The Bowery Amphitheatre was a building in the

Bowery The Bowery () is a street and neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City. The street runs from Chatham Square at Park Row, Worth Street, and Mott Street in the south to Cooper Square at 4th Street in the north.Jackson, Kenneth L. "B ...

neighborhood of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. It was located at 37 and 39 Bowery, across the street from the

Bowery Theatre The Bowery Theatre was a playhouse on the Bowery in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City. Although it was founded by rich families to compete with the upscale Park Theatre, the Bowery saw its most successful period under the populi ...

. Under a number of different names and managers, the structure served as a

circus A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicyclist ...

menagerie A menagerie is a collection of captive animals, frequently exotic, kept for display; or the place where such a collection is kept, a precursor to the modern Zoo, zoological garden. The term was first used in 17th-century France, in reference to ...

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

, a

roller rink A roller rink is a hard surface usually consisting of hardwood or concrete, used for roller skating or inline skating. This includes roller hockey, speed skating, roller derby, and individual recreational skating. Roller rinks can be located i ...

, and a branch of the

Peniel Mission The Peniel Mission was an interdenominational holiness rescue mission that was started in Los Angeles, California on 11 November 1886 by Theodore Pollock Ferguson (1853–1920) and Manie Payne Ferguson (born 1850; died 8 June 1932). It was dissolve ...

. The site is now part of

Confucius Plaza Confucius Plaza Apartments is a limited-equity housing cooperative in Chinatown, Manhattan, New York City. The 44-story brown brick tower block complex () with 762 apartments was constructed in 1975 at a cost of $38.387 million. The building was t ...

Formation through the minstrel craze

A group of

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

businessmen known as the Zoological Institute or the Flatfoots built the structure in 1833 as the site for a

and

performances. In 1835, the site was converted into an

amphitheatre An amphitheatre (British English) or amphitheater (American English; both ) is an open-air venue used for entertainment, performances, and sports. The term derives from the ancient Greek ('), from ('), meaning "on both sides" or "around" and ...

with a stage and a circus ring, and the name changed to the Bowery Amphitheatre. June, Titus, Angevine & Co. took up residence with their equestrian show. The owners changed the name again in November 1842 to the Amphitheatre of the Republic. John Tryon leased the building the following year, remaining its operator until 1848. Following a performance by the

Virginia Minstrels The Virginia Minstrels or Virginia Serenaders was a group of 19th-century American entertainers who helped invent the entertainment form known as the minstrel show. Led by Dan Emmett, the original lineup consisted of Emmett, Billy Whitlock, Dic ...

on 6 February 1843, Tryon gave the structure over largely to

minstrel show The minstrel show, also called minstrelsy, was an American form of racist theatrical entertainment developed in the early 19th century. Each show consisted of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music performances that depicted people spe ...

s, renaming it the New Knickerbocker Theatre in 1844.

Later management

In 1849, the building once again became a menagerie, this time under the management of June & Titus. The new endeavor failed to perform up to expectations, so in 1851 the amphitheatre became a circus instead. Seth B. Howe's circus company became a standard feature. During the 1852-1853 season, regular acts included the Richard Sands & Co. and John J. Nathans & Co. circuses. The next season saw a return to equestrian exhibitions under the management of Henry P. Madigan and Den W. Stone. During the summer of 1854,

Germans , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , pop1 = 72,650,269 , region2 = , pop2 = 534,000 , region3 = , pop3 = 157,000 3,322,405 , region4 = , pop4 = ...

Seigrist and Otto Hoym leased the amphitheatre and rebuilt it. It opened on 20 October 1854 as the Stadt Theater. The Stadt specialized in

German-language German ( ) is a West Germanic language mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Italian province of South Tyrol. It is also a c ...

fare, but it also staged American and English drama. A succession of managers sustained this mixture until the 1863-1864 season, when the Stadt Theater moved to 45 Bowery, where it remained for 8 years, before returning to its original location.

Adolf Neuendorff Adolf Heinrich Anton Magnus Neuendorff (June 13, 1843 − December 4, 1897), also known as Adolph Neuendorff, was a German American composer, violinist, pianist and conductor, stage director, and theater manager. Life Early years Born in Hambu ...

directed the Stadt from 1863 to 1867. In 1871 it was the venue for the first U.S. performance of

Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...

's opera ''

Lohengrin Lohengrin () is a character in Germany, German Arthurian literature. The son of Percival, Parzival (Percival), he is a knight of the Holy Grail sent in a boat pulled by swans to rescue a maiden who can never ask his identity. His story, which fi ...

''.Ferrara 2011, p. 53. On September 3, 1864, the theatre at 37 Bowery became known as The Varieties, making

variety show Variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is entertainment made up of a variety of acts including musical theatre, musical performances, sketch comedy, magic (illusion), magic, acrobatics, juggling, and ventriloquism. It is ...

s its main draw. This form lasted until mid-October 1865, when A. Montpelier became the manager and owner. He renamed the building Montpelier's Opera House, although he kept its emphasis on variety and

melodrama A modern melodrama is a dramatic work in which the plot, typically sensationalized and for a strong emotional appeal, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Melodramas typically concentrate on dialogue that is often bombastic or exces ...

. Montpelier changed the name once more on November 20, 1865. The New National Circus stayed open for six weeks for its final stint as an entertainment venue. The structure was converted into an

armory Armory or armoury may mean: * An arsenal, a military or civilian location for the storage of arms and ammunition Places *National Guard Armory, in the United States and Canada, a training place for National Guard or other part-time or regular mili ...

in 1866. After the Stadt returned in 1872, the theater gave the first American performance of Johann Strauss' ''

Die Fledermaus ' (, ''The Flittermouse'' or ''The Bat'', sometimes called ''The Revenge of the Bat'') is an operetta composed by Johann Strauss II to a German libretto by Karl Haffner and Richard Genée, which premiered in 1874. Background The original ...

'' (in German) on November 21, 1874. By 1880 the name was changed to the Windsor Theater (under the management of John A. Stevens), which burnt down in November 1883, but was rebuilt and by 1885 was the Windsor Roller Skating Rink. It reopened as the Windsor Theater on February 8, 1886. On March 27, 1893, the theatre reopened as a Hebrew theatre under the management of Sigmund Magulesko, Isidore Lindeman, and Joseph Levy.Brown 1903
vol. 2, p. 376
In December 1897, 39 Bowery became the first East Coast branch of the

. It was directed by A. W. Dennet, who renamed it the Peniel Josephine Mission in honor of his wife. On November 30, 1900, Dennet changed his enterprise to the Ragged Church, which however closed after only two years. The site is now a part of the

complex.

Notes

Sources

* Brown, T. Allston (1903). ''A History of the New York Stage: From the First Performance in 1732 to 1901'', 3 volumes. Dodd, Mead and Company. Vols
12
an
3
at the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

. * Ferrara, Eric (2011). ''The Bowery: A History of Grit, Graft and Grandeur''. The History Press. . * Gänzl, Kurt (2001). ''The Encyclopedia of the Musical Theatre'', second edition. New York: Schirmer Books. . * Henderson, Mary C. (2004). ''The City and the Theatre''. New York: Back Stage Books. * Lawrence, Vera Brodsky (1995). ''Strong on Music: The New York Music Scene in the Days of George Templeton Strong'', Vol. I: Resonances, 1836-1849. University of Chicago Press. * Loewenberg, Alfred (1978). ''Annals of Opera 1597–1940'' (third edition, revised). Totowa, New Jersey: Rowman and Littlefield. . * Wilson, James Grant (1893). ''The Memorial History of the City of New-York: from its first settlement to the year 1892'', vol. 4, part 2. New-York History Company
View
at

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. {{Coord, 40, 42, 54.08, N, 73, 59, 47.43, W, region:US, display=title Former theatres in Manhattan Cultural history of New York City Cultural infrastructure completed in 1833 1833 establishments in New York (state) 1866 disestablishments in New York (state) Bowery