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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 populist, pro-American management of Thomas Hamblin in the 1830s and 1840s. By the 1850s, the theatre came to cater to immigrant groups such as the Irish, Germans, and Chinese. It burned down four times in 17 years, a fire in 1929 destroying it for good. Although the theatre's name changed several times (Thalia Theatre, Fay's Bowery Theatre, etc.), it was generally referred to as the "Bowery Theatre". ==Founding and early management== By the mid-1820s, wealthy settler families in the new ward that was made fashionable by the opening of Lafayette Street, parallel to the Bowery, wanted easy access to fashionable high-class European drama, then only available at the Park Theatre. Under the leadership of Henry Astor, they formed the New York Association and bought the land where Astor's Bull's Head Tavern stood,〔(The Bowery Boys: "Bull's Head Tavern" ); the old tavern was moved into the countryside, on the northwest corner of 3rd Avenue and 24th Street, where the new cattle market developed around it.〕 facing the neighborhood and occupying the area between Elizabeth, Canal (then called Walker), and Bayard streets.〔 They hired architect Ithiel Town to design the new venue. Some notable investors included Samuel Laurence Gouverneur, son-in-law to President James Monroe, and James Alexander Hamilton, son of Alexander Hamilton. The new playhouse, with its Neoclassical design,〔 was more opulent than the Park, and it seated 3,500 people, making it the biggest theatre in the United States at the time.〔Wilmeth and Tice 42.〕 Frances Trollope compared it to the Park Theatre as "superior in beauty; it is indeed as pretty a theatre as I ever entered, perfect as to size and proportion, elegantly decorated, and the scenery and machinery equal to any in London...."〔Trollope, Fanny (1832). ''Domestic Manners of the Americans''.〕 The Bowery Theatre opened on 22 October 1826 under the name New York Theatre, with the comedy (''The Road to Ruin,'' ) by Thomas Holcroft, under the management of Charles A. Gilfert. New York Mayor Philip Hone spoke at the opening ceremony, imploring the theatre's intended upper-class audience: "It is therefore incumbent upon those whose standing in society enables them to control the opinions and direct the judgment of others, to encourage, by their countenance and support, a well-regulated theatre."〔Quoted in Cockrell, p. 29.〕 Its first few seasons were devoted to ballet, opera, and high drama. The theatre was by this time quite fashionable, and the northward expansion of Manhattan gave the theatre access to a large patronage. The theatre burnt out in 1828, but was rebuilt behind the same facade and reopened under the name Bowery Theatre.〔 Gilfert's understanding of advertising was keen, but in 1829 the owners fired him. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Bowery Theatre」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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