Madison Square Theatre Explained

Madison Square Theatre
Address:Broadway and W. 24th St.
City:New York, NY
Coordinates:40.7422°N -73.9901°W
Architect:Various/unknown
Owner:A.R. Eno (land), various (building)
Operator:George Christy, John Brougham, James Fisk Jr., Augustin Daly, Steele MacKaye, Mallory Bros., A.M. Palmer, Charles H. Hoyt, Frank McKee, Walter N. Lawrence
Capacity:900, +100 standees
Type:Broadway
Opened:1865
Reopened:1877
Yearsactive:1865-1873, 1877-1909
Rebuilt:1868, 1877, 1879-80
Closed:1909
Demolished:1909
Othernames:Daly’s, Daly’s Fifth Avenue Theatre, Fifth Avenue Hall, Fifth Avenue Opera House, Fifth Avenue Theatre, Hoyt’s Madison Square Theatre, Hoyt’s, Minnie Cumming’s Drawing-Room Theatre

The Madison Square Theatre was a Broadway theatre in Manhattan, on the south side of 24th Street between Sixth Avenue and Broadway (which intersects Fifth Avenue near that point). It was built in 1863, operated as a theater from 1865 to 1909, and demolished in 1909 to make way for an office building. The Madison Square Theatre was the scene of important developments in stage technology, theatre design, and theatrical tour management. For about half its history it had other names including the Fifth Avenue Theatre, Daly's Fifth Avenue Theatre, Hoyt's Madison Square Theatre, and Hoyt's Theatre.

History

Merchant and real estate magnate Amos R. Eno leased land next to his Fifth Avenue Hotel in 1862[1] to James Fisk Jr., who built an after-hours gold trading exchange during the U.S. Civil War. The “regular stock exchange” found the competition disruptive and soon shut down the operation.[2] The building became a performance space, the Fifth Avenue Opera House, used by George Christy and other minstrel shows from 1865 to 1867 when C.H. Garland took it over as the Fifth Avenue Theatre for burlesque shows. The theatre closed at the beginning of 1868 after one minstrel show manager murdered another after attending a performance. John Brougham briefly managed it as Brougham's Theatre in 1869, followed by building owner Fisk, who restored the Fifth Avenue name and presented French opéra bouffe.[3]

Augustin Daly became manager later in 1869, sometimes calling it the Fifth Avenue Theatre, sometimes Daly's Fifth Avenue or simply Daly's Theatre. The house (seating area) during this period was described as being “plated with mirrors for the illusion of immensity,” with a palette of “blush rose, neatly framed in white, with delicate boundaries of gold.” Capacity was 900, or 1,000 with standees, and gas jets provided interior lighting.[2] When the theatre burned to the ground after a matinee on New Year's Day 1873, Daly moved his company and the Fifth Avenue Theatre name to an existing theatre on 28th and Broadway.[4] The name similarities continue to cause confusion today. It was four years until a new building appeared, first called the Fifth Avenue Hall, where a magician named Heller performed for several months in 1877, then Minnie Cumming's Drawing Room Theatre.

George and Marshall Mallory then erected yet another building on the site, for actor-director-playwright Steele Mackaye who had produced a few shows in the small hall in 1879 under a name they kept, the Madison Square Theatre. Mackaye's famous stage technology improvements included the "double stage", an elevator the size of the full stage that was raised and lowered by counter-weights and reduced scene changes to one or two minutes from five or more. The double stage required the builders to excavate an extra-deep foundation.[5] Ventilation featured a primitive form of air conditioning, with cool air drawn in from the roof and circulated to perforations under the seats. To increase stage-room for action and house-room for seats, the orchestra was in a balcony above the stage, and the conductor received "cues by means of electric signals and reflectors." Interior decoration was meant to evoke an intimate drawing-room, with imitation-mahogany trim, gold and pale colors, Shakespeare illustrations,[6] and a Tiffany-designed drop curtain that burned in an otherwise uneventful fire a few weeks after the reopening.[7]

The Mallory brothers and Mackaye soon fell out, and Mackaye lost the rights to his single commercially successful play, Hazel Kirke, and his position at the theatre. By then Business Manager Daniel Frohman had hired his brothers Gustave and Charles. They used Hazel Kirke's long run to implement the nation's first theatrical touring organization with multiple companies of a single play and developed their promotional and management skills.[8] The Frohmans, along with Marcus Klaw and Abraham Lincoln Erlanger, who met while working in the Madison Square Theatre's publicity department,[9] and David Belasco, who also worked at the theatre in this period, became major forces in American theatrical management over the next 35 years.

The Rev. Dr. George Mallory, owner (with his brother) and editor of the Episcopal Church publication The Churchman, sought to use their ownership of the theatre "to elevate the moral tone of the American stage", among other things by running only American-written plays cast almost exclusively with American actors.[10] The Mallorys managed the theatre on this principal themselves for four years. In 1885 they brought in impresario A.M. Palmer who bought them out and managed until 1891, with a more conventionally international mix of plays. Palmer was followed by playwright/director Charles H. Hoyt, along with Charles Thompson who died in 1893 and Frank McKee, who ran the theatre after Hoyt became incapacitated in 1898. During this time the theatre was variously known as Hoyt's Madison Square Theatre, or simply Hoyt's Theatre.

The Madison Square Theatre name returned in 1898, and remained through the management of Walter N. Lawrence until Eno's descendants demolished the building and the Fifth Avenue Hotel in 1908.[11] By that time the "Theater District" had moved uptown to the Times Square area around 42nd Street.

Productions

In its forty years of operation some 250 plays were produced at the Madison Square Theatre. Following are productions that ran at least six weeks, noting runs of 100 or more performances.[12] [13] [14] [15] [16]

Daly Era (1869-1873)

Mackaye and Mallory Eras (1879-1885)

Palmer Era (1885-1891)

Hoyt-McKee-Lawrence Era (1894-1908)

Bibliography

Notes and References

  1. Brown, History of the New York Stage v2, p. 399.
  2. "Another Disaster.: Total Destruction of the Fifth-Avenue Theatre by Fire," The New York Times, Jan. 2, 1873, p. 1.
  3. Brown, History of the New York Stage v2, p. 400.
  4. Brown, History of the New York Stage v2, p. 404-414.
  5. "The Madison-Square to Go," The New York Times, Jul. 18, 1888, p. 1.
  6. "The Madison-Square Theatre.: Mr. Mackaye's Improvements In The Stage Mechanism," The New York Times, Feb. 1, 1880, p. 5.
  7. "Fire In A Theatre.: The Handsome Act-Drop Of The Madison Square Theatre Destroyed," The New York Times, Feb. 27, 1880, p. 5.
  8. Searles, "Six Books: Frohman", The Bookman, Nov. 1916, p. 306.
  9. Theatre Magazine, June 1922, p. 356.
  10. "Rev. G.S. Mallory's Death: ...Madison Square Theatre--Wholesome Plays Only Presented," The New York Times, Mar. 3, 1897, p. 1.
  11. https://books.google.com/books?id=VOxDAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA42 The Passing of the Madison Square Theatre
  12. Brown, History of the New York Stage, v2, pp. 399-447
  13. Chapman and Sherwood, The Best Plays of 1894-1899, pp. 83-260.
  14. Mantle and Sherwood, The Best Plays of 1899-1909, pp. 346-584.
  15. "Madison Square Theatre", ibdb.com.
  16. Numbers of performances are as reported, or, where not reported (generally before 1894), are approximated based on information reported and the Mantle/Chapman/Sherwood assumption of eight performances per week during this general time period.
  17. Book: American Theatre Companies, 1749-1887. 1986. Bloomsbury Academic. Weldon B. Durham. 326.

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