The first theatre in New York City to bear the name The Winter Garden Theatre had a brief but important seventeen-year history (beginning in 1850) as one of New York's premier showcases for a wide range of theatrical fare, from variety shows to extravagant productions of the works of Shakespeare. Initially known as Tripler's Hall or Metropolitan Hall, it burned down in 1854 and was rebuilt as The
- Venue
- Winter Garden Theatre (1850)
- Town
- Manhattan, US
The first theatre in New York City to bear the name The Winter Garden Theatre had a brief but important seventeen-year history (beginning in 1850) as one of New York's premier showcases for a wide range of theatrical fare, from variety shows to extravagant productions of the works of Shakespeare. Initially known as Tripler's Hall or Metropolitan Hall, it burned down in 1854 and was rebuilt as The New York Theatre. It rose from the ashes under different managers, bearing various names, to become known as one of the most important theatres in New York history. It nearly burned again in November 1864, in a plot hatched by Confederate sympathsizers, and burned to the ground a second time in 1867. Some of the leading actors and theatre managers of the 19th century worked at The Winter Garden Theatre, from Jenny Lind (1820-1887), and Laura Keene (1826-1873), to Dion Boucicault (1820-1890), and Edwin Booth (1833-1893). One of the most significant and politically influential productions in American theatre history took place at The Winter Garden Theatre on November 25, 1864. Junius Brutus Booth Jr. (1821-1883), Edwin Booth, and John Wilkes Booth (1838-1865), three sons of Junius Brutus Booth (1796-1852), one of America's great acting tragedians, staged a benefit performance of William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar to raise funds to commission a sculpted bronze statue of the playwright by artist/sculptor John Quincy Adams Ward (1830-1910), for New York City's new expansively landscaped Central Park. Four months later on April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth fatally shot 16th President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theater in Washington D.C., while shouting the historic words of senator Brutus in ancient Rome, upon joining in the murder of Julius Caesar. Throughout its short 17-year existence, The Winter Garden Theatre played a significant role in the history and various notable performances / events of American theatre. The theatre was originally planned in 1850 for the first engageme