The Richmond Theatre was the name of four theatres located in Richmond, Virginia. The first theatre was originally established in 1786 as the Academy of Fine Arts and Sciences of the United States or Quesney's Academy. It was renamed the Richmond Theatre after it came under the management of Thomas Wade West and John Bignall. It was destroyed by fire in 1798. The second Richmond Theatre opened in 1806 on the same site and was destroyed by fire in 1811.^[1] The 1811 Richmond Theatre fire is considered a significant disaster in the history of the city,^[1] and was described by historian Meredith Henne Baker as "early America's first great disaster".^[2]

The third Richmond Theatre opened in 1819 on a different site. After being remodeled in 1838, the theatre re-opened as the Marshall Theatre. It too was destroyed by fire in 1862. The Marshall Theatre was rebuilt on the same foundation and re-opened in 1863. It was originally called the New Marshall Theatre during construction, but was ultimately branded the New Richmond Theatre soon after it opened. By the time this fourth and final structure was demolished in 1896 it was known as the Richmond Theater. The third Richmond Theatre and the subsequent Marshall Theatre and New Richmond Theatre on the same site was the leading performance venue in Richmond for the majority of the 19th century.^[3]

First Richmond Theatre, originally Quesnay's Academy (1786-1798)

The first Richmond Theatre was originally intended to be not only a theatre, but a school, museum, and art gallery housed collectively under the name of the Academy of Fine Arts and Sciences of the United States.^[4] The idea for this organization originated with the French scholar and soldier Chevalier Alexandre-Marie Quesnay de Beaurepaire who had come to the United States in March 1777 to fight in the American Revolutionary War.^[5] Quesnay intended to create an American organization modeled after the French Academy of Sciences (also known as the National Institute of Sciences and Arts).^[6]

After nearly a decade of advocacy by Quesnay,^[4] a three and a quarter acre plot of land was purchased for 300 pounds from John Turpin on May 20, 1786, through funds raised through subscription to Quesnay's Academy.^[7] This land was located at the brow of Shockoe Hill.^[8] At the time, the main road on Shockoe Hill did not extend to the property, and as part of the land sale agreement, Turpin paid for the extension of the road and the creation of Academy Square where Quesnay's Academy was to be constructed.^[7] The cornerstone of the building was laid by Richmond's Masonic Lodge No. 13 on June 24, 1786.^[4] The building's cornerstone was placed at the Northeast corner of the building.^[7] The front of the building was situated on what is now 12th street,^[7] and was located at what is now the intersection of 12th and Broad just north of Capitol Square.^[9] The academy was built with a "barn-like wooden structure".^[10]

Quesnay's Academy (QA) opened on October 10, 1886, in a performance given by the Old American Company of Comedians under the management of Lewis Hallam Jr. and John Henry.^[11] Sources vary as to which work was performed on this date, with some sources claiming it was the opera Poor Soldier^[12][13] and others the play School for Scandal.^[14][15] Regardless, sources agree that the repertoire of Hallam and Henry's season in Richmond included the stage works Poor Soldier, School for Scandal, and Alexander the Great ; or , the Rival Queens.^[16][14]

Quesnay's dream of an institution mirroring that of the French Academy of Sciences was short lived. Social prejudices against the morality of the theatre made operations of such an institution challenging, and he was forced to publicly make it clear that there was separation between the scholars studying at the QA and the visiting theatre troupes utilizing the QA's theatre. Quesney himself taught dance classes at the academy, but by December 1887 Quesney's Academy ceased operation.^[11]

Theatre managers Thomas Wade West and John Bignall took over the QA, and made significant alterations to the QA and its theatre.^[9] It was renamed the Richmond Theatre, and at this time Academy Square became known as Theatre Square.^[17] West and Bignall continued to operate the theatre until it was destroyed by fire on 23 January 1798.^[18]

The Virginia Ratifying Convention of 1788 was held in this building beginning on June 2 for three weeks after having begun the convention previously at a structure at Cary and fourteenth streets that was temporarily serving as Virginia's capitol building.^[19] Among the many individuals in attendance were James Madison, John Marshall, James Monroe, Edmund Pendleton, George Wythe, George Nicholas, Edmund Randolph, George Mason, Richard Henry Lee, and Patrick Henry.^[20]

Second Richmond Theatre (1806-1811)

Operational and performance history

The second Richmond Theatre was built on the same site as the first theatre, and was erected through the advocacy of John Marshall who was serving as Chief Justice of the United States at the time of the theatre's construction.^[9] Through Marshall's efforts,^[9] the funds to build this theatre were raised through subscription and construction on the theatre began in 1804.^[21] This second theatre was made from brick instead of wood^[22] and stood three stories high.^[9] It opened on January 25, 1806,^[22] and was referred to in the Richmond Enquirer as both the "New Theatre"^[23][24] and the "Richmond Theatre".^[25] It was financially profitable during its five year history.^[21]

