for an uncontrollable temper and had left two or three other theatres after arguments Abbey s Park Theatre International Broadway Database Retrieved September 10 2017 Fisher 2015 p 382 Amusements Brass at the Park Theatre PDF The New York Times February 18 1876 Retrieved September 11 2017 Woolf wrote the libretto for one of the first modern Broadway musicals The Doctor of Alacantra See William A Everett Paul R Laird 2015 Historical Dictionary of the Broadway Musical Rowman amp Littlefield p xiii Park Theatre Presentation Medal for the 100th Performance of The Mighty Dollar Bronze struck medal with obverse showing accolated male and female busts facing left with legend PRESENTED BY Mr amp Mrs WM J FLORENCE Reverse with legend above PARK THEATRE DECEMBER 13TH 1875 inscription below within laurel wreath 100TH NIGHT OF THE MIGHTY DOLLAR New York Historical Society Museum and Library Retrieved September 11 2017 Dimmick 1913 His only stage success Grover appeared in The Day of Days film 1914 lost Fisher 2015 p 336 Park Theatre The Stage XXIV 44 March 23 1877 Retrieved September 10 2017 Park Theatre New York Times January 21 1879 Retrieved September 10 2017 Divorcons 1882 Performing Arts Archive Retrieved September 11 2017 This ad calls it Abbey s new Park Theatre Amusements Spirit of the Tines April 8 1882 p 270 Lillie Langtry a biography theislandwiki org Retrieved September 11 2017 a b Head 1970 p 11 Impresario Grau Is Dead The Sun New York City March 15 1907 p 9a NB The article says incorrectly that his father was Hermann Grau and not Emmanuel Herx Stephen 1999 Marcella Sembrich and Three Great Events at the Metropolitan Opera Quarterly 15 1 49 71 doi 10 1093 oq 15 1 49 subscription required Belasco 1925 pp 15 18 Herald Square Theatre IBDB Retrieved September 11 2017 Sources edit Belasco David 1925 Plays produced under the direction of David Belasco Illustrated with Twelve Crayon Sketches illustrated by William F Kurze New York City p 19 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint location missing publisher link Brown Thomas Allston 1903 A History of the New York Stage Vol 3 New York Dodd Mead and Company Cahn Julius ed 1898 Julius Cahn s Official Theater Guide New York Empire Theatre Building Dimmick Ruth Crosby 1913 Our Theatres To day and Yesterday New York City The H K Fly Company Fisher James 2015 Historical Dictionary of American Theater Beginnings Rowman amp Littlefield ISBN 9780810878334 Head Rose Lee 1970 Mrs Lily Langtry s costumes for the stage PDF M A Thesis Texas Tech University p 11 Watermeier Daniel J ed 2015 Between Actor and Critic Selected Letters of Edwin Booth and William Winter annotated ed Princeton University Press ISBN 9781400871674 External links editBurning of Abbey s Park Theatre New York Photographed at 4 50 pm October 30 1882 by B J Falk 949 Broadway opposite 932 Broadway The New York Public Library Digital Collections Retrieved September 11 2017 40 44 24 N 73 59 31 W 40 740 N 73 992 W 40 740 73 992 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Abbey 27s Park Theatre amp oldid 1182106077, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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