The Bowery Amphitheatre was a building in the Bowery neighborhood of

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

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

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 or zoological garden. The term was first used in 17th-century France, referring to ...

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a Stage (theatre), stage. The performe ...

, a roller rink, and a branch of the Peniel Mission. The site is now part of Confucius Plaza.

Formation through the minstrel craze

A group of New York 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 (American English, U.S. English: amphitheater) 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 ('), meani ...

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

minstrel show The minstrel show, also called minstrelsy, was an American form of theater developed in the early 19th century. The shows were performed by mostly white actors wearing blackface makeup for the purpose of portraying racial stereotypes of Afr ...

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 Germans (, ) are the natives or inhabitants of Germany, or sometimes more broadly any people who are of German descent or native speakers of the German language. The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, constitution of Germany, imple ...

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 in the Indo-European language family, mainly spoken in Western and Central Europe. It is the majority and official (or co-official) language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein. It is a ...

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 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, essayist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most o ...

's opera '' Lohengrin''.See 'Amuseuments. Opera at the Stadt Theater', ''New York Times'' 3 May 187

''Lohengrin'', see 'Musical: Wagner's "Lohengrin",' ''New York Times'' 8 April 1871

See also 'Wagner in The Bowery', ''Scribner's Monthly Magazine'' 1871, 214-16.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 performances, sketch comedy, magic, acrobatics, juggling, and ventriloquism. It is normally introduced by a comp� ...

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 melodrama is a Drama, dramatic work in which plot, typically sensationalized for a strong emotional appeal, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Melodrama is "an exaggerated version of drama". Melodramas typically concentrate on ...

. 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 in 1866. In December 1897, 39 Bowery became the first East Coast branch of the Peniel Mission. 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 Confucius Plaza 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
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Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

. * 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
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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 Buildings and structures completed in 1833 1833 establishments in New York (state) 1866 disestablishments in New York (state) Bowery