The second Richmond Theatre was initially inhabited by the West and Bignall theatre company.^[21] One of the early plays staged at the theatre in 1806 included William Dunlap's english language version of Jean-Henri-Ferdinand Lamartelière's 1799 play Abelino ou le Grand Bandit (English: Abaellino, the Great Bandit),^[24] a work often misattributed to Friedrich Schiller.^[26] The theatre was then taken over by a company led by Thomas Abthorpe Cooper whose first appearance in Richmond was in the title role of William Shakespeare's Hamlet.^[25] Cooper performed several more parts at the Richmond Theatre in 1806, among them Rolla in August von Kotzebue's The Virgin of the Sun,^[25] the gambler Beverly in Edward Moore's The Gamester, Pierre in Thomas Otway's Venice Preserv'd, and the title roles in several more Shakespeare plays, including Othello, Macbeth, and Richard III.^[27] Other works performed at the Richmond Theatre in 1806 included the plays Speed the Plough (1806) by Thomas Morton,^[23] The Irishman in London by William Macready the Elder,^[23] The Sailor's Daughter by Richard Cumberland; and the ballad opera The Devil to Pay by Charles Coffey and John Mottley.^[28]

Richmond Theatre fire of 1811

The Richmond Theatre was destroyed by fire on December 26, 1811^[9] in what historian Meredith Henne Baker described as "early America's first great disaster".^[2] The fire broke out during a benefit performance held in honor of the French actor Alexander Placide and his daughter, actress Jane Placide. The repertoire for that evening included two full length plays as well as four musical works performed by the theatre's orchestra in-between the plays. The first play was Denis Diderot's comedy Le Père de famille given in an English language translation entitled The Father; or, Family Feuds by Louis Hue Girardin who was then principal of the Hallerian Academy^[9] and was formerly a professor of modern languages at the College of William & Mary.^[29]

The second play given was Matthew Gregory Lewis's melodrama Raymond and Agnes; or, the Bleeding Nun which also incorporated aspects of British pantomime.^[30] After the first act of this second play, a chandelier with lit candles was raised by one of the stage hands, and it swung and caught fire to the backdrop which was made of paper. The fire spread the ceiling of the building and set the roof ablaze. Within ten minutes the fire had spread throughout the building.^[31]

The audience in the Richmond Theatre on the night of the fire totaled more than 600 people, and the building had only three exits, causing congestion as people tried to flee through the theatre's three exits. A minimum of 76 people died in the fire, making it the most deadly urban disaster in the history of the United States up to that point in time.^[9] Several prominent Virginia citizens died in the fire, including Virginia's governor George William Smith;^[32] former United States Senator Abraham B. Venable;^[33] lawyer Benjamin Botts who defended Aaron Burr during his conspiracy trial;^[33] and Mary Clay, the daughter of congressman Matthew Clay.^[34]

Third Richmond Theatre, also known as Marshall Theatre (1819-1862)

Third Richmond Theatre

Operational history

After the devastating 1911 fire, there was tremendous opposition to rebuilding of a theatre in Richmond,^[35] and in general there was a wave of opposition against theatrical enteripises that extended across America in the years immediately following that disaster.^[36] Construction on a new theatre did not begin until seven years later when Christopher Tompkins was successful at convincing the public to allow him to build a theatre for a stock company.^[37] Tompkins sold the property he owned at the southeast corner lot on Seventh and H (later called Broad) Streets to the English-born actor Joseph George Holman with the intent that Holman would build a theatre for his company on the property.^[35] However, Holman died in 1817,^[35] the year construction on the theatre began.^[37]

The building of the third Richmond Theatre was done by what was called "subscription",^[38] where a group of individuals would invest money in the theatre and essentially own stock in the theatre enterprise. A total of 104 investors, most of them local to Richmond, owned shares in the theatre with approximately $40,000.00 worth of shares sold. Many of them were prominent citizens of Virginia, including Virginia's governor William H. Cabell, justice John Marshall, journalist Thomas Ritchie, and banker James Rawlings (ca. 1788–1838) who was president of the Farmers’ Bank of Virginia.^[39] The business side of the theatre was run by a board elected by the shareholders, with Ritchie elected as the board's first chairman.^[40] The board was responsible for leasing the building and the initial lessee was the South Carolina composer and theatre manager Charles Gilfert (1787-1829)^[41] Gilfert was also an investor in the theatre and was married to actress Amelia Holman Gilfert, the daughter of the aforementioned Joseph George Holman, who had inherited her father's financial investments into the enterprise. She starred in many production at the theatre after it opened in 1819.^[35]

The third Richmond Theatre was a more spacious building than its predecessors, and Gilfert was careful to advertise the many doors extent in the new theatre's design as to make quick exits possible in light of public fears after the 1911 fire.^[42] It opened on June 11, 1819.^[35] There were still public fears over fire, particularly in regards to a structure next door to the theatre that were viewed by the public as a fire hazard. Accordingly, that property was purchased by the governing board of the Richmond Theatre shortly after it opened, and it was razed in order to alleviate public concerns over another fire.^[43]

Gilfert and his company leased the Richmond Theatre for five years.^[44] University of North Texas scholar Martin Staples Shockley stated that Gilfert's company was "perhaps the best [theatre] company in America during that time."^[44] However, while the quality of productions were high, the theatre failed to turn a profit; partly due to mismanagement and partly due to persistent fears among the public towards attending theatres following the 1911 fire.^[45] After Gilfert left in October 1823,^[46] the board found it difficult to find a long-term replacement to lease the theatre.^[41] In the succeeding years share prices in the theatre dropped significantly, and the theatre was occupied by a series of traveling theatre companies of lesser quality.^[43] The James H. Caldwell company occupied the theatre for a brief season in 1824, and the theatre was mainly inactive after this until 1827. The theatre was used intermittently between 1827-1834 under several different managers.^[46]

Due to the increase of Richmond's population during the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1829–1830, the year 1829 was a very busy year at the Richmond Theatre, with three different theatre seasons offered by three different companies in rapid succession; totaling more performances than any other year in Richmond between the years 1826-1845.^[46] That same year the theatre underwent some remodeling and repairs. After this, performances tended to be variety theatre presentations, rather than legitimate theatre, and the theatre's use significantly dropped with on average only one month of use per year.^[46] The theatre fell into disrepair closed after it was sold in 1938.^[44]

Performance history

Between 1818 and 1838 there were a total of 30 theatre seasons presented at the third Richmond Theatre by more than ten different professional acting companies. Collectively, these seasons consisted of more than 300 different plays staged across more than 800 performances.^[47] The repertoire of these seasons, while a mix of works by both British and American playwrights, tended to emphasize theatrical works imported from England.^[47] In addition to the theatre companies, the theatre also had a resident orchestra which was acknowledged as one of the better quality orchestras in America during that period.^[48] However, despite the quality of its players, the orchestra's repertoire was criticized for its lack of sophisticated repertoire. An article in the Virginia Patriot stated of the orchestra

"If it is one of the best orchestras in America they are shamefacedly indifferent for their selection and performance, for in place of the divine airs of Handel, Haydn, Mozart, &c I have heard nothing better than a few Waltzes, Marches, Scotch Airs, &c and the same ones repeated night after night."^[49]

Several of the plays staged at the Richmond Theatre were adapted into English from foreign language plays; often by uncertain authors. For example, Gilfert's first season at the Richmond Theatre in 1819 included a production of The Maid and the Magpie;^[50] a play originally in the French language under the title La Pie voleuse ou la Servante de Palaiseau which was written by Louis-Charles Caigniez. Caigniez's play was first adapted into English as The Maid and the Magpie by English dramatist Samuel James Arnold,^[51] and was later adapted again in different English language versions by English playwrights Isaac Pocock and Thomas John Dibdin and by American playwright John Howard Payne. It's therefore uncertain, which of these many English adaptations was utilized by Gilfert and his company at the Richmond Theatre in 1819, although it was most likely by one of the British writers and not Payne.^[52]

On July 6, 1821 the celebrated English actor Junius Brutus Booth gave his first performance in the United States at the Richmond Theatre in the title role of Shakespeare's Richard III.^[44] In 1822 Gilfert's company staged an English language production of German playwright August von Kotzebue's s Die Sonnen-Jungfrau (English: The Virgin of the Sun). The company could have used any one of multiple extent English language adaptations; including ones by British writers Frederick Reynolds and Anne Plumptre, or one by American playwright William Dunlap.^[53]

The theatre did stage numerous plays by Dunlap during its twenty year history, among them Thirty Years, or The Life of a Gambler, Fraternal Discord, and Dunlap's adaptation of Edward Fitzball's play The flying Dutchman, or, the phantom ship.^[53] It's possible that Dunlap's English language adaptation of Kotzebue's 1790 play Menschenhass und Reue, The Stranger; or, Misanthropy and Repentance, was used when it was staged at the theatre.^[54] Likewise, Dunlap's Pizarro adapted from Kotzebue's Die Spanier in Peru may have been used, but there were many other English language adaptations of that work known on the American stage of the period that could have also been utilized,^[54] among them Richard Brinsley Sheridan's Pizarro.^[55]

Future First Lady of the United States Priscilla Cooper Tyler worked as an actress at the Richmond Theatre prior to her marriage to Robert Tyler, the son of United States president John Tyler.^[56] She was a member of the Compact Corps Dramatique stock company which was headlined by her father, the esteemed English actor Thomas Abthorpe Cooper. Before her arrival in Richmond, reviews of her performances had been less than enthusiastic; although reviewers did not review her harshly and were kind if tepid using words like "promising," or "as yet undeveloped" in reviewing her work. This was most likely out of respect for her father.^[57] However, her abilities as an actress were much appreciated by the Richmond public and press, and she received very positive reviews, the best of her career, while performing in that city.^[58]

Priscilla and her father starred in nineteen performances with the Compact Corps Dramatique stock company at the Richmond Theatre from December 7, i836 through April 10, 1837.^[57] Their repertoire included John Tobin's The Honey Moon with Priscilla as Juliana and her father as Duke Aranza; Shakespear's Othello with Priscilla as Desdemona and her father in the title role; James Sheridan Knowles's The Hunchback with Priscilla as Julia; Elizabeth Inchbald's Wives as They Were and Maids as They Are with Cooper as Sir William and Priscilla as Miss Dorillon; and Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing with Priscilla as Beatrice and her father as Benedict.^[59]

Marshall Theatre

By 1838 the third Richmond Theaatre had fallen into serious disrepair and the theatre was closed after being sold to Major S. Meyers.^[60] It went under significant alterations and renovations,^[44] and it re-opened as the Marshall Theatre on November 14, 1838.^[35] It was named after justice John Marshall.^[47] While the theatre's first few seasons offered dramas and sophisticated music, the economic depression of the 1840s following the Panic of 1837 ultimately led to abandoning more elaborate staged productions, and the theatre was used as a venue for traveling minstrels and variety acts of a novel nature until the economy recovered.^[46] In 1850 the theatre was one of the stops for the famous soprano Jenny Lind, popularly referred to as the "Swedish Nightingale".^[61]

Prior to the 1850s, American theatre was dominated by celebrity actors from Europe. Theatre historians refer to the 1850s as "America's age of actors" because it was the beginning of a period when American born actors experienced a surge of popularity among the American public. The Marshall Theatre during this period staged works starring several well known American actors of the period, including brothers Edwin and John Wilkes Booth, Charlotte Cushman, John Drew, Edwin Forrest, and Joseph Jeffe.^[62] In 1856 the Marshall Theatre's management was taken over by the team of George Kunkel (1821-1885), Thomas L. Moxley (1833–1910), and John T. Ford, the latter of whom founded the Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C.

Composer and playwright John Hill Hewitt became manager of the theatre in October 1861.^[63] Just a few months later the theatre was destroyed by fire on January 2, 1862.^[37] The fire broke out in the theatre on the morning of January 2 and spread to several of the surrounding businesses and houses, many of which were also destroyed.^[60] Hewitt and the actor Richard D'Orsey Ogden were both asleep in the theatre when the fire broke out, and while both managed to escape with their lives, they both suffered severe burns.^[63]

New Richmond Theatre, also known as New Marshall Theatre and Richmond Theater (1863-1896)

After the Marshall Theatre's destruction by fire in 1862, the theatre was rebuilt later that year on the same site at 7th and Broad streets by contractors Joseph Hall and John F. Regnault at a cost of $75,000.^[64] The materials to build the theatre had to pass through the Union blockade during the American Civil War.^[65] Called the New Marshall Theatre during construction,^[64] it was referred to as simply the Marshall Theatre in the Richmond Dispatch when it opened with a production of Shakespeare's As You Like It on February 9, 1863.^[66] However, later in the week, advertisements for that production began calling the theatre the New Richmond Theatre.^[67] Eventually the theatre became known as the Richmond Theater, its name at the time it closed 33 years later.^[65]

The initial owner of the New Richmond Theatre was Mrs. Elizabeth McGill, and Hewitt was the first theatrical manager at the theater. McGill and Hewitt did not get along well, and she fired him in June 1862. Richard D'Orsey Ogden replaced him as manager, and C. A Rosenberg was hired as the theater's musical director at the same time.

The actress and singer Sallie Partington was one of the performers who starred in the February 1863 production of As You Like It.^[67] She became a highly popular performer with the Richmond public in the musical The Virginia Cavalier (1863) which used lyrics by George W. Alexander, Commandant of the Castle Thunder Confederate prison. She popularized the song "The Southern Soldier Boy" from that musical, and it was published by George Dunn in 1863.^[68] Also popular at the theatre was the songwriter and showman Harry McCarthy who specialized in comedic impersonations as well as singing his original tunes. He presented his Personation Concerts at the New Richmond Theatre not long after it opened, and his song "The Bonnie Blue Flag", which he performed with his partner, the actress Lottie Estelle, was a tremendous hit.^[69]

The theater closed in March 1895, and was sold by Col. John Murphy to a clothing manufacturer in February 1896.^[70]

References

Citations

Bibliography

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