(Redirected from Casino Theatre (Broadway))

Casino Theatre, 1900

The Casino Theatre was a Broadway theatre located at 1404 Broadway, at West 39th Street in New York City. Built in 1882, it was a leading presenter of mostly musicals and operettas until it closed in 1930.^[1]

The theatre was the first in New York to be lit entirely by electricity, popularized the chorus line and introduced white audiences to African-American shows. It originally seated approximately 875 people, however the theatre was enlarged and rebuilt in 1905 after a fire, and then seated 1,300. It hosted a number of long-running comic operas, operettas and musical comedies, including Erminie, Florodora, The Vagabond King and The Desert Song. It closed in 1930 and was demolished the same year.^[2]

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History[edit]

Souvenir illustration from the theatre's production The Yeomen of the Guard, 1888

The Casino Theatre, designed in Moorish Revival style by architects Francis Hatch Kimball and Thomas Wisedell, was the first theatre in New York to be lit entirely by electricity.^[3] It was built more than 15 blocks north of where the theatre district was then centered, 23rd Street.^[2] In 1890, New York's first roof garden was added to the theatre.^[4] It originally seated approximately 875 people, however the theatre was enlarged and rebuilt in 1905 after a fire in 1903. The redesigned Casino seated 1,300.^[3]

The theatre opened with productions by the McCaull Comic Opera Company. It was first managed by producer and composer Rudolph Aronson, and later by Canary & Lederer from 1894 to 1903, and from 1903 by the Shuberts. As the center of the Broadway theatre district moved uptown, north of 42nd Street, the Casino closed in 1930. It was demolished the same year, along with the nearby Knickerbocker Theatre, to make way for the expanding Garment District.^[3]

The Casino hosted a series of successful operettas and other musical theatre pieces in the 1880s and 1890s, including the extraordinarily successful Erminie.^[5] In 1891, it premiered Cavalleria Rusticana in America, and in 1894 it presented the first Broadway revue, The Passing Show. In 1898, it was host to the premiere of Clorindy, or The Origin of the Cake Walk, the first African-American musical to be presented before a white audience.^[2]

The theatre is perhaps best remembered, however, as having been the home of the 1900 production of the Edwardian musical comedy, Florodora. In that show, it became the first theatre in New York to feature a chorus line, the 'Florodora Sextet'. The sextet's original lineup included a number of ladies who would later achieve fame and fortune. The production 'elevated the chorus girl into ... an attraction in its own right.'^[4]Evelyn Nesbit was a chorus girl in the show in 1901.^[3] Over the decades, the theatre also became known for its free Christmas presentations for New York children.^[2]

Broadway, 1920, looking north from 38th Street, showing the Casino and Knickerbocker Theatres, a sign pointing to Maxine Elliott's Theatre, which is out of view on 39th Street, and a sign advertising the Winter Garden Theatre, which is out of view on 50th Street. All but the Winter Garden are demolished. The old Metropolitan Opera House and the old Times Tower are visible on the left.

Title page of Erminie, noting its run at the theatre

Over the next decade, the theatre continued to present musicals and operettas, some of the most successful being A Chinese Honeymoon (1902), The Earl and the Girl (1905) and The Chocolate Soldier (1909). During World War I, it hosted transfers of several of the Princess Theatre musicals, among other musicals, such as The Blue Paradise (1915) and Sometime (1918). In the 1920s, the theatre was the home of several hit operettas, particularly The Vagabond King and The Desert Song.^[1] Although the Casino had led the move uptown by the Broadway theatre district, by 1930, most of the theatres had moved even further north, to the West 40s. The last performance was the opera Faust, in January 1930.^[2]

Notable productions[edit]

1882: The Queen's Lace Handkerchief
1883: The Beggar Student
1884: Nell Gwynne
1885: Die Fledermaus
1886: Erminie
1888: The Yeomen of the Guard
1891: Cavalleria Rusticana
1894: The Passing Show
1895: The Wizard of the Nile
1896: In Gay New York
1897: The Belle of New York
1898: Clorindy, or The Origin of the Cake Walk
1900: Florodora
1900: The Casino Girl
1901: The Little Duchess
1902: A Chinese Honeymoon
1903: The Runaways
1904: Piff! Paff!! Pouf!!!
1905: The Earl and the Girl
1909: Havana
1909: The Chocolate Soldier
1912: The Firefly
1912–13: Seasons of Gilbert and Sullivan
1914: High Jinks (musical)
1915: The Blue Paradise
1916: Very Good Eddie
1917: Oh, Boy!
1918: Oh, Lady! Lady!!
1918: Sometime
1921: Tangerine
1922: Sally, Irene and Mary
1923: Wildflower
1924: I'll Say She Is – Marx Brothers
1925: The Vagabond King
1926: The Desert Song
1928: My Maryland
1929: The New Moon
1930: American Opera Company's Madama Butterfly and Faust

References[edit]

^ ^a^b'Casino Theatre (Built: 1882 Demolished: 1930 Closed: 1930)'Internet Broadway Database (Retrieved on December 31, 2007)
^ ^a^b^c^d^eMiller, Tom. 'The Lost 1882 Casino Theatre – 39th Street and Broadway', Daytonian in Manhattan, June 3, 2013, accessed October 21, 2014
^ ^a^b^c^dCasino Theatre. World Theatres – Broadway and Off Broadway Theatres, accessed May 24, 2011
^ ^a^bBloom, Ken. Routledge Guide to Broadway, Routledge (2013), pp. 44–45 ISBN1135871175
^IBDB entry for the original New York run, accessed October 21, 2014. See also Stone, David. Violet Melnotte (1855–1935)Archived 2014-10-21 at the Wayback Machine, Who Was Who in the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, Boise State University, accessed October 21, 2014

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Casino Theatre (New York City).

Casino Theatre at the Internet Broadway Database

Coordinates: 40°45′13″N73°59′14″W / 40.75362°N 73.9871°W

